Meet the Millennials Who BUILT and PAID OFF Their Home

I recently interviewed some friends who paid off their house early! I wanted to understand why they did it and lay it out for you all here.

Meet Garrett and Maddy, 26 and 25 year old millennials who built their own house and paid it off within 5 years!

You can watch the full interview right here.

How it happened

In 2015, when they got engaged, they began looking for housing options. After much deliberation, they chose to build their own home. Literally, they built the house themselves with the help of a lot of family.

Overall, they got a loan for $43k from a local bank and cash flowed many of the other building costs associated. Total, they had about $65k in the building of their home, between all the materials and land.

At the time, they also had $35k in student loans to pay off. They knocked those out by the end of December 2019 and then started throwing all extra cash onto the principal of their home. They completely paid it off in late 2020!

You may ask, how did they pay off $76k off debt in 5 years? Garrett and Maddy would say it was due to a lot of sacrifice. They had a goal together and stuck to it. They tracked their expenses and talked about their money and goals frequently.

Their jobs

In terms of jobs, Garrett works for a furniture company as a CNC saw operator. Maddy works for a small church as the director of family life ministries. Maddy took on extra work delivering groceries occasionally to help pay off the house. They both commented that they’re jobs and salaries are nothing spectacular. It just came down to hard work and living below their means.

I mean, it just takes sacrifice, saying no to certain things.

Garrett Short

Why they chose to pay off their home early

Garrett made note that while they could have kept the mortgage and invested the extra money to build wealth faster, it all came down to the peace of mind of not having a house payment.

“It’s my house, nobody can come and take it” Garrett said.

So I’ve got a question for you: would you ever consider paying off your house early?

I’d love to hear from you in the comments down below!

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