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Take 2.5 years off from work

Pocket watch, savonette-type.
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How would you like to get 5,054 hours of your life back, without having to pay for it?  How would you like to get 2.43 years off from work?  Your numbers may vary, but we’re going to show you how.  Now, it isn’t something that you don’t already know about, but what we are going to do is provide a different perspective.

For this article, this is you:

  • Annual Salary: $30,000.00
  • Work Schedule: Mon. – Fri. 9 am – 5 pm
  • No vacation (for simplicity)
  • You hate your job, but you’re stuck there.
  • Mortgage Amount: $100,000.00
  • Mortgage Term: 30 Years
  • Mortgage Rate: 5%
  • You pay the regular monthly payment.

Applying our assumptions, you will pay the house off in 30 years (you have the perpetual mindset) and will have paid $93,255.78 in interest.  How else can this be understood?  You’ve spent 3.1 years (93,255.78 / 30,000 = 3.1) sitting at your desk, at a job that you’ve hated, and given 100% of your income away.  Not ugly enough? You’ve spent 6,448 hours sitting in that uncomfortable chair, looking at your computer screen and given every penny away.

Give Me That Time Back!

Now you’re talking!  What else would you have done with that time?  If I had to take a guess, I’d imagine you would have done something other than stare at a computer screen.  It’s time for you to get that time back.  It comes with extreme effort, but the more effort you put forth, the more time you get.  Yes, this is performance pay.  The more you perform, the more time you’re paid back.

How do you get that time back?

It is simple, you just pay that mortgage ahead.  The more you pay ahead the more you save in interest (which converts to time).  Where did my numbers come from?  It is simple, pay an extra $800 a month and you pay the mortgage off in 7.5 years saving you from 22.5 years of tedious payments and $73,000.00 in interest.

Boring Math Warning:
$73,000 / $30,000 (your annual income) = 2.43 years
2.43 years * 52 weeks in a year = 126.36 Work-weeks
126.36 Work-weeks * 40 work-hours per week = 5,054.4 hours!

Now, I’ve heard this all before: “I can’t pay an extra $800 a month!” I’ve seen some people who can, and others that can’t. For those that can’t, fine, but can you do $700, $600, $500, $400, $300, $200, or $100 a month? Most people can make some wiggle room, and the effects do add up! Let’s do $100 a month, because I’m sure most people can scrounge that up.

Boring Math Warning:

$30,580.25 (interest you’ll save) / $30,000 (your annual income) = 1.02 years
1.02 years * 52 weeks in a year = 54 work-weeks
54 work-weeks * 40 work-hours per week = 2,160 hours!

By not paying an extra $100.00 on this mortgage each month, you are volunteering to work for 2,160 hours, pecking at a keyboard, sitting in an uncomfortable chair, staring at a computer screen working a job that you hate!  Worse yet, you’ve going to give all of that money you earn to a bank for letting you use their money.

Why on Earth would you do that? Take back those hours! Spend time with your family, travel, fish, golf, hang out with the girls, hang out with the boys, and have fun!

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