Paid off Mortgage in Three Years and Now Debt Free

We paid off our mortgage in three years and are now debt free! It’s an incredible feeling to accomplish something like this!

It was the moment of truth when we recently made our very last mortgage payment this week! We have paid off our house in only three years! Can you believe it? I’m still in shock and not sure if it has really sunk in yet.

man and woman with hands raised and excited

We woke up on August 1 completely debt free! August is the eighth month and the number eight in Hebrew means new beginnings. We certainly are experiencing a new beginning this month!

We purchased our little fixer upper cottage in 2020 at the very beginning of the pandemic and here we are, only three years later, and completely debt free! At first, we weren’t even really sure if we made the right decision to do something like this. But now, we have absolutely no regrets! It’s really a surreal feeling for sure.

man standing in front of small fixer upper cottage

woman standing in front of small fixer upper cottage

PAYING OFF OUR MORTGAGE IN THREE YEARS

We have a set monthly mortgage payment, but have been paying more than that every month. That’s how we were able to pay off the mortgage in three years since we’ve been paying more than the monthly payment that is due.

That’s why we’ve been living a very simple life in construction zone conditions!

BACKGROUND STORY

Now I’ll dive into a bit of the background story of how this all began.

Honestly, the story behind all this is that I never even wanted a mortgage to begin with. I actually didn’t even want a house. As I reflected back to our apartment days when we first bought the house and remembered thinking that we are totally minimalistic living and no debt type of people. That’s why I personally never wanted to get a mortgage.

I was actually ready to travel again! We have been in the Dallas Texas area for several years now, but before that, we were traveling and living all over the world. Before we bought the house, I was getting a bit stir crazy because we were here for so many years already. It felt like it was time to jump on a plane again and travel and live overseas.

But, little did we know that there would be a pandemic coming up. This was at the end of 2019 when I was having these thoughts. We had some friends here that were moving to Singapore at the time and I was like, oh~ we need to go somewhere next too. Like go back to Korea or something like that.

NOMADIC COUPLE

I started to tell Nate that we needed to go travel or go back to live in Korea. It was the only way for us to live as nomadic people~ so I thought. We absolutely love to be free!

NATE’S VERSION

Before we met, we were both traveling the world and working with Christian organizations (namely YWAM – Youth With A Mission) and we loved it. We were in several different countries. Between the two of us, maybe 50 to 60 countries. That’s where we find that we’re the most alive~ is when we’re on the road!

The idea of owning a home to us was just nuts! However, since we’re not getting any younger, we needed some security and be able to ultimately fund our journey. The only thing that I could think of at the time was to invest in a home.

Since we both didn’t have much money (although we were both working really hard), we wanted to buy a house that we could pay off in a short amount of time. We wanted something not too expensive or too large because the smaller the house, the smaller the bills. Bottom line~ A less expensive home is also quicker to pay off.

HUNKER DOWN

So in essence, this was his response to my ideas of traveling. Nate instead said that we needed to hunker down and buy a home so that it would force us to stay put and keep making money. This way we would have something to come back to. I was not happy about that at all! I wanted to travel!

But, I think where that comes from though, is that in the past when we have traveled and come back to the U.S., we had like nothing. So, we’d have to start all over. And we’ve done that like numerous times before we met each other and when we were married. We’d have to start from scratch again and find a place to stay. Buy the furniture and dishes and all the stuff.

woman sitting and waving while unpacking from travel

It was Nate’s way of saying, if we leave again and come back, let’s have something to come back to. Or some type of a financial stability.

DEBT FREE

The only thing I could think of was that I didn’t want any debt. Dave Ramsey girl here all the way (well, mostly!). The thought of having a 15 year mortgage, let alone a 30 year one sounded crazy to me! So, of course we decided to get a 15 year mortgage. But, even paying off something for 15 years sounds like a lot! Really, I just did not want a mortgage. The thought of buying a house was so cringy for me.

It seemed like too much of a commitment, dollar amount, and timeframe of having debt. Especially since we are free and nomadic and just want to get up and go whenever. Grab that backpack and travel and be free to make our own decisions and not be tied down to a mortgage payment. But, whenever we did travel and come back to nothing, that wasn’t a good feeling either.

So, I knew that if we did get a mortgage, then I didn’t want to take more than three years to pay it off.

REASONS FOR BUYING A HOUSE

NATE’S VERSION

The other reason I found it very important to get a house was because we were both working and earning an income in the U.S., where we could make the most money. What made logical sense to us was that having a mortgage, you have to be there until that thing is paid off. We didn’t want to leave with a mortgage.

This forced us to stay put long enough to create some assets that we have for the future. Now we have a paid off home that we can rent out later if we wanted to and it could fund our travels. It’s kind of set us up!

It would be very hard for us to save as much money as the house is worth when we’re done with it, without just bolting and going somewhere. If we didn’t have the pressure of a mortgage to keep us put, we would’ve probably left a long time ago to be overseas. Then we wouldn’t have this asset that we have right now in the home and the possibility of bringing in extra income every month from rent in the future.

Yea~ so this has become our investment and we can continue to earn extra on the equity as time goes by.

RENOVATIONS

We are actually paying off our house before the renovations are fully complete, but hey~ I know that there’s not going to be a better feeling than to have no debt! So, not only are we paying off this house in three years, we have also been cash flowing all of our renovation costs.

We have some more renovations to do and will continue to share more about that on our blog here and on our YouTube channel.

Philippians 4:19

And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

man and woman with hands raised and excited and small cottage

CHECK OUT OUR VIDEOS

Thanks for joining us on this journey! We hope that you will find inspiration watching us learn as we go while we’re attempting to renovate and rebuild this old small historic cottage mostly on our own. Stay tuned for more progress updates ahead!

You can also watch a video about this here.