As of Friday morning, we are officially debt-free except for our house. I kicked Sallie Mae to the curb about 7 years earlier than my original payoff date. Of course, that would have been paying the bare minimum, but it still feels nice. Really nice. We also closed on our refinance on Wednesday, changing our 30 year mortgage to a 20. We dropped our interest by another percentage point, kept our payment the same, and cut 7 years off the payment plan. We do plan on paying extra on our principal, but right now our focus is to rebuild our savings.
Speaking of paying extra... If we dropped an extra $500 on the principle every month (which is less than what we were originally paying for our debt every month between student loans, the car, and credit card, so I know we can do it), we'd have the house paid off in 8 years and 11 months.
Which makes me very reluctant to quit my job before then. Can you imagine having a $100K+ down payment on a house? I can be ruthlessly practical, and I have a hard time thinking of giving up our financial security. There's also that fact that I really like my job.
I don't know how to make this decision. I've been struggling with it for several months, and I just keep going in circles. I suppose the logical thing to do is to continue fixing up our house, save money, pay down the mortgage, and wait. It's just not what I want. Sigh.
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