Well… it’s been a hell of a 1st quarter with COVID19. It’s slowed down our mortgage pay off plan significantly. The main reason being that the value of all stocks has dropped including the RSU’s we receive. We don’t sell low if we don’t have to. So we’re planning to hold on to them until things stabilize with the stock market. However, we’re still planning to do our 70/30 split thus far.
The main change we’re making to our finances considering everything that is going on is that we’re aiming to save that 70% that we would typically otherwise spend or sometimes save depending on what we had going on. There haven’t been any signs that either of us will be let go from our jobs, but sometimes these things don’t come with any warnings. So we feel it’s better to be safe than sorry. For more on what we’re planning to do and if you just need some encouragement along the way, you can check out our post What We’re Doing In This Market . Otherwise, let’s get started with the point of this post… Our Quarter 1 Update!
The Numbers
Even with COVID19 raising hell across the country we still made significant progress on paying down our mortgage. We honestly do think things will turn around this year (hopefully!) and we’ll still end up hitting our goal. The numbers are as follows for the first quarter of 2020 (Jan-Mar):
** note: Principal refers to the regular part of our payment that goes towards the mortgage principal. Additional refers to any extra money from our budget unless otherwise stated.
January
- Principal = 891.11
- Additional = 439.38
- Total: 1330.49
February
- Principal = 894.40
- Additional = 2598.48
- Budget = 808.51
- RSUs = 1789.97
- Total: 3492.88
March
- Principal = 916.34
- Additional = 5768.20
- Budget = 531.20
- Tax Refund = 5237.00
- Total: 6684.54
When we first started this mortgage pay off journey at the beginning of 2019, our principal balance was $135,240.09. At the beginning of 2020, our principal balance was $99,507.37. At the end of the first quarter for 2020,we hit a milestone and made it below $90k!! The principal balance is now $87,999.46! We paid off $11,507.91 this quarter. Our goal for the year was to pay off $37,000 of our mortgage principal. We are currently at 31% of our goal for the year!
Our Visual
We were able to color 2 lines in March within 5 days of each other! This is when we went from below $95k to below $90k.
Final Thoughts
While our mortgage payoff progress is being slowed up by not cashing out the RSUs at this time, we’re fortunate that we’re able to at least still do our 70/30 split. Seeing what’s happening across the country (and the world) now has made us even more determined to pay off our mortgage as soon as possible. It’ll definitely give us one less thing to worry about!
Thank you guys for sharing your continued progress during the world’s pandemic. It is such a blessing to see such reliance. I am keeping hope alive with you both in regards to reaching your mortgage goals for this year and possibly exceeding them. You both had a plan initially and you are sticking with it, as well as making the necessary adjustments when applicable. We are also grateful during this to be where we are financial and to still be employed. We made our financial changes three years ago. We had no idea that the world would be going through a pandemic. There is a miracle in the mess. I believe that! I am hopeful that we will not miss our opportunities during this pandemic to rise and be stronger than we were before.
I am very happy for you both and we shall overcome in the mist of adversity.
I left out the d in the word mist. It is supposed be midst lol.