Paying off the mortgage tomorrow! Yea!

[Chainfire]

Our insurance situation has become so intolerable that we have decided to pay off the mortgage four years early. I am going to kiss homeowner's insurance goodbye after 45 years of payments with no claims. Tomorrow we go to the bank to get a wire transfer to complete the payments. That is not the important part of this thread.

Since we are going inside the bank for the first time in two years, we decided to empty our piggy banks into the free coin counter. When I come home with change or maybe a paper dollar or two in my pants pockets, it goes into a liquid soap container on my dresser. My wife has a regular ceramic pig, piggy bank for the same purpose. After removing fifty bucks in paper, I just weighed the coins at 20.5 pounds including the canvas bag that holds them.

So here is the deal, who wants to guess what 23.25 pounds of assorted pocket change will total through the machine? The winner will get a round of applause and the title of DU psychic.

My guess is $200.00 and my wife's is $250.00. You can tell who is the optimist in the family.

[jimfields33]

1. Dumping homeowners insurance is a terrible idea

What state do you reside?

[Chainfire]

6. The insurance companies have made it easy. They do not want to write insurance here. (FL)

This year they (all) decided that they will not cover a roof over 15 years old or a house over 25. Some companies have more restrictive policies. And, the condition of either is irrelevant. Life is a gamble and I am pissed off enough to roll the dice. I do it with a full understanding of what it means. The insurance companies will have to survive without my monthly payments.

My insurance provider demanded that I replace a perfectly good roof before August, but claimed that the could not tell me what my policy would cost if I did. That is crazy... My neighbors that renewed had their policies double or triple. I did check many other providers and they all have similar policies. It the old days when Democrats ran the state, the Dept. Insurance would have lowered the boom on the providers. No more. I have limits as to how much BS I will take.

[markodochartaigh]

12. I'm in the same boat

People who don't have an older home in Florida probably won't understand. Insurance may be available from the state backed company, Citizens, but an older home may be uninsurable now. It is a bit ironic, the rich people who have multi million dollar estates or condos may well force insurance companies to get the state to cover the insurance companies' losses when their mansions are damaged.
Edit: it looks like 15% of owner occupied homes in Florida are uninsured.

[blm]

2. 206.67

[rsdsharp]

3. My guess, based on my putting change in an empty gallon popcorn jar,

is $410.

[gibraltar72]

4. I'm Ok financially but

I'm not ok enough to self insure. I was in insurance and financial instruments. I think you might want to consider you could lose your home.

[Chainfire]

7. Trust me, I have considered all options.

If my house burns or is blown away, I will bulldoze the remains and buy and pay for a mobile home to live out the remainder of my life, and I will put on my big boy grin and bear it.

[Susan Calvin]

14. I am so sorry you are in this situation.

Your explanation makes perfect sense, but I would be terrified with no coverage at all on my home. On the other hand, they want to charge me an exorbitant amount to insure me because my roof is 19 years old. It's a 30-year roof. Some return for buying a top-of-the-line roof....

[Chainfire]

10. If I lose the home, the property will still be here.

I lived in a mobile home while I built this one, and while I wouldn't wish to, I could do that again. I am 70 years old, I probably won't make ten more. (my wife either) I no longer have anyone I need to impress with my home and I could live in a lot smaller, simpler place without suffering. The bottom line for me is that sometimes you just have to say, NO MORE!

[Chainfire]

9. You probably should not judge what is "silly" without knowledge of the facts of the situation.

I am simply self-insuring. I will bank what I was paying for mortgage and insurance against losses. I have my eyes open, and I am more willing to take the risk then to give in to the insurance providers.

Now how much change is in the bag?

[No Vested Interest]

13. Am glad to know that you will bank what you would pay for mortgage and insurance.

Trusting that you have the self-discipline at 70 to do just that.
On or the other of you will last well past 80, and expenses do arise that you haven't counted on -no news to anyone there.

Change: 237.67

[Sherman A1]

17. You are correct

And I could not care one bit about change in the bag

Good Day.

[piddyprints]

8. Insurance is a hole in the ground where you pour your money

and hope you never need to use it. Because if you need to use it, it means something terrible has happened and you’re glad you have it.

There is no way I would cancel my homeowner’s insurance. IMO, it’s a very bad idea.

[MLAA]

11. I'm going with $325. I'm willing the 23 pounds to be heavy on quarters and low on Pennies!

[Chainfire]

19. Without counting, I would say that the majority of the coins will be pennies.

That makes some sense in that you get pennies in change, but rarely count them out in a purchase.

I suppose that the coin machine will print out by denomination, if so, I will report back.

[wackadoo wabbit]

15. Ooh, this is fun!

I already happened to know that 5 quarters weighs 1 ounce (it's how my postage scale company recommends that you check the scale for accuracy), so I decided to take this a little further.

I just used the scale to determine how many coins of each of the other denominations equal 1 ounce.

Thirteen dimes weigh 1 ounce.

Approximately 6 nickles weigh 1 ounce (I only had 5, but judging by how much they each weighed, this is pretty accurate).

Approximately 10 pennies weigh 1 ounce (I had fewer than 10, but, again, this seems pretty accurate).

OK, now let's assume that there is an even weight distribution among the different coins. This is the weak link in my calculations, but I'm not sure how else to do this.

23.25 pounds equals 372 ounces. 372 ounces divided by 4 (the number of different types of coins) is 93 ounces. So there are 93 ounces of each particular type of coin.

Quarters: 93 x 5 = 465 / 4 = $116.25
Dimes: 93 x 13 = 1209 / 10 = $120.90
Nickles: 93 x 6 = 558 / 20 = $27.90
Pennies: 93 x 10 = 930 / 100 = $9.30
_____________
Total $274.35

So that's my guess: $274.35.

Now that I've taken my break doing this (some would say "wasted my time" ), let me get back to work.

P.S. Congratulations on paying off your mortgage!

[Chainfire]

18. Oh, I love the way you think!

[wackadoo wabbit]

21. Thanks! /nt

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

16. I'll guess $235.02

and congratulations on being able to pay off the mortgage. Best wishes.

[Chainfire]

20. Total is in

As usual my wife was right. Total of $249.27. She missed it by 73 cents, I could not have counted it that close...

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

22. I am not able to pay off my mortgage, but I have been paying an

additional $300.00 per month for the past two or three years. It will cut several years off my mortgage.

At age 60 I got divorced and then moved half way across the country. Purchasing a home outright was completely out of the question, but I was able to get a mortgage for a small (2 bedroom, 2 bath, 3 skylight) home, about 900 square feet. Perfect for someone living alone. As I frequently say, I can afford the house payment. Hooray!

There's a common wisdom out there that you should absolutely have your home paid off when you retire. Well, while that's a wonderful goal, for at least some of us it's not realistic. Getting divorced at age 60, moving to another part of the country, getting back into the labor force, are all things that matter.

[Chainfire]

23. I understand.

Our first home was an 850 sq. ft. bungalow and we lived very comfortably in it. However, in the 50 years since, we need a warehouse for all of the junk we have accumulated.

We have a 2000 sq. ft. home, but we spend almost all of our time in a ten by twelve bedroom where we have our joint office. (We needed space when we had teenagers at home.)

After Hurricane Andrew, I lived in Miami in an Airstream trailer (alone) for some months and I never suffered from lack of space or comfort. I doubt it was 500 sq. ft. If we lost our existing home, we would replace it with something much smaller. It seems that the older I get the less I need.