Most Americans can’t imagine life without a monthly mortgage or rent payment.
But that was exactly the dream Andy Hill, 44, had in mind when shopping with his wife Nicole, 44, for their next family home.
His story proves that buying a home can usually be achieved by two, important factors: timing and savings.
The ‘overwhelming’ journey of homeownership
In 2013, the Hills were living in a 1,100 square feet place in Royal Oak, MI. Owning a home admittedly left Andy anxious.
Before closing, he hadn’t thought much about what owning a property would entail. He’d only worked out how much home he could qualify for.
“I quickly became overwhelmed by the cost and time of homeownership,” he says. “I felt owned by my first home.”
That’s why, when it came time to buy their second home, Andy and Nicole needed to make some decisions about how to decrease their monthly expenses and still afford a mortgage.
Their long-term financial goals were to keep expenses manageable so that Nicole could be a stay-at-home mom while the kids were young.
That’s when they decided on a 15-year mortgage.
The mortgage math
Opting for a 15-year mortgage is often recommended by financial gurus like Dave Ramsey, but it’s rarely taken on.
Recent data shows that 90% of Americans still opt for a 30-year mortgage.
At the time, for Hill, choosing the 15-year option meant a lower interest rate: 3% back in 2013. (By comparison, a 15-year mortgage taken out at time of writing would incur a 5.7-6.1% interest rate, whereas the 30-year comes with a 6.52% interest rate as of June 11, according to Freddie Mac.)
The idea came to Hill after conversations he had with guests on his podcast, Marriage, Kids and Money.
“I was interested in people who had financial freedom,” he says.
But again, timing was everything. Paying the mortgage off in 15 years still wouldn’t have met their goal in time for Nicole to stay home while the kids were still young. (At the time, they had a 2-year-old, and Nicole was pregnant.)
With this in mind, Hill challenged himself and his wife to pay off the mortgage in 5 years—a goal that would turn out to be more aggressive than they imagined.
A saving strategy
“The first thing was that we had to look for a home that was appropriately sized, not the megamansion we could have been approved for,” Andy explains.
The couple ended up buying a 2,700 square feet house in Bloomfield Hills.
It had been a 1970s home once owned by a hoarder that a builder had fully renovated. They paid $350,000 and put down $155,000—leaving monthly payments of $1,900 that included taxes and insurance.
The question became: “How do we pay off $200,000 in 5 years?”
The couple combined had an annual income over $100,000.
Andy worked as an account director in corporate event marketing, while Nicole was also working full time in the corporate world.
Together, they’d already become adept at saving, having paid off $35,000 in student loans and $25,000 in car loans. After that, they devoted the first three years of their married life to saving up to have the $155,000 down payment for their Bloomfield Hills home.
“We knew we could do $50,000 a year,” Andy says.
Their strategy started by living frugally, like keeping their old, but paid-off, cars.
Then they took a look at their food bill.
“We’ve shopped at Aldi for the past 7 years,” he says, adding that they’ve learned to accept having fewer options and buying generic choices.
They also got rid of cable and left Verizon for a MVNO cell plan.
“These little things were not major inconveniences and still allowed me to keep my wife happy and keep myself happy,” Andy says. “We didn’t deprive ourselves.”
At the same time they were paying off the mortgage, they also saved up for emergencies and shopped insurance policies with higher deductibles.
As Andy got on a roll and saw his mortgage balance steadily decrease, he started to push a bit further.
“I went a bit overboard with the optimization,” he admits. “I now had a high desire to leave my corporate job as well. That was a slippery slope.”
Then he considered cutting the cleaning lady. “That did not go well for my marriage,” he confesses.
But the sacrifices paid off.
The finish line
When they finally paid off the mortgage in 2017, the family made a pinata with the mortgage paperwork, stuffing it full of candy and dollar bills.
They wanted the kids to be part of the celebration, to help them understand that adults can have financial goals and how to meet them.
“Our kids saw us do this. They are aware of the financial freedom that can come from doing difficult, complicated things,” he says of their kids, daughter Zoey and son Calvin, now 14 and 12 respectively.
That season of life had a lot of sacrifices. Was it painful?
“Oh yes,” Andy says. But if he had to do it all over again, he would, though he admits he’d “stretch out the timeline.”
“I would have spent more money to bring back more of that joy–and take some breaks and some vacations.”
And yet, today, Andy and Nicole’s financial planning abilities have allowed them to both have the careers they want.
In 2020, Andy left his corporate job. This year, Nicole was ready to return to work—under her own terms—and launched the Glass Skin Studio spa in West Bloomfield.
Andy still hosts his podcast, and offers his services as a family finance coach at Marriage, Kids and Money. He recognizes everyone has different financial goals, and he believes uncovering them can be a fun process.
For most people, Andy would recommend paying off high-interest debt, then saving toward retirement first as that money starts working for you sooner.
When asked if he and Nicole would ever want to upgrade to a bigger home, which would potentially mean taking on another mortgage, he pauses.
“We are both not in a rush for it,” he says, adding that a bigger home comes with a bigger yard, all of which require more work and maintenance.
Right now, he and Nicole are happy.
“We are really enjoying the greater simplicity we have in our lives,” he says.
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