User blog:Gideoncrawle/Free at last!

Last Thursday (30 Sept) marked a major milestone in my life.

As most of you who follow my blog page know, my MIL passed away in June. While not wealthy, she was reasonably well off, and had only two heirs. We still have to sell her house (after we bring in the proverbial bulldozer to clean it out), but her liquid assets (investments, bank accounts, etc.) have been distributed.

As a direct consequence of all this, my wife and I have paid off our mortgage.

* cue Katie/Sadie squeal, or at least Beth/Lindsay squeal*

We actually wired the payment on 1 September, but 30 September is when it became official. That’s when we received the original loan documentation, marked “PAID IN FULL”. I realize that this milestone might seem remote to most of the teens and tweens who make up this wiki community, but to adults it’s a big deal. Just trust me on this.

The end of monthly mortgage payments frees up about 30% of our income, which we can now use for other things. That’s about the same as if my DW, who doesn’t currently work outside the home, had gotten a full-time job.

On a completely unrelated note, I have just posted a new chapter to the Fake Souls anthology, for those of you who like my storytelling and who don’t routinely follow that page. You can’t miss it, since I’m currently the only contributor who uses chapter titles.