It’s the beginning of the month and like every month, I check my bank accounts to see the measly amounts of interest I’ve received from the banks. It’s quite sad to see how little money we get from interest. On the other hand, it does keep my mortgage payments more than reasonable.
As I was checking on my financial things, I did a few back of the napkin calculations and it dawned on me that I could come pretty close to paying off my mortgage. About two years ago, I did the same math and back then I could take a decent chunk off but I wasn’t close to the whole amount. Now, let’s get something straight, I’m not saying that if I could just put my hands into the crevices of my couch, I’d have enough change to pay off my mortgage. I’d have to liquidate all my holdings in RRSPs, TFSAs, bank accounts and such to put towards my mortgage. Even then, I think I’d be still short somewhere between $10-20K. I’m not sure because I’m not sure how much my mortgage is right now. While $10-20K might seem like a lot, I don’t think it is, so the reality of having my home paid off might not be a dream. Sure, it’s a hazy possibility but at least I can see avenues to making that happen.
Of course, having all your equity tied up in your home is risky. I can imagine the day where I pay off my mortgage and I have exactly $10 in the bank account and every other penny I’m worth is invested in my apartment. There’s no emergency fund, no rainy day piggy bank to draw from.
I’ll revisit this topic a year from to see if there’s any progress. I only hope nothing absolutely stupid happens next Tuesday which would lead the world into an apocalypse where mortgages don’t matter anymore.