I've been paying on my mortgage for a year now and here are some things that I have learned:
I paid $16.96 less in interest this month than I did a year ago.
If you don't count insurance and taxes (because you have to pay them even if you don't have a mortgage) 83% of the remainder of my house payment this month went to interest.
The first month it was 85%. The small sliver of a silver lining is that I am paying 2% more toward the principle now.
Next month, the interest I'm paying will be less than $700.00 a month. Woo hoo!
It's amazing that people accept paying that much a month as a natural part of life. I don't and as soon as I can, I'm going to knock it off. If you asked them to throw away $700 for something else, they would think you were crazy. If you asked them if having $700 a month in cash would make a difference in their life, the answer is "of course."
I plan on stopping the waste of money that outgoing interest is by getting out of debt. My mortgage is my biggest drain of money so the sooner we can start plugging that drain, the better.