We did it! In February of 2016 we walked into the bank and paid off our mortgage! It was the last debt we owed and the culmination of eight years of "
gazelle intensity". It was also very anticlimactic. The bank doesn't bring you a cupcake or have the branch employees gather around you and sing a song. You get a piece of paper telling you the mortgage is paid in full, that they will mail any escrow balance to you, and that you are now responsible for paying the property taxes and home owner's insurance. The branch employee handling our transaction did tell us congratulations! No matter how boring the bank made the transaction we wanted our children to know that it was an important day so we took a family photo of everyone holding the letters "DEBT FREE". However, getting the three year old to cooperate meant it ended up spelling "DEBT FREW"!
Are our lives much different now? Not really, we had already learned to live on a budget and paying off our house just meant we had more money to budget. It is great to finally start putting money into our house repair/remodel category.
So if living debt free seems like a dream let this be a reminder that it is possible!
