Four Year Finish Line

"I find I'm so excited, I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it's the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border."
--Ellis Boyd 'Red' Redding (Shawshank Redemption)

Made my first mortgage payment on the new house today. I laid down a decent sized down payment (by today's standards anyway) and wound up financing about 60% of the purchase price. The loan was a 15 yr fixed @ 4 5/8%.

Before I made my first payment, the originator already sold the mortgage to Citi. I'm glad, because Citi's site was easy to configure for electronic payments.

Although my interest rate is low, I feel the need to chunk down this debt (the only debt I'm carrying, in fact). I'm doing 2x+ monthly payments right out of the gate. I also hope to make a couple of lump sum principal only payments--one before year end and another early next yr.

Mortgage payment schedules carry a interest-heavy front end, so you can save dramatically on interest expense by retiring extra principal early in the loan's life.

My goal is to pay this mortgage off 4 yrs from now--that would be June, 2013. Should I be fortunate enough to do so, I should save about $60K in interest expense. God willing, I'll also be permanently debt free at that point.

I know, the best laid plans...But let's see what happens.