Happy 4th – Hurrah For The Green!

Happy 4th – Hurrah For The Green! was Originally Posted on July 4, 2014 by lavarock

Over a decade ago, my company decided on extending their “workforce reduction” and offered me an early out. It was for all intents and purposes an early retire ment for some and a good transition to another job for others. We were asked to choose my last day of employment and a friend and we chose July 4th (Independence Day).  My severance package included a months pay for every 2 years I worked and an extra couple of months extra pay. It ended up being almost a years extra pay. All that green!

I opted to take a short term job and my friend did also. Later I moved to Hawaii and bought my farm, then also took a job which lasted for over 2 years. That friend and ex coworker also is buying a farm out here.

Because my farm is a leasehold and Hawaii has strange tax codes, it took years to get my mortgage company to pay the proper bills. They rarely paid on time because mortgage companies weigh a late charge against the interest they make during the time the bill is late. Then, with only a year left on the mortgage, the current company transferred my account to a new servicing organization and the problems with timely payments in the right amounts with the lease fee and taxes all started again.

Last month I got fed up and went down to the lessors office in town to pay the outstanding payments that the servicing company was late with. The lessor no longer accepts payments in the office and I was directed to a local bank to make my payment there. I began getting even more irritated.

So today, July 4th, with only 3 more mortgage payments due, I decided to just pay off the mortgage and be done with it. I got a payoff value of about $3300 and told ING DIRECT (Now CapitolOne 360) to send a check. I cancelled automatic withdrawals from my checking account and after about the 15th of the month, I will be responsible for paying the taxes and lease payments. I am positive that I can do a better job then these companies that purport to do that as their only job.

So officially, I guess I have “bought the farm” for good (having originally said that I bought the farm when I signed the mortgage 10 years ago).

People say that they enjoy burning the mortgage in a ceremony, but I have no such plans. The mortgage was never an albatross around my neck, because it was only $100,000 for 10 years at 5%, which meant that I only paid  a small interest amount and made money on other investments where this interest was a minor amount.

During that time, I also took advantage of the deal John Deere had on tractors. I could spread the payments out for 3 or 4 years at zero interest. Thus they loaned me $15,000 for that time making no money except getting a sale. The green of the tractor and the color of the money I saved were great colors

So while  typical July 4th colors are red, white and blue, I will remember July 4th’s color as green!