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Marisa Palmieri Shugrue family
The author and her family.

This July, my husband and I sent in our final mortgage payment.

Achieving this goal, which at one time seemed so far out of reach, became a reality in just under 13 years. I remember being 23 years old and looking in horror at a chart showing how much we'd pay the bank over 30 years for our $170,000 home in a suburb of Cleveland.

But here we are, ages 39 and 37, mortgage-free.