Brick by Brick

"Each tiny effort builds on the next, so that brick by brick, magnificent things can be created." 

Robin Sharma

I needed this quote today as sometimes it can feel like you are working hard to achieve things and never making any progress. I know that in reality this is often not the case and progress is made but it is in infinitesimal steps so they are difficult to see and it can feel like an uphill battle sometimes.

I remember when we were starting out on our financial journey after graduating from university and starting in our respective careers. We worked hard to pay back our student loans - continuing to live as frugally as we had a cash-strapped students. We then saved up for a deposit for a house - back then we only needed a 10% deposit and the house prices were much more reasonable. The mortgage we took out of $120,000.00 still seemed insurmountable and when you calculated the interest to pay back the final amount almost doubled if we took the full length of time to pay it back. It was daunting!

We made sure we paid back extra amounts when we could afford it, increasing the fortnightly payments if we got a small payrise or tax cut. We ended up paying that mortgage off in 9 1/2 years intead of the 25 we took the mortgage over and it was very satisfying.

To everyone paying off a mortgage or debt this quote may be helpful as every dollar paid off is one step closer to paying it off completely and because of how the interest works you will save more that just that dollar as it will bring the total interest cost down in the long term. Being near the end of the mortgage on our second property I know it is true that the end does get closer eventually. I've been where you are but I can assure you there is light at the end of the tunnel. You just need to get going!