Posted: 12/2/2009 8:59:08 PM EDT
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Well after much work from the wife and myself on relearning
our spending behaviours our parents taught us, we are within 4 months of being debt free, barring meteorite or democrats in the white house. Took us 10 years to get it all paid down out and off. w00t |
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Damn, and didn't you just post in another thread you were laid off? What kind of business did you start!
To get cc's paid off these days is a huge accomplishment for most folks. Now, if your talking house and cars, that's quite impressive! Congrats! We haven't had cc debt in a couple years, then last summer i went and I got a 0% card and charged it up. Just got it paid off before the 0% ran out.  Paid no interest or fees for that one. Take that HSBC!!! House, yeah I don't foresee that happening in the next decade. Only owned it for 5yrs and don't pay a dime extra on it. Got a ways to go on one car. The other is almost paid off, but I'd rather put the money in a .308 bolt gun. 
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Congratulations SpankD!
I do not understand people's desire to pay off their home mortgage. My mortgage interest rate is 4.5%. Factor in being able to deduct mortgage interest from my income taxes and that puts the real interest rate of my mortgage about 3%. You can get checking accounts that pay 5% interest (disclaimer: only on the first $25k and 10 debit transactions per month are required). Or municipal bonds that pay 5.8% tax free (about 8% if you had to pay taxes on it). So paying off my mortgage would cost me 5% (8% - 3%). |
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Congratulations SpankD! I do not understand people's desire to pay off their home mortgage. My mortgage interest rate is 4.5%. Factor in being able to deduct mortgage interest from my income taxes and that puts the real interest rate of my mortgage about 3%. You can get checking accounts that pay 5% interest (disclaimer: only on the first $25k and 10 debit transactions per month are required). Or municipal bonds that pay 5.8% tax free (about 8% if you had to pay taxes on it). So paying off my mortgage would cost me 5% (8% - 3%). Quit drinking the realtor's cool-aid. If you are that desperate for a tax deduction give more to your favorite charity. The result is the same. Accountant |
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where is there a checking account that pays 5% I have CD's that are paying 1.75%. Bank accounts paying .025%. I still owe on my mtg, though I have the $$ to pay it off. It is my only tax write off.  Here are a couple in Georgia that pay 5.01% APY the last time I checked: First Southern National Bank (Statesboro) - http://www.first-southern.com Community Bank of Pickens County - http://www.cbopc.com CharterBank - https://www.charterbk.com/home/home All three the maximum balance they pay 5.01% APY on is $25k. As mentioned all require 10 "signature based" debit transactions a month - basically using it as a credit card. Most of these type accounts require you to have either one direct deposit or automatic payment per month. First Southern does not have the direct deposit or automatic payment requirement. You have to physically visit a branch in Statesboro to open an account at the moment. Within a few weeks they hope to have that changed. |
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Congratulations SpankD! I do not understand people's desire to pay off their home mortgage. My mortgage interest rate is 4.5%. Factor in being able to deduct mortgage interest from my income taxes and that puts the real interest rate of my mortgage about 3%. You can get checking accounts that pay 5% interest (disclaimer: only on the first $25k and 10 debit transactions per month are required). Or municipal bonds that pay 5.8% tax free (about 8% if you had to pay taxes on it). So paying off my mortgage would cost me 5% (8% - 3%). Quit drinking the realtor's cool-aid. If you are that desperate for a tax deduction give more to your favorite charity. The result is the same. Accountant Help me understand how the result is the same. By my math one would be at +5% based on the above example. If I am making incorrect assumptions or my math is wrong please let me know. (I do realize I am using the 8% before tax return but since any investment income outside of a retirement account is going to be before tax then I think that is fair). In your scenario I would first pay off my mortgage. That would put me at -5% per the above. Then I would have to increase my charitiable giving to offset the loss of the mortgage interest deduction. To do so would be another -6% (you will have to trust me on the % since I am not throwing out $ figures). Since I will get a tax deduction on the amount it would really only be -3.9% given a 35% tax bracket (6% * 0.65). So I am now down -5% + -3.9% for a total of -8.9% That is a 13.9% swing between +5% and -8.9% by my math. |
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Congratulations SpankD! I do not understand people's desire to pay off their home mortgage. My mortgage interest rate is 4.5%. Factor in being able to deduct mortgage interest from my income taxes and that puts the real interest rate of my mortgage about 3%. You can get checking accounts that pay 5% interest (disclaimer: only on the first $25k and 10 debit transactions per month are required). Or municipal bonds that pay 5.8% tax free (about 8% if you had to pay taxes on it). So paying off my mortgage would cost me 5% (8% - 3%). Quit drinking the realtor's cool-aid. If you are that desperate for a tax deduction give more to your favorite charity. The result is the same. Accountant the result is actually better if you donate to a charity because you get to pick where your money goes. . Let me expand this , You only get to deduct a small portion of loan interest the rest goes to the bank, that money that was yours is now the banks and gone forever. You are always better off keeping your money and deciding how it is spent rather than giving it away . Look at a 15 year loan compared to a 30 even at the same interest you save over $100,000 in most cases just in interest. would you like to keep your 100K? If you have that much extra money stroke taxman a check |