| Exactly 12 months ago my NW was -$490. Since then, paying off student loans in full and re-directing money to my retirement accounts (ROTH IRA and company 401(K)), I am up $70K. Assets are up $60K and liabilities are down $10K. This encourages me to focus on income expansion and investing, and I will continue to pay down the housing debt on the 30-year amortized schedule with a bit extra thrown in. At the end of the day, since I don't appear to be going anywhere (i.e. moving), aggressive debt pay down on the mortgage makes no sense to me. A great article in the Washington Post further underscores this point.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/think-twice-before-paying-down-a-mortgage-faster-or-opting-for-a-shorter-term/2012/08/29/f01d0d32-f223-11e1-b74c-84ed55e0300b_story.html
Due to the impact of compounding over time, I am better off putting my money into investments for growth over the next 25 years vs. trying to hit zero on my mortgages as I can (hopefully) earn more (I certainly am now) on my investments than I am paying on the mortgages, particularly with the mortgage interest deduction. Also, since I can get no relief on this mortgage, even a refinance though I've paid on it religiously, I don't see any point in sending more money into a pit of negative equity. About -$130K at this time. So I'll just pay it off over the 30 years as agreed, using ever cheaper dollars, and I know what my payment will be as I have a fixed rate. In the event home prices creep up and I can re-finance, great. Until then, I'll be socking my money away in a variety of investment vehicles for my own future and staying more liquid. I guess this is a huge departure from the teachings of DR, but so be it. I've been doing a lot of reading and researching on finance and investments, and I feel this is the way to go. Right now I have a fairly aggressive savings rate of 30% of my gross going into retirement and savings accounts, and once I hit my e-fund goal, I'll expand into other vehicles. I hope to increase my savings rate to 50% of my income one of these fine days. After all, it's not how much you make, it's how much you keep!
Had to throw some dental expenses on the credit card, but that will be paid off in the next month or so.
Undecided on the second roommate. With my more laissez faire approach to mortgage payoff, I may just keep the one roommate and have a spare room for family visits, etc. We shall see...
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Home value is updated monthly from Zillow.com/Zestimate
(Purchase price was $370K in August 2006).
Other Mortgage = HELOC/2nd Mortgage
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