Usually I don't really like the blue envelopes from the tax collecting office, but this time, they brought good news. I received about €5,000. Had to pay another €1,000, but it still left me with €4,000 extra. So I put €500 in the renovation fund, used €885 for paying my health insurance at once for the entire year (had never done that before, so I also did not save for it. I will save up for it this year) and I put €2,500 towards the mortgage! I had just a little over €400 on the mortgage account, so I had to take about €2,100 from the tax return. What was left, will be used for my retirement.
Or at least be stored in my retirement account, since this was not the final return, and I might have to pay some of it back.
What would you have done with this money?
Posts tonen met het label mortgage. Alle posts tonen
Posts tonen met het label mortgage. Alle posts tonen
dinsdag 17 januari 2012
maandag 16 januari 2012
Can I gloat?
I do not mean to gloat, but after the news I heard today, I cannot help it. About three years ago, we were looking for a new home. We went to see one which was absolutely great. We loved everything about it. It was over budget, but not much. We could pay 98% of the asking price, while in Holland, it is quite common to pay about 90% of the asking price, or even less.
Anyway, we wanted this house so bad, that we offered the 98% we could pay. They refused. They didn't particularly want more money, they wanted other people in it. People who would accommodate elderly/handicapped people. So we felt really sorry for ourselves for a while and we went on to look at other houses. We found another one we fell in love with. And we bought it.
And now, three years later, the house we first wanted to buy is still for sale, and for almost €100,000 less than what WE OFFERED THEM! So the final price (if someone wants to buy it) will probably be about 75% of what we offered.
So.
I don't want to gloat, since I know it's hard to sell a house these days. But in this case, I can't help but gloat a little...
Anyway, we wanted this house so bad, that we offered the 98% we could pay. They refused. They didn't particularly want more money, they wanted other people in it. People who would accommodate elderly/handicapped people. So we felt really sorry for ourselves for a while and we went on to look at other houses. We found another one we fell in love with. And we bought it.
And now, three years later, the house we first wanted to buy is still for sale, and for almost €100,000 less than what WE OFFERED THEM! So the final price (if someone wants to buy it) will probably be about 75% of what we offered.
So.
I don't want to gloat, since I know it's hard to sell a house these days. But in this case, I can't help but gloat a little...
vrijdag 6 januari 2012
Why pay off the mortgage and how to motivate yourself
In Holland, many people have a 30-year mortgage and like to keep it that way, because of the tax advantages. So why would I want to pay off mine early? For a number of reasons:
1. We can't afford to keep it. If something happens to one of us, chances are that we won't be able to make our monthly payments > problem
2. It's a debt with a LOT of interest
3. It's a debt that makes us bank-dependent
4. If we don't we'll pay €2000 a month for 30 years (assuming that the interest does not get any higher) and after those 30 years, we'll still be stuck with a €200,000 debt
However, I must confess that it is hard to make extra payments. Things come up and small payments don't really seem to add up. To motivate myself, I've started with 52 Goals for 2012, but I also take a lot of time to read other blogs/stories to find inspiration.
How do you keep yourself motivated to achieve large goals?
1. We can't afford to keep it. If something happens to one of us, chances are that we won't be able to make our monthly payments > problem
2. It's a debt with a LOT of interest
3. It's a debt that makes us bank-dependent
4. If we don't we'll pay €2000 a month for 30 years (assuming that the interest does not get any higher) and after those 30 years, we'll still be stuck with a €200,000 debt
However, I must confess that it is hard to make extra payments. Things come up and small payments don't really seem to add up. To motivate myself, I've started with 52 Goals for 2012, but I also take a lot of time to read other blogs/stories to find inspiration.
How do you keep yourself motivated to achieve large goals?
donderdag 29 december 2011
I am in massive debt
There's no day like today, so why not cut to the chase immediately: I am in massive debt. Some of you might consider it to be 'good debt', since it's a mortgage, but I don't. At the moment, our debt adds up to a little under €400,000 and if one of us would be out of a job, or something else would happen, we would have to sell our home.
Since I don't want that - our home is great and we're also renovating, so we would like to be able to enjoy all the effort put into that - I started paying off the mortgage early. Much of our monthly budget still goes to renovating, but I have been able to pay off an extra €6,080 this year, and hope to add another extra €10,000 next year, on top of the €4,200 we pay already.
Finding the money to pay off the mortgage is actually quite hard. Since my plans for 2012 are quite optimistic, I do have to watch how we spend our money more carefully. I hope to find the extra €10,000 by doing the following:
- Using money the insurance company still owes me (about €800)
- Using money the IRS owes me (I hope that will be at least €5,000)
- Using extra money made through selling stuff (should do that more, at the moment, I'm more of a giver than a seller) (€300/year)
- Using money we save on the mortgage because of previous payments (€500/year)
- Use the money I make from my blog (€300/year?)
That means that still another €3,100 (€259/month) has to come from other sources. I sometimes get extra jobs, so I can use that money, though I don't think that adds up to an extra €259 a month.
Any suggestions on how to make some extra cash to reach this goal?
Since I don't want that - our home is great and we're also renovating, so we would like to be able to enjoy all the effort put into that - I started paying off the mortgage early. Much of our monthly budget still goes to renovating, but I have been able to pay off an extra €6,080 this year, and hope to add another extra €10,000 next year, on top of the €4,200 we pay already.
Finding the money to pay off the mortgage is actually quite hard. Since my plans for 2012 are quite optimistic, I do have to watch how we spend our money more carefully. I hope to find the extra €10,000 by doing the following:
- Using money the insurance company still owes me (about €800)
- Using money the IRS owes me (I hope that will be at least €5,000)
- Using extra money made through selling stuff (should do that more, at the moment, I'm more of a giver than a seller) (€300/year)
- Using money we save on the mortgage because of previous payments (€500/year)
- Use the money I make from my blog (€300/year?)
That means that still another €3,100 (€259/month) has to come from other sources. I sometimes get extra jobs, so I can use that money, though I don't think that adds up to an extra €259 a month.
Any suggestions on how to make some extra cash to reach this goal?
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