bluntmoney.com

One of our biggest financial goals is to have enough money on hand within the next 3-4 years to completely pay off our mortgage. I’m excited about doing that, but as you know 3-4 years is a long period of time to remain completely keyed up and motivated, especially since we’ll be making what will appear to be only minimal progress on the mortgage itself during that time period.

But I accidentally hit on something that should help me maintain my motivation. I’ve mentioned before that we were in the process of refinancing our mortgage. Well, the refinance is finally complete. Our old mortgage was with the same bank that we have our checking accounts with, and of course the refinance means that it’s been paid off. I logged in to the online system there to check account activity and saw this:

My first thought was “Aw man, won’t it be nice when we see that for REAL? At least this means the refinance is complete.”

But then I realized just how excited I’d been, however briefly, to see that “PAID IN FULL” line. It really motivated me and got me even more fired up about our plan. I think that literally seeing the results of your plan ahead of time, even though you haven’t accomplished it yet, can help you stick to the plan and make it become a reality.

I’m going to print that image up and paste it somewhere I’ll see it regularly.

• Making Home Affordable Refinance Program Frequently Asked Questions - FAQ Lots Of  People Looking To Refinance A couple of days ago I did a pretty long post talking about the new "Making Home Affordable" program...
• WSJ Complete Personal Finance Guidebook By Jeff Opdyke When it comes to a trusted source for financial news and information, it’s hard to beat the Wall Street Journal. They have introduced a line...
• A few words from Barbara Kingsolver, author of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life We can't say we've yet read Barbara Kingsolver's popular book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. However, assuming the following quotes excerpted from...