Jennifer Borget
Marisa Palmieri Shugrue and her husband paid off their mortgage during the pandemic in 2020.
She says living within their means was a big part of their success. She and her husband each learned that lesson from their parents. She wrote in an essay for Insider, "They showed us that living within your means can be done, but you have to delay gratification and make careful choices, like cooking most of your meals at home, being content in a 'starter home,' and not always having designer clothes or the latest technology."
While many people are tempted to move up to a bigger and better house, or buy a new car every few years, Palmieri Shugrue says that not doing these things and living simply was an integral part of her family's mortgage-payoff strategy.
2. Consider saving up the money as an extra cash cushion until you're ready to pay your mortgage offPhoto courtesy of Liz Gendreau
Liz Gendreau and her family were able to pay off their Connecticut home's mortgage 17 years early.
They did so not by giving the mortgage company money every month, or paying extra when they could. Instead, they kept their extra money as a second emergency fund until they were ready to put it towards their mortgage.
After experiencing a job loss and a medical incident in the family, Gendreau and her husband decided that it was best to keep the money just in case. "We sent all our extra money into a 'payoff fund' to grow to the point where we could pay off the balance in one fell swoop," told Insider.
That way, "the money wouldn't be locked in the house if we needed it for something else," she said.
3. If you have two incomes, consider living on one and putting the other towards your mortgageJennifer Borget
Jennifer and Brian Borget were able to pay off their mortgage in two years.
The Austin, Texas, couple did so by reducing their expenses enough to support their family of five on one income. The couple lived on Brian's income, and put Jennifer's income entirely towards their mortgage.
Their first year, they put $50,000 towards their mortgage, Insider's Laila Maidan reports. In turn, this lowered the amount they paid in interest by reducing the loan's principal. The following year, they were able to put about $4,000 per month towards their mortgage payment.
4. Pay attention to your amortization tablePhoto courtesy of Kim Anderson
Kim Anderson and her husband, an engineer, paid off their 30-year mortgage in just two years by keeping a close eye on their amortization table, also called an amortization schedule, which tracks the amount of interest and principal paid each month.
"We plugged in what additional principal payment we could make each month, and it calculated how long it would take for us to pay off our loan based on paying that," she told Insider.
With each payment, the principal of the loan would decrease, ultimately decreasing the amount going to interest, too. "We got obsessed with seeing the numbers drop," Anderson said.
Not only did they know exactly where they stood with their mortgage payoff at all times, but they also found it motivating to see the numbers go down.
5. Make a plan to put extra money towards your mortgage every monthHolly Johnson
Writer Holly Johnson wrote about her experience paying off her central Indiana home with her husband in two years. Their main strategy was to throw any extra money at their mortgage, attacking it month by month.
They paid anywhere between $3,000 and $8,000 per month extra towards their home, and it brought down their total principal balance. "Once we started throwing all our extra money toward our mortgage, it didn't take long to make an impact," Johnson wrote in an essay for Insider.
Like Palmieri Shugrue, Johnson agrees that living below her family's means was a big reason they were able to put so much towards their mortgage.
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