You are the CEO of the most important business in the world.

You are the CEO of your own home.

You work hard to earn the money.
You decide what to do with it.

Homes in Order is a collection of ideas, tools, and resources designed to help you understand how money works—and make better decisions with it.

Here’s your first assignment:

Here is $100.

What do you see?

Most people see $100.

What will you do with it, CEO?

You could spend it on shoes.
Or a shirt.
Or dinner.
Or candy.

Most people see $100. I see $500.

Your assignment: turn that $100 into $500.

Easy enough?

I can show you how.

Welcome to Homes in Order

The New-Fashioned Way to Wealth

That’s a brief snippet from the book about learning to see money differently. And we’d love to help you learn to see it differently, too.

In the book, Shawn meets Rick, who changes the way Shawn sees money. Later, when Shawn meets Cammi, he puts what he’s learned to the test.

Rick teaches them about The Way to Wealth.

Shawn adapts those timeless principles into The New-Fashioned Way to Wealth.

Homes in Order was developed by Jeremy Washburn, MBA—real estate broker and developer, mountain bike coach, husband, and father of three.

Read the book.

Watch the YouTube channel.

Try the tools.

Thanks for visiting.

And thanks for sharing.

Jeremy

It sounds like a lesson in thrift.

But look a little closer. It’s actually a lesson about what money can become.

He was talking about investing.

Benjamin Franklin has been called “the greatest President of the United States who was never President of the United States.”

A printer by trade, Franklin was also an inventor, statesman, scientist, writer, and one of the most influential figures in the founding of the United States.

Among his many writings was Poor Richard’s Almanac, which became the most widely circulated periodical in the American colonies. Poor Richard’s wit and wisdom helped shape the culture of the fledgling nation.

The Way to Wealth was a compilation of financial wisdom from Poor Richard, first published in 1758.

Among the financial virtues taught by Poor Richard were Thrift, Industry, and Prudence—three principles referred to as TIPs in Homes in Order.

Do they still apply today?

When was the last time you heard someone talk about Thrift?

Or Industry?

Or Prudence?

The words may sound old-fashioned.

The principles aren’t.

In Homes in Order, Rick, Shawn and Cammi weave these timeless virtues into timely reminders about what it takes to find The Way to Wealth.

And that’s where The New-Fashioned Way to Wealth begins.

Join Jeremy for quick, practical lessons about mortgages, money, and making your home work harder for you.

While Monday and Wednesday episodes tour beautiful homes (because, who doesn’t love a beautiful home?), Friday’s are unique to Homes in Order perspectives on finance. Learn about principles, skills, tools, and get financial ideas.

In fact, sometimes saving is a much more effective way of accumulating wealth than earning.

In the book, Rick teaches Shawn how to have more money.

It’s simple, actually.

In fact, it’s just a coin flip.

If it comes up “Tails,” you need to get off your tail and get out there and work. Work harder, work smarter, work better.

If it comes up “Heads,” you need to use your head and figure our how to spend less. How to get by with less. You might have to make some tough cuts. But when you see what you can do with that money with the Homes in Order Calculator, you’ll see it’s worth it.

Everybody talks about ways to earn more, make more, have more. And that’s great!

At Homes in Order, we focus more on the other side of the coin. Saving. And investing those savings into your mortgage and turning your 1’s into 5’s, and turning your 2’s into 1,000’s.

So, not only will you find more money in your pocket through saving, with compounded savings, you’ll find a lot more money in your pockets. Just punch those savings into the calculator and see what happens!

White balls: 1 = 5.

Orange balls: 2 = $1,000

My challenge is simple: make the world of finance understandable to everybody.

• Music teacher. Student. Artist. Business owner. Engineer. Realtor.
• You shouldn’t need an MBA to understand how your money works.

1 = 5 teaches us about TIME.

• The longer you borrow money, the more interest costs accumulate. The sooner you reduce your debt, the more future interest you will avoid.

2 = 1,000 takes the next step: DILIGENCE

• Instead of making one large prepayment, what happens when you consistently make a small prepayment every month?

Let’s look again at an example home mortgage.

Once again, every mortgage payment is made up of principal and interest. If you make only the required payment every month, you’ll follow the original amortization schedule and pay the interest associated with that schedule.

But remember what we learned from 1 = 5. A single $10,000 prepayment in year 2 saves Shawn nearly $50,000 in future interest and eliminates more than three years of mortgage payments.

That’s mathematical beauty.

But there’s a problem:

Most people don’t have an extra $10,000 sitting around. In fact, most people don’t have an extra $1,000 just sitting around.

So, what if we made the goal smaller?

Instead of finding $10,000, what if you could find $200 per month?

Let’s look at what happens when Shawn adds $200 to his mortgage payment every month.

$200 PER MONTH
= ~$100,000 IN FUTURE INTEREST SAVINGS

…in this mortgage. For your mortgage, your savings could be less. Or they could be more!

So, where does 2 = 1,000 come from?

The idea is simple.

Small, consistent prepayments can create surprisingly large results over time.

We don’t need $200.

Let’s make the goal very small.

What happens if Shawn prepays an extra $2 per month?

In this mortgage example:

$2 extra per month → ~$1,000 in future interest savings
$20 extra per month → ~$10,000
$200 extra per month → ~$100,000

Why does such a small payment matter?

Every extra dollar you put toward principal reduces the amount on which future interest is calculated.

And when you do it every month, that reduction happens again and again.

One small decision becomes hundreds of small decisions.

And time does the rest.

Small. Consistent. Powerful.

That’s 2 = 1,000.

And that’s Homes in Order.

Can you afford an extra $200 per month?

If not, can you find $20?

What about $2?

What would $2, $20, or $200 a month do for YOUR mortgage?

Your answer depends on your loan balance, interest rate, remaining term, and when you make the payments.

Calculate your 2 = 1,000.

My challenge is simple: make the world of finance understandable to everybody.

• Music teacher. Student. Artist. Business owner. Engineer. Realtor.
• You shouldn’t need an MBA to understand how your money works.

Your home may be the largest financial commitment you’ll ever make. Homes in Order is about helping you make smarter financial decisions around it.

Before we get to 1 = 5, understand two things.

1. Mortgages are powerful.
A mortgage allows you to buy a home without having the full purchase price in cash.

2. Interest matters.
When you understand interest, you begin to understand where your money is going—and how to make it work harder for you.

Let’s look at a typical 30-year mortgage.

As you can see, each monthly payment is made up of principal + interest. And as you can see, you will pay more interest than principal on this mortgage in your payments for over 20 years. Once again, you will pay more interest than principal on this mortgage for over 20 years! (Click here for more MORTGAGE BASICS)

Now let’s look at what happens when you prepay your mortgage. Shawn, from the book, saves his money every month, every year, until he has enough to pay off his mortgage. So in year 25, Shawn pays $80,760 and pays off his mortgage!

Congratulations, Shawn! You paid off your mortgage! You own your house! Next month (and every month thereafter), you will have an extra $1,580 in your pocket because you don’t have a mortgage payment. That’s awesome. Now let’s look a little deeper.

As you can see, by saving his money and paying off his mortgage, Shawn eliminated 5 years (FIVE YEARS!!!!) of mortgage payments. Not only that, Shawn will save $14,050 in interest payments! Boom! Congratulations. Paying off your house is a major accomplishment. Way to go, Shawn!

BUT….. You don’t have to wait until you can pay off your whole house to start paying off your mortgage. Let’s look at another scenario. Let’s say Shawn gets an extra $10,000 bonus, or commission, or gift. Now, let’s say Shawn applies that extra $10,000 to his mortgage in year 2 of his mortgage.

As you can see, by prepaying $10,000 in year 2 of his mortgage, Shawn:

• Saves $48,984 in future interest.
• Eliminates 3.13 years of mortgage payments.

That’s a pretty remarkable result from a $10,000 prepayment. By putting $10,000 toward his mortgage in year 2, Shawn saves $48,984 in future interest and eliminates 3.13 years of mortgage payments.

Shawn isn’t required to pay that extra $10,000 towards his mortgage. Let’s look at what happens if he decides to make that payment later.

As you can see, in this scenario, Shawn makes an extra $10,000 payment in Year 18 of his mortgage. By making a $10,000 prepayment in year 18, Shawn saves $11,051 in interest payments, and Shawn saves over 1 year of payments! Boom! That’s incredible!

But considering the previous scenario and nearly $50,000 in savings, this scenario somehow doesn’t seem as exciting, does it? Which would you rather have?

• Scenario A: $48,984 in interest savings
• Scenario B: $11,051 in interest savings

So what’s the difference?

Time.

The longer you borrow money, the more interest costs accumulate. The sooner you can reduce your debt, the more future interest you can avoid.

So, where does 1 = 5 come from?

Mathematically, here’s what it looks like.

This graph shows mathematically how much you would save by prepaying just $1 at any point in this mortgage. In this scenario, mathematically, for the first five years of this mortgage, $1 prepaid would save $5 or more in future payments

That’s 1 = 5. In other words, for the typical new homeowner, $1 PREPAID = $5+ SAVED.

Bottom line is time matters. The sooner you reduce your debt, the more future interest you can avoid.

So, next time you’re at the drive-thru, before you spend $1, you can ask yourself:

Is this worth $5?

• $1 drink → $5 mortgage savings?
• $2 fry → $10?
• $3 upgrade → $15?
• $4 add-on → $20?
• $5 meal → $25?

You don’t have to stop buying things you enjoy. But when you start thinking about what today’s dollar could become tomorrow, you may start making different choices.

And 1 = 5 isn’t just for the drive-thru. You can use it anywhere. And it scales.

• $100 shoes → $500 mortgage savings?
• $1,000 smartphone → $5,000?

So does $1 really equal $5 for you?

Not necessarily. It could be less. Or, it could be more!

Your actual savings depend on your loan terms, your original loan balance, your current loan balance, interest rate, when you make the payment, and other factors. Generally speaking, 1 = 5 illustrates the concept.

Calculate your $1=$5

• That’s why I built the Homes in Order calculator.

Go deeper

• And if you want to understand the bigger philosophy behind Homes in Order, that’s why I wrote the book.