Mortgage Payoff Party ideas - help! - this is BIG for us! UPDATE post #48

[mrsklamc]

Bottom line though, no one else really cares.

You have no way of knowing that. I would totally care and celebrate with a friend of mine who was able to accomplish this.

 

[LJSquishy]

I love the amity button idea. If you are planning on staying in your house "forever", I would do it in a heartbeat! What a neat reminder for you and your family to see everytime you use the stairs. I love it.

My in-laws are paying off their house in a few months and they are planning on taking the entire immediate family out for a nice dinner using the money that would normally go toward the house payment.

 

[Sugar Jones]

Yay for you! I don't even know you, but I'm happy for you because your happy. Who cares what the "etiquette" might be. If this something your family and friends celebrate than do it.

I personally would do a dinner out at a comfortable and yummy restaurant. Nothing too fancy and someplace you can celebrate with good food and drinks.

Whatever you choose, have a great time!

 

[Jeff_G]

You beat me to it! This is what my in laws did when they paid off their mortgage. Have a big ole bonfire!

Just paid ours off last month, DO NOT BURN anything. You never know when you will need to produce the papers to prove the debt was paid off.

This varies county by county, but in mine a mortgage is recorded as a public document in the form of a "deed of trust" against the property. Once paid off your lender will send your county recorder a "release of deed of trust" telling them you have paid the mortgage and they release their interest in the property. The lender MAY or MAY NOT send you back the signed in ink mortgage note marked paid in full. From what I am reading many do not send back the signed note and many have lost them in the mortgage bonanza of the past few years. In my county when the lender looses the note they are required to send the county an affidavit saying the note is lost and they are releasing the mortgage without the note.

Ok that was probably WAY too much information.


As for the party, we celebrated with horns, party hats, confetti, and margaritas (for the adults) at home in our back yard. I wanted to make this a memory for our kids, something to look back on and remember for their future.

 

[100AcreWood]

As for the party, we celebrated with horns, party hats, confetti, and margaritas (for the adults) at home in our back yard. I wanted to make this a memory for our kids, something to look back on and remember for their future.

That's how I feel. When we pay off our mortgage I want to make sure the kids remember it and it leaves an imprint in their heads of how awesome it is to be debt free!

 

[Woth2982]

Congrats! I just paid off $105K in student loans! I am celebrating by upping my 401K contribution from 3% to 5%. I am a rebel lol.

 

[ozziejen2000]

We paid off our mortgage this past January. DH landed a great bonus at work and we paid off the house early. I wanted to tell people but he did not. We had a very nice dinner out and just enjoy throwing that extra 2k into our savings every month which was once our mortgage.

We have some family that is not as fortunate/savy with their money. We do not want to have any weird problems with friends or family, so we are keeping it quiet. We also are going to DW this summer, but that was already planned too.

I would also not going into the bank with noisemakes on NYE, that sounds a bit scary.

Our child is too young to understand what it is to pay off the house early.

 

[PinballFamily]

Update:
We did it! Actually made the mortgage payoff on Christmas Eve instead of New Year's Eve. It was a pretty emotional experience and it was a VERY special day for our entire family. Even the bank employees were cheering!

 

[JanaD]

CONGRATULATIONS! I'm sending my warmest wishes for a continuing debt-free life and the serenity that comes from it! It does show that diligence and hardwork CAN and WILL pay off!

 

[Gr8t Fan]

Update:
We did it! Actually made the mortgage payoff on Christmas Eve instead of New Year's Eve. It was a pretty emotional experience and it was a VERY special day for our entire family. Even the bank employees were cheering!

Congrats!!! What did you do to celebrate?

 

[2disneyboys]

CONGRATULATIONS! I'm sending my warmest wishes for a continuing debt-free life and the serenity that comes from it! It does show that diligence and hardwork CAN and WILL pay off!

I hope you celebrate with a

 

[ceecee]

I took a photo of DD and DH putting the last payment into the mailbox. I do like the idea of a Disney trip! We didn't do anything with the 2nd house mortgage, maybe it's not too late to celebrate!

 

[MissDaisyofTexas]

Update:
We did it! Actually made the mortgage payoff on Christmas Eve instead of New Year's Eve. It was a pretty emotional experience and it was a VERY special day for our entire family. Even the bank employees were cheering!

Congratulations!!! What a huge accomplishment!

 

[knewton64]

......& I like it!!





Look at my below trip report titled, "My adventures n San Fran, Rose Bowl....."
and see what I did with all my money from the canceled March 2013 vacation adventure of mine.
(its listed on bottom of page 1 and top of page 2)




I am now thinking of something more than just a 7-night Disney cruise to celebrate (thank u all for prodding me into celebrating this) in 6 more years.


and yes, I plan on putting that "coin thing" with a date at the base of my staircase as well (good idea).




and the "DONT LAUGH ITS PAID FOR!!" sign??

= (that is a must do 4 me)





P.S. Yes, I am still "attacking that mortgage snowball," its just not as aggresively now.


T.T.F.N.

 

[annsteere]

We have a family tradition for this.

When you pay off a loan you have to take the rest of the family out for deep dish pizza.

Nobody else in the restaurant knows, but the family celebrates with you.

It creates an occasion for the family to get together. It also models for the kids that loans get paid off. They aren't revolving forever.

Our mortgage payoff was timed to give us three months off and then begin putting our children through college. That three months was the beginning our our emergency fund. (Before that an open equity line was our back up plan for an emergency).

 

[Janice B]

I took a photo of DD and DH putting the last payment into the mailbox. I do like the idea of a Disney trip! We didn't do anything with the 2nd house mortgage, maybe it's not too late to celebrate!

It's never to late to celebrate. Dh and I paid off our mortgage this past December as well. Our mortgage was not suppose to be paid off till September 2013 at which time we are going to Disney to celebrate. Even though we paid if off early we are still keeping our Disney trip for September and we will officially celebrate then. Our DS took us out for supper the day we paid it off.

Congratulations on paying off your mortgage.

 

[PinballFamily]

Congrats!!! What did you do to celebrate?

We took a box of bakery muffins into the bank that morning for the staff - they were delighted!
Each member of our family put down a portion of the payoff - DH put down the last 1.01. The final penny paid was a shiny 2012 one we had saved for the purpose...
A bottle of Dom Perignon - our first ever...
Did the "Don't Laugh, It's Paid For" sign/photo of our family on our front steps when we returned from the bank...
Santa brought us a mortgage button for our newel post and a special Xmas ornament from etsy...
and yes, DH and I did enjoy a (pre-payoff) WDW weekend during F&W - once we were completely sure we would meet our goal! Yum!

Thanks for asking and good luck to anyone else on the path to paying down debt!

 

[robsmom]

We took a box of bakery muffins into the bank that morning for the staff - they were delighted!
Each member of our family put down a portion of the payoff - DH put down the last 1.01. The final penny paid was a shiny 2012 one we had saved for the purpose...
A bottle of Dom Perignon - our first ever...
Did the "Don't Laugh, It's Paid For" sign/photo of our family on our front steps when we returned from the bank...
Santa brought us a mortgage button for our newel post and a special Xmas ornament from etsy...
and yes, DH and I did enjoy a (pre-payoff) WDW weekend during F&W - once we were completely sure we would meet our goal! Yum!

Thanks for asking and good luck to anyone else on the path to paying down debt!

Sounds like you really enjoyed yourselves! Way to go!

 

[marthachick]

Just paid ours off last month, DO NOT BURN anything. You never know when you will need to produce the papers to prove the debt was paid off...

I wouldn't burn originals either but would make a copy & burn that. Just talked to DH earlier today about upping our bi-weekly payments. I have no idea how we'll celebrate once we pay it off, but I'm sure I'll find somewhere to go. . I love to travel, but as Dorothy said, "There's no place like home."

 

[sunnyday123]

We paid ours off 6 years ago, which was 26 years early... To be honest, I'm a little embarrassed by it. The few people I've told in real life act strange over it, think we are rich, etc. if I were you, I'd tell my very close friends and family and keep it at that. And my brother and close friend always keep me updated on how close they are to paying theirs off, which is great, but I'm pretty sure they thought our idea was great and they want to do it, too.

I would not only celebrate, but I would have with the marching band!! That is wonderful!


And to the above poster ( and everyone else who has done this ) can you give advice? I really, really want to become better at budgeting and want to pay mine off at the very least a tad earlier.