Michael & Liz are Bloggable

** Side Note ** I haven't even said anything yet and I'm already including side notes. Crazy. I have always wanted a blog that had a purpose. Some people have running blogs, or animal rights blogs, or like "Who Lurks?" (linked on the right) is dedicated to sports. I think if I were to create my own blog and dedicate it to a specific subject, it would be about overcoming adversity and tapping into inspiration all for the sake of accomplishing a goal. Setting goals and working towards them is intrinsic to who I am. It really gets me going for some reason. It's my ridiculously competitive nature. Side note over.

I listen to the Dave Ramsey radio show while at work. It's really limited because he only broadcasts 3 hours of new radio every day. Most of the time I can absorb what is being said, during busy times I completely tune it out. When I run out of his 3 hours, I listen to music. Today I listened to Tuesday's show during which he mentioned one of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (written by Stephen Covey). The habit he mentioned was number 2 which goes "Begin with the End in Mind".

I haven't read the book, although it is very high on my very slowly dwindling book list. I love to write, but I hate to read, go figure. But I heard that habit and said "Exactly! I freakin love it!".

Having not read the book, I assume what he is saying is when you set out to accomplish something, have a clearly drawn out goal and clearly drawn out map to get there. A goal is only as good as it's plan of accomplishment and a plan is worthless without a specific purpose. You can say I'm going to walk around the block once a day to lose weight but that doesn't give a defined goal. At the same time you can't say I'm going to lose 20 pounds by walking around the block sometimes. Sometimes turns into yesterday turns into hardly ever. Those are lame examples but you get my point.


I think included in goal setting, there needs to be smaller accomplishments that build up into large ones. 2 pounds a month doesn't sound like a lot, but when you're standing 20 pounds lighter in October, that's pretty awesome.

Well when I got home I was standing in the kitchen deciding what to do with my early evening and looked at our mortgage amortization table that is posted on the refrigerator. "Wait ... what?!?"

It is my goal to pay off our home mortgage. I know it's ridiculous and far-fetched and a lot of people don't ever do that unless they're uber rich or live in an old house. For some reason though I can't get my mind past how awesome life would be if I could take that mortgage payment and put it toward Reese cups. Oh the deliciousness. Or how about just save up for a whopping 5 months and take a ridiculously luxurious trip to Italy. Imagine the possibilities!! Take what you pay in rent or mortgage and just for a minute imagine what you'd do with it. Doesn't that make you MAD!??! It makes me motivated! One month would be enough for a SWEET trip to Disneyland!! One month would be enough to get us the sweetest TV and entertainment center we've ever had. As Dave Ramsey says, that's living like no one else. Am I right?!?

Back in February we refinanced to a 15 year mortgage. At that time I thought, "OK, 2025, that's not too terrible... but I want monthly updates." So yes, I have our mortgage amortization table printed out and pasted to our refrigerator. If my goal is to pay it off, darn it, I want it staring at me during dinner. I realize 15 years is a long time to hold onto a goal so....

Recently we started chunking a specifically defined extra amount of money every month to it so it would go away even earlier. As I stood there in the kitchen absorbing the "Begin with the End in Mind" concept, I realized that the posted "balance" our table says we should have left is no longer correct. We definitely started moving toward our goal faster, but that instantly ruined the small goal updates aspect since it was no longer accurate.

That had to change. So on top of the monthly payment amount, principal amount paid in the current month, interest amount paid in the current month, total interest paid on the loan, and the current principal balance on the loan, I added the "Actual Balance" column. At this point the only question I keep asking myself is, how fast can we do this now?! I'll leave that topic alone for now.

I think we've set ourselves up for success barring any setbacks. We have a clearly defined goal, we have a clearly defined plan, and we have a way of tracking our progress. I'd certainly say we began with the end in mind.

** Addendum ** I realize since we are paying more per month that the monthly interest and principal amount we pay per month is no longer accurate. It's really all about achieving a balance of nerdiness and sanity. Amortization table is nerdy, a monthly adjusted table with changing values per column is insanity.