Mortgage Balance (UPDATE) - September 2019

If you have viewed our family's Net Worth Page, you probably already know that it does not include the equity in our home.  Although, we do realize that it is technically part of our overall net worth, we decided that since our home equity is not an asset that we can count on for income (unless we sell and buy something cheaper) we would exclude it from our net worth calculation.

For the purpose of this blog, we are more interested in documenting our loan balance rather than our home equity.  With that said, we will use the current Zillow value as our estimated home value and use it to figure out the percentage we owe on our home. For those interested, we will include the amount of our home equity, but know that we are less concerned with the equity since we have no plans to cash out or otherwise sell our home. Our main goal is to pay off our home on or before my retirement date. 

HOME VALUE:

According to Zillow, our home is currently worth $848,526 (up $1,814 in the last 30-days). Looks like the real estate trend once again continues its march upward during the summer months as families look to purchase homes and move in before the new school year begins.  Although our family is looking for a larger home, we have decided to wait until the market cools off a bit and  delay our home search until next summer. We know interest rates may rise from current levels but since we want to come as close to an outright purchase as possible, the home price is actually more important than the current interest rates.  We are currently socking away as much as possible to make sure we borrow as little as possible. In addition, a deeper discount on our next home equals smaller tax liability. We pay enough taxes on our paycheck and everyday purchase, we don't need a huge property tax burden on top of that. :)  

Mortgage Balance (As of September 1st):
$227,607 (down $2,150 from August post)

Percentage Owed:
26.8% (down .3 since our August post)

Home Equity: 
$620,919 (up $4,463 from our August post)
   

Mortgage Background:
For those that have not read the Preface on our home equity, we currently hold a 15-year fixed rate mortgage at the incredibly low rate of 2.875%.  My goal is to retire within 7 years and 9 months (93 months) so we are setting out to pay off our mortgage on or before my retirement date. Right now we are a few months behind the target retirement date. Currently, we have approximately 8 years and 9 months (103 months) left on our mortgage. Nevertheless, I would like to have it paid off in roughly 5-6 years. If we accomplish that, I plan to use the money we use to pay our mortgage and aggressively build our passive income to help supplement our retirement and defer tapping into the 457K for as long as possible so it can continue to grow. 

Right now we are not putting any extra money towards the principal given our low 2.875% interest rate. We feel that we could make our money grow faster by investing it and while keeping the money more liquid. At a certain point, we may consider using some of the money from our investment accounts to wipe out the remaining mortgage balance.  Until then, we will continue to grow that money outside, rather than have it locked into our home.