Paying off the morgatge, good or bad idea?

[Anonymous]

But the house is MINE.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But the house is MINE.

Only until you fall behind on your property taxes. Then it's the County's.

There's a balance here, OP. Pay down the mortgage as you're able, but not at the cost of other savings and investments that will give you a balance of financial security.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's about rate of return - if your mortgage is at 3%, but you can earn higher elsewhere, don't pay it off. Given equities have performed well over that I wouldn't.

+1 Another reason is liquidity. The cash you pulled out of your mortgage (and invested at a higher rate, perhaps) is liquid. You have it. If you are older, perhaps with a lower income and retired, you won't meet the income requirements for a new mortgage should you need the cash for an emergency.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone that says paying off a mortgage is dumb, has a mortgage. The people that don’t have one say it’s a great thing, I’d listen to them. I’ll take money advice from people that don’t have bills over people that do.

That literally makes no sense. You'd take advice from someone just because they paid off their house? You don't care what else they're invested in, or what kind of returns they've gotten? And who says all people who pay off their mortgage have no bills? They could just as well have a lot of credit card debt, or student loans. I'm not against paying off your home, but it doesn't make you some sort of financial savant. And even when you pay it off, you still have to pay property taxes, repairs and upkeep. It's not like it's $0 for the rest of your life.

I have no mortgage, no credit card debt, no student loan debt. Do you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But the house is MINE.

Only until you fall behind on your property taxes. Then it's the County's.

There's a balance here, OP. Pay down the mortgage as you're able, but not at the cost of other savings and investments that will give you a balance of financial security.

Why would I fall behind county tax? It’s only 6k, I have enough to pay for literally 100 years or more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone that says paying off a mortgage is dumb, has a mortgage. The people that don’t have one say it’s a great thing, I’d listen to them. I’ll take money advice from people that don’t have bills over people that do.

That literally makes no sense. You'd take advice from someone just because they paid off their house? You don't care what else they're invested in, or what kind of returns they've gotten? And who says all people who pay off their mortgage have no bills? They could just as well have a lot of credit card debt, or student loans. I'm not against paying off your home, but it doesn't make you some sort of financial savant. And even when you pay it off, you still have to pay property taxes, repairs and upkeep. It's not like it's $0 for the rest of your life.

I have no mortgage, no credit card debt, no student loan debt. Do you?

Same here. I wonder if this is pretty common for people who paid off the mortgage.

[Anonymous]

We paid ours off and although it might be better to carry a mortgage, it sure feels great. We are thinking about making career changes that will dramatically reduce our income so only having property taxes and maintenance is a huge help as we budget and think about what we need to make to feel comfortable. We also have retirement and kids' 529s in good shape.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone that says paying off a mortgage is dumb, has a mortgage. The people that don’t have one say it’s a great thing, I’d listen to them. I’ll take money advice from people that don’t have bills over people that do.

That literally makes no sense. You'd take advice from someone just because they paid off their house? You don't care what else they're invested in, or what kind of returns they've gotten? And who says all people who pay off their mortgage have no bills? They could just as well have a lot of credit card debt, or student loans. I'm not against paying off your home, but it doesn't make you some sort of financial savant. And even when you pay it off, you still have to pay property taxes, repairs and upkeep. It's not like it's $0 for the rest of your life.

I have no mortgage, no credit card debt, no student loan debt. Do you?

Same here. I wonder if this is pretty common for people who paid off the mortgage.

I suspect it is. We too have no mtg, no cc debt, no car loans, not student debt. We have a nice HHI, (200K roughly), so of course, that helps. But, I think there are people who are debt-friendly and debt-averse, and it flows into everything you do. In some ways, it is an orientation toward risk. DH and I are pretty risk-averse people. I think people who are more comfortable with risk are probably more comfortable with carrying debt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Being debt free is priceless. Priceless.

This about sums it up. It's because I have some sense of the price of turning our portfolio into home equity that we don't do it.

[Anonymous]

There are two considerations: emotional and financial. For many people there is a sense of pride and security in owning a house outright, and that is fine.
The financial side is a little more complicated. Essentially it makes sense if you are very conservative in your assessment of likely returns in the market.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone that says paying off a mortgage is dumb, has a mortgage. The people that don’t have one say it’s a great thing, I’d listen to them. I’ll take money advice from people that don’t have bills over people that do.

That literally makes no sense. You'd take advice from someone just because they paid off their house? You don't care what else they're invested in, or what kind of returns they've gotten? And who says all people who pay off their mortgage have no bills? They could just as well have a lot of credit card debt, or student loans. I'm not against paying off your home, but it doesn't make you some sort of financial savant. And even when you pay it off, you still have to pay property taxes, repairs and upkeep. It's not like it's $0 for the rest of your life.

I have no mortgage, no credit card debt, no student loan debt. Do you?

Same here. I wonder if this is pretty common for people who paid off the mortgage.

I would say of course it is. Very few scenarios where someone with significant credit card or student loan debt would ever be in position to pay off the mortgage. They would also be foolish, given that the interest rate on a mortgage is almost certainly lower than credit card or student loan interest rates.

[Anonymous]

Pay off the house. If you don't enjoy that then you can always take out a mortgage on it and go back in debt

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone that says paying off a mortgage is dumb, has a mortgage. The people that don’t have one say it’s a great thing, I’d listen to them. I’ll take money advice from people that don’t have bills over people that do.

That literally makes no sense. You'd take advice from someone just because they paid off their house? You don't care what else they're invested in, or what kind of returns they've gotten? And who says all people who pay off their mortgage have no bills? They could just as well have a lot of credit card debt, or student loans. I'm not against paying off your home, but it doesn't make you some sort of financial savant. And even when you pay it off, you still have to pay property taxes, repairs and upkeep. It's not like it's $0 for the rest of your life.

I have no mortgage, no credit card debt, no student loan debt. Do you?

NP: I have no debt other than the mortgage and have investment earnings over the past decade that far exceed the amount of my mortgage without touching the principal that I could have used to pay it off had I thought it made sense. I don't regret not paying it off at all and I'm not tempted in the least to use the 1/4 of my non-retirement expenses to pay it off. My mortgage debt is at 3.25% interest and I've deducted interest on my taxes since purchasing my house. My average return on non-retirement investments has been 12%.

[Anonymous]

The mortgage holders will always cite their market returns (looking backward over the longest bull market in history and assuming it will never end).

We paid our mortgage off 9 years ago, and plowed the money we would have paid the bank into our portfolio. Guess what? We enjoyed the same returns and we didn't pay a penny to the bank.

[Anonymous]

We refinanced to 2.75% in 2012 and have 300k left. I want so much to pay it off, but reading the comments here I'm not sure now.