December 2017. Congress passed a new tax law. The expanded standard deduction meant I wouldn't get any tax benefit from carrying the mortgage starting in 2018. I decided to pay off my mortgage in 2018. At the end of 2017, I owed $253k. April 2018. [...]
Extra Mortgage Payment: Do Dates Matter?
Regular mortgage payments are set up such that you pay the same amount each month but the breakdown between principal and interest changes every month. You first pay the interest calculated from the previous balance. The remainder then goes toward [...]
Prepaying Mortgage Does Not Make You Invest More In Real Estate
I shared in my weekly email update this article by Jonathan Clements: Best Investment 2018. It's about prepaying your mortgage. I said paying off my mortgage would also be my focus this year. Besides contributing to retirement accounts, all my extra [...]
Make Mortgage Payment Due On January 1 In December
This is a quick follow-up to my email to subscribers yesterday. I said I wasn't sure whether making the mortgage payment due on January 1 in December would save taxes when you will switch from itemizing deductions in 2017 to using the standard [...]
Savings Rate and Mortgage Loan Payments
Saving money from what we make is the arguably the most reliable way to build wealth. Your savings form the base. Any investment gains are built on top of those savings. If you don't have a base, you won't have much investment gains. There's an [...]
Bay Area Real Estate: Buy Now Or Wait?
This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Chase. All opinions are 100% mine. I had dinner with a group of friends last week. Due to our age and the area we live in (mid-40s in the San Francisco Bay Area), buying a home was a hot topic [...]
The Right and Wrong Reasons To Buy A Home
This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Chase Mortgage Banking . All opinions are 100% mine. The economy is getting better. So is the real estate market. A co-worker is in the market to buy a home in the San Francisco Bay Area for the [...]
Is Home Mortgage Simple Interest Or Compound Interest?
I had a good chuckle while reading this epic discussion thread on the Bogleheads Investment Forum: Does a home mortgage use Simple or Compound Interest? It sounds a like factual question, as in "Is Miami located to the north or south of [...]
Pay Down Mortgage vs Investing In Bonds
In a low interest rates world, you should take a serious look at any loans you have. Although a 3.25% 30-year mortgage is often said to be "cheap money" or "almost free money" it's neither cheap nor nearly free compared to the [...]
