Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Congratulations to Frugal Zeitgeist: Now Mortgage-Free!

Frugal Zeitgeist is my idol. Seriously. Ever since I discovered her blog, I have been in awe of her accelerated mortgage payoff goal, and now she has done it! She is a mortgage-free homeowner, less than 7 years after buying her apartment! This post answers all the pertinent questions about how she did it.
Doesn't she make it sound almost easy? Yes, she made some sacrifices, and yes, her income, while not stellar by Manhattan standards, would be considered high by any other benchmark. But still, I am amazed at her discipline in plowing money into that payoff. The question her post doesn't answer is how much interest she saved by paying her mortgage off so fast. Without doing the least bit of math, I'm just going to guess the amount must be in the six figures.
Her story is so inspiring to me-- it makes me want to run home and figure out how I could possibly pay my own mortgage off so fast, and I'm sure it will have that effect on many other people too! Please head on over to Frugal Zeitgeist and shower her with congratulations!

10 comments:

Escape Brooklyn said...

Wow, that's great! What an inspiration. =)

Andrew said...

I think you put the wrong link in there for the post link, although saving via libraries is interesting too!

Madame X said...

whoops! The link is fixed now! thanks andrew...

frugal zeitgeist said...

Aw, that's so nice of you. Thank you!

I don't know exactly how much interest I saved since I refinanced once and the amount of prepayment varied to some extent over the years. I think a quarter million dollars is in the ballpark, though.

Anonymous said...

While the psychological benefit may have been great, I’m not sure that the financial benefit was as great in prepaying a mortgage with a 5.125% rate. That’s a great rate—considering inflation and the tax write-off in her tax bracket, she might have been better off investing that money—even in a down market, over the life of the mortgage, she might have come out ahead.

Hopefully someone with a better understanding of mortgage finances will chime in.

--nyjim

Adrienne said...

I'd also like to know what the maintenence fees and taxes are still. Based on what I've seen of NYC, it's probably more than my PITI!

Still, it's a HUGE accomplishment and she is to be congratulated.

Bitty said...

That's astonishing.

I just did it the old-fashioned way: outliving the life of the mortgage. That cost me a pretty penny, but it's all mine now.

Anonymous said...

so what is the deal, you're not going to tell us about your vacation? do tell ... ok ok yes love to haggle with my gym but c'mon...

Anonymous said...

I agree with NYJim...
Here are quick numbers for you. 100,000 mortgage at 6% equals almost $600 monthly and almost 116,000 interest paid over 30 years.

Say you have an extra $600 monthly to put towards the mortgage or invest at 8%. You would pay 216000 total to the mortgage or if you invested at 8%, you would end up with almost 900,000.

Rockon said...

Hi Everyone...

That cost me a pretty penny, but it's all mine now.I think you put the wrong link in there for the post link, although saving via libraries is interesting too!