<prompt> Human: I had a personal goal last year, to have the house under 100,000 by December this year. I met that goal. I did this by getting an amortization calculator and figuring out when I could land at 99,000 by December of this year. I kept upping the monthly principal until I found that number, which in this case was around 1000 extra per month. In the early months, I couldnt quite get my budget tight enough to pay that which is why the bars dont drop as much early on, but once my wife and I tightened things up, I was able to push as much as 1300month for at least 3 of those months. Thus the more dramatic curve near the endAs to how we budgeted, we basically started pretending like one of us lost our job, and started pretending like that extra money didnt even exist. It hurts a bit at first, but pretty soon you adapt, and next thing you know, your house is low enough to refinance if a crisis came along and still be able to live in it with a part-time job at McDonalds. The best part is, at this rate, I will have the house paid off in a little under 4 years. I call this picture Diligence:  <response>: More like Perseverance. :Excellent work! Be sure to post this in our Triumphant Thursday thread when it comes up. 