We actually paid a little extra each month last year to eat away at the principal balance, so we paid 600 a month which is 7200, 20 Starbucks bucks a day is 7300 a year. Our actual monthly payment was 552, it was adjusted and is now 648 and we are doing 700 a month which is 8400 a year. Here is where it gets wild. We have a 30 year fixed mortgage, by paying just the little extra each month we are going to pay off the house in under 24 years. We have a plan to roll what we pay toward other debts into the mortgage payment once the debts are eliminated. We plan to have the house paid off(including new solar array, heat pumps, orchard, greenhouse, wood stoves, sugar house, charging station, outbuildings, etc.) by the time I am 50. It is indeed one of the darkest timelines for many folks but there are bright spots!