Dear World: I Paid $46,887 in Interest in Just Two Years. (Here's What They Don't Tell You About Mortgages.)
10/27/2025
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hi, i'm ash!
Creator of the New Travel & Design Series, 'OTHER PEOPLE'S HOUSES.'
Travel writer & host, cultural explorer, and architecture & interiors freak.
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I need to take to the bed after all that. Cash is queen for a reason.
Yes, INDEED!
And yet, many wealthy people finance their homes. I think the point is to have cash earning more interest for you than you pay in mortgage interest. If you tie up all your cash in a house, then you can’t invest. For me, that’s pure speculation, because I’ve never had that kind of cash to invest.
Also, homes appreciate in value, so when you go to sell that house after paying off your 30-year loan, it will likely be worth quite a bit more than your paid (unless you’re a hoarder; or unless you were singularly unlucky if your choice of neighborhood).
But then, in 30 years our money may not be worth the paper it’s printed on 😱
(Joins Ash in the woods with more wine. Or something stronger.)
Meanwhile, I’m over here like, “well, yeah.” Maybe because I’ve worked in finance over the last bajillion years, the actual dollars have lost all meaning and it’s just numbers floating in the ether. And yes, many people who have the grand cashola total on hand will finance because investing and taxes and ouija boards. I’d rather be debt free so I guess it’s all in how you look at it. Or don’t, because you’ll need that vom bag if you do. Most of us hold our collective noses and jump. Quite the racket.
haha I’ve been a words girl for AS LONG AS WE CAN ALL REMEMBER, so the numbers are still shocking to me!!!!!
Mortgages are crazy and expensive, no matter how you slice it. You’ve motivated me to make extra principal payments and save $$$.
RIGHT? Haha, we need a support club. With Kim Crawford.
It’s totally sickening. We have lived in our house 22 years now so finally paying towards the principal….Yay!! But you know what is just as bad, if not worse than mortgage loans? Student college loans. It’s so damn evil, because on most of them you start paying interest first sememster, freshman year, but you are totally oblivious to it. You can’t even comprehend interest. And so you think you’re borrowing $2,500 per semester or $20,000 total for four years and damn, you are soooooooooo wrong!!! And by god, (to make your life easier and not get 8 different confusing bills in the mail) DO NOT CONSOLIDATE!!!!
SERIOUSLY SO TRUE. I was really lucky to have my scholarship to undergrad, but then of course I was like, ooooo, let me get my master’s!!!! So I had student loans with that. And, you’re right: it’s cruel. It’s just so cruel. EVERYTHING in America is a business. We were just talking about this relative to places like Finland, where you can go to college for free. That seems like such a great investment in the people. Imagine? I know taxes, blah blah blah, but it’s interesting to consider what happens when not every industry has its own profit motive.
Yep… cash begets cash, and no cash begets no cash. Compound interest works both ways. I think it’s the most important financial lesson to teach our kids.
We really, really, really do need more practical education like this in schools. There is so much to learn. So many traps to fall into!
Especially for those who came from no money… Our parents knew nothing.
YESS!! When I taught high school art, I always found ways to bring money into the conversation. So many people aren’t willing to talk about money, and that’s how we learn.
It’s a loaded topic. I have a lot of experience with making money work for me, but I avoid the topic because I can’t stand the trolls. There’s something wrong with you if you don’t have money, and something wrong with you if you do. (Although there is definitely something wrong with billionaires. They should be banned).
I must rest now. *Places warm wet washcloth over eyes*
places warm wet washcloth over eyes ←—————- LOOLLLLLLL!!!!!!! I actually had one of those out last night with a heating pad for my damn neck! LOLLLLLL. What have we become
Welcome to the Crone Club. Your membership is approved.
I always remember “amortization” by thinking “mort”= death
As a Certified Financial Planner(TM) — yeah, I’m fancy like that — I have sooo many thoughts on this.
I think we need to do a written interview with you!!!!!!
Omg, don’t threaten me with a good time!!!!
Confession, I photoshopped paperwork to buy two of our houses because I was so tired of the back and forth and trying to find the exact thing, so I MADE IT.
A more practical note, depending on your interest rate, you can slow roll the payment and invest in your money in the stock market. This only works if you have a low enough interest payment. But it essentially means that yes you are borrowing from the bank and paying for it, but you’re turning around and making more money on what you borrow.
Did they put you through the gauntlet because of being self-employed??? Because I remember it was RIGOROUS. I was so happy I had all of my books in order, thanks to Bench. But I also remember thinking: you should trust us self-employed people MORE than traditionally employed folks, because I can’t fire myself, and if I need more money, I can go make it!
Because I’ve always had some salaried work with my own work, that was a bit easier. The last round was nuts because we bought during COVID, and the rules to confirm employment were CRAZY, and my husbands work wouldn’t do it. We actually had to just take him out of the equation. It was easier to buy house as though he didn’t have a job vs. them being 99% sure that he did.
The time before we were buying a foreclosed house, which is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, and so they were just CRAZY about everything, and kept asking for paperwork from the bank that did not exist.
So when else fails, I say give them what they want. Because creative self employed paper are scrapper than the banks.
Maybe my new business is making documents to make it 65% less , “I want to give up on life and go live in a tent”, when trying to buy a house, and more, ahh, look at all of these hurdles, I’m about to qualify for the Olympics as I swiftly jump over them.
Welcome to Adulthood 101 – where most of the time you are forced to make a choice between Shit & Slightly ShitIER! You can be robbed blind & imprisoned for 25+ years (mortgages) OR you can move every 1–5 years, have your home under the control of a stranger & pay more rent to that stranger every week than you if you had a mortgage. 💸
And yeah, banks are more conservative than a 1850’s Amish nun. ! Just the fact that they consider a single self-employed person a high risk is hilarious! Divorces happen every day! Children cause shit loads of money! Businesses are crumbling and Employers can lay you off at any time! Yet somehow your’re ‘higher risk’ because you have shown you can and do financially support yourself and you have no dependants ??!! 🤷♀️🤷♀️🤷♀️
The home loan application process for a self-employed single person is basically RAPE. FINANCIAL RAPE. No matter which way you choose you’re fucked.
Unfortunately, I’m not surprised by the numbers… In France, depending on where you want to buy mortgage rates can be insanely high and it’ll cost you three arms and four legs just to do the deposit. When the bank accepts early payments which was quite uncommon in early 2000s, you’d still have to pay fees on top “because the bank loses money during the process”. I vote for a tiny house or a van life… at this point.
I’m still vomming in my vom bag!! 🙁
This is the best explanation of mortgage amortization I have ever read.
THANKS! I mean, it was sickening as ever to write it, ha. But – very, very important to know!