Years ago, when Landon was just a baby, we bought a condo in Provo. We were living in our duplex (happily) and I can't remember exactly what our thinking was in wanting to buy a rental property and become landlords right then, but I know it had something to do with the general feel that prices were going up so quickly and now was the time to buy if we wanted to. (We've been happy with the purchase, but you can imagine that maybe our thoughts weren't exactly accurate!)
In August of 2012, we decided that we wanted to try to pay off our mortgage on the condo in three years. So we made up and printed a little spreadsheet full of boxes (not so little though - 6 pages of little boxes!). And every month when we made an extra payment, we'd check off those little boxes and got closer and closer to our goal.
The initial difference in the life of our loan was amazing. I scribbled little notes in the margins, things like "4 months of extra payments = 5 years earlier payoff!" This was super exciting. We knew that even if our financial situation changed and we had to change our goal or even halt our progress, we'd still be saving ourselves tons of money in interest over all.
Last week, just one month behind our original timeline, we made our last payment!
(And actually, there were times over those three years where we had to debate things like 'should we do such and such a thing and push back our condo payoff one month?' and sometimes we said no, and sometimes we said yes. In the end we were able to make up for the pushed back months with tax returns/raises/etc.)
So hooray for a long-term plan that we actually stuck with, hooray for those 6 pages of little boxes all checked off, and hooray for a completed goal!
(And even more, hooray for the amazing work Jordan does, the wonderful jobs he's had that he enjoys so much and is so good at, and the enormous blessing of having the necessities of life.)
Also, a few fun notes about the picture above: that's my budget notebook where I (depending on what else is happening in life and how on top of things I am) keep track of all our finances, etc. The pencil is one of Jordan's all-time favorites. He's used a couple of those since before we even started dating (and kept track of them all these years!) and finally just ordered himself a couple more. And, that green wallet is my favorite. It was a birthday gift from my Aunt Eileen when I was a teenager. I thought it was 'too grown up' but at some point I guess I grew into it and for years now it's just been something that just makes me happy!
