2 days ago I got mail from my insurance company.
Inside was a Notice of Cancellation of our homeowner's policy.
THUD!
After I picked my excessively large butt off the floor I then said....
WTF?!?!
I am a class act if nothing else.
Seems we are being terminated for lack of payment.
Translation--The insurance company didn't get our check!
So I went to the checkbook register to see if indeed I wrote and recorded a check.
Yes, July 29th.
So I went online to our bank account and saw that the check in question had not been cashed yet.
Hmmmm.
Now I am thinking that it got lost while in the capable hands of the almost bankrupt US Postal Service.
But just in case that is NOT the answer I began to go through the stacks of paper on my desk.
I have stacks and stacks of paperwork on my desk and on the bookcase next to my desk.
It's about hit Critical Mass Stage and needs to be filed, organized or otherwise pitched.
This MIA check payment was just the impetus I needed to start throwing papers around and muttering under my breath.
Ok, so I mutter under my breath anyway.....
And after 2 hours of thrashing about I did NOT turn up the missing check or envelope or anything!
So I started channeling my dead doggie Mango(which meant I started grumbling and saying "Crap!" in the cute grumpy old doggie voice we imagined he would have had, had he been capable of speech)and I went about putting all those papers back into assorted piles.
About an hour later, #2 son comes home from school and is raiding the kitchen for snacks.
As I am standing next to my desk talking to him, I look at the space between the back of the desk and the wall it sits in front of. There, laying halfway underneath the desk is an envelope. I get the yardstick and fish it out from behind the desk.
Do I REALLY have to say what it was??lol
Yes all you Miss Cleo wannabees....it's the envelope with the missing check.
It seems in the chaos, that was my August, the payment never actually got mailed.
This is so unlike me.....yah, that's my story.
So yesterday I bopped up to the agent's office and hand delivered said insurance payment.
All is now right with the universe until the next bookkeeping catastrophe hits.
Which brings me to the second part of this post.
As I was looking at the paperwork I enclosed with insurance payment, I saw that they still have our mortgage company listed as the lien holder on our house.
Hell NO!!
I need to get the release papers out to send to the insurance company so they take the mortgage company off.
You see, 4 years and 6 months ago today, we paid off our mortgage in full.
March 15, 2007.
I will never forget that date.
That is our personal Independence Day.
By paying off our 30 year fixed rate mortgage in 6 years, 6 months & 25 days instead of 30 years, we saved roughly $109,088.00 in interest.
If we had taken 30 years to pay off the mortgage we would have paid out $142,792.39 in interest alone.
We only paid less than 24% of that interest amount by not dragging out the payments the full 30 years.
And yes, the grass IS greener now in the yard & the air IS fresher without a mortgage! ;-)
And yes, it IS easier to squirrel away money into savings....a LOT of money into savings, once you aren't paying a mortgage too.
Money to buy cars with cash.
Money to pay cash for college.
Money to pay cash for most anything if you save up that new found income instead of buying stuff with it.
If being mortgage-free is your dream I hope you get there, and I hope it's soon.
You can do it! 8-)
Sluggy
Inside was a Notice of Cancellation of our homeowner's policy.
THUD!
After I picked my excessively large butt off the floor I then said....
WTF?!?!
I am a class act if nothing else.
Seems we are being terminated for lack of payment.
Translation--The insurance company didn't get our check!
So I went to the checkbook register to see if indeed I wrote and recorded a check.
Yes, July 29th.
So I went online to our bank account and saw that the check in question had not been cashed yet.
Hmmmm.
Now I am thinking that it got lost while in the capable hands of the almost bankrupt US Postal Service.
But just in case that is NOT the answer I began to go through the stacks of paper on my desk.
I have stacks and stacks of paperwork on my desk and on the bookcase next to my desk.
It's about hit Critical Mass Stage and needs to be filed, organized or otherwise pitched.
This MIA check payment was just the impetus I needed to start throwing papers around and muttering under my breath.
Ok, so I mutter under my breath anyway.....
And after 2 hours of thrashing about I did NOT turn up the missing check or envelope or anything!
So I started channeling my dead doggie Mango(which meant I started grumbling and saying "Crap!" in the cute grumpy old doggie voice we imagined he would have had, had he been capable of speech)and I went about putting all those papers back into assorted piles.
About an hour later, #2 son comes home from school and is raiding the kitchen for snacks.
As I am standing next to my desk talking to him, I look at the space between the back of the desk and the wall it sits in front of. There, laying halfway underneath the desk is an envelope. I get the yardstick and fish it out from behind the desk.
Do I REALLY have to say what it was??lol
Yes all you Miss Cleo wannabees....it's the envelope with the missing check.
It seems in the chaos, that was my August, the payment never actually got mailed.
This is so unlike me.....yah, that's my story.
So yesterday I bopped up to the agent's office and hand delivered said insurance payment.
All is now right with the universe until the next bookkeeping catastrophe hits.
Which brings me to the second part of this post.
As I was looking at the paperwork I enclosed with insurance payment, I saw that they still have our mortgage company listed as the lien holder on our house.
Hell NO!!
I need to get the release papers out to send to the insurance company so they take the mortgage company off.
You see, 4 years and 6 months ago today, we paid off our mortgage in full.
March 15, 2007.
I will never forget that date.
That is our personal Independence Day.
By paying off our 30 year fixed rate mortgage in 6 years, 6 months & 25 days instead of 30 years, we saved roughly $109,088.00 in interest.
If we had taken 30 years to pay off the mortgage we would have paid out $142,792.39 in interest alone.
We only paid less than 24% of that interest amount by not dragging out the payments the full 30 years.
And yes, the grass IS greener now in the yard & the air IS fresher without a mortgage! ;-)
And yes, it IS easier to squirrel away money into savings....a LOT of money into savings, once you aren't paying a mortgage too.
Money to buy cars with cash.
Money to pay cash for college.
Money to pay cash for most anything if you save up that new found income instead of buying stuff with it.
If being mortgage-free is your dream I hope you get there, and I hope it's soon.
You can do it! 8-)
Sluggy
Good for you! That must feel so exhilarating! I'm a renter so I don't know the feeling but I can imagine how good it must feel.
ReplyDeleteAt least the check was in your house where you could find it. Try dealing with the same situation, only the missing check is either still in the escrow office or is floating around the insurance office. Not fun, I tell ya.
ReplyDeleteNot that I'm bragging or anything about how teeny-tiny small our house is, but the interest you saved on your mortgage would have paid for our house outright. I do hope to accelerate the payments and get it paid off early, but right now, we're working on paying off the loan on our second home (the camper) first.
Free!--It's like paying off a car but BIGGER.lol
ReplyDeleteThanks. ;-)
AnnieJ--Oh Gawd....playing duck, duck, goose! with the mortgage check....not fun is right!
The selling 'cost' of this house wasn't much more than what you paid for yours really. We saw so little net when we sold the previous house but we bought this one right before values went high, so we caught a break there.
And it does help to have a really nice shovel(=income)to dig out of debt.lol
I know someone with a second home now! I feel so unworthy.... ;-)
That paying-off-the-mortgage scenario is AWESOME! I can only imagine how wonderful that must've felt!!!!
ReplyDeleteI had a chaos-of-the-desk installement payment freak-out thing a couple years back, except it was for a credit card. I always ALWAYS pay the cc in full each month to avoid any interest charge. Except... this one month... So yeah, we got hit with a fee, which thankfully they took back in recognition of my usually stellar behavior, but then we had to pay off for two more months before the interest charges stopped. And we had the money, I just lost the bill in a stack of papers on the desk. As a result of that, my whole life became online banking and auto-pay (where prudent - I still want to LOOK at everything first). No more missed payments since. That one time was enough!
I paid off my house and car in the same small stroke of a pen afte both being in Chapter 13 bankruptcy, but it was a momentous day for me. Neither were paid off early. And, I was struggling the whole 30 years! I do wish I had had money to buy anything else but a house...lol. I have failed to make payments while hauling a check around in my purse, but never the mortgage or insurance. Luckily, you do the cleaning and sorting. Anyone else might have swept the payment away and you would still be ranting about the USPS.
ReplyDeleteWow that is so amazing that you are mortgage free. It must be a huge sigh of relief.
ReplyDeleteAnd even the best bookkeepers in the world make mistakes, look at Madoff.
BUMMER about the insurance check!!! I have done that with another bill and found it under the seat in our car... many days later.
ReplyDeleteGood for you and your mortgage!!! Someday, someday... when I win the lottery...
I can't wait to pay off our mortgage. There must be something in the air recently--the same thing happened to us but for different bills--a few that my husband pays! Some days I just want to pull my hair out!!! I'm glad you got it all straightened out. Have a great week. Take care.
ReplyDelete