Going ballistic on the mortgage

If you know us, we are not fans of consumer debt (credit cards, lines of credit, etc).  We buy everything with cash that we've saved and never tap into credit.

While the mortgage rates were low, we were trying to break the mortgage and found out that we would have to pay hefty penalties to do so.  No matter how we tried, the bank wouldn't allow us to do it.

We have no idea what the credit/interest rate environment will be come summer of 2013 when we renew.  Will rates be at their historical lows again?  Will rates be in the double-digits to quell inflation or a currency crisis?

We certainly have no idea, but one thing is certain - we control how much debt we have left at renewal time, and we want that number to be as small as possible, no matter where rates stand.

So, we've decided to go ballistic on the mortgage.  We're going through our finances again and with a little voluntary austerity at our household, everything that we save will go into the mortgage.  At our current pace, we have 6 years left on the mortgage, but with a little austerity, we might be able to shave another 3 years off and pay it off before we renew.   That would be a dream come true.

We'll post updates from time to time!  Hopefully, this can be done!  After we're done we can have a mortgage-burning party!