Mortgage Fatigue- How Long Did it Take You To Pay Off Your Mortgage.
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Anonymous
| We've lived in our current residence in Mont County for 13 years and I am so sick of paying the mortgage. We should have it paid off in the next 6-7 years (worst case/hoping more like 2 years). Our balance is only $63K. How long did it take to pay off the mortgage? Did you feel "rich" when it was paid off? What did you do with the extra money? |
Anonymous
| people actually pay off their mortgages?? |
Anonymous
| Most mortgages are 30 years and most people take 30 years to pay them. But good humble brag OP. |
Anonymous
+1 |
Anonymous
| We were hoping to pay ours off early...but then college tuitions approached and, well you can probably guess the rest. Sigh. |
Anonymous
| For most people, I think they need to locate another good way to keep their income taxes low. If not, I don't think one would feel 'rich" because the not paying mortgage might get offset by paying more taxes. |
Anonymous
| We actually paid off our mortgage and our twins hit Kindergarden in the exact same month. We went from paying a 2200 dollar mortgage and a 3100 dollar daycare bill to having just property taxes and after care bills....I CANNOT tell you how exciting that fall was. But none the less we slowly starting uping our expenses. We changed our 401k contributions, upped college funds, and bought a much needed car. It took us 12 years and 4 months to pay off a 15 year loan. |
Anonymous
|
OP here- I didn't know owning a home in the dc area (free and clear) was so uncommon.... But based on the prior posts, I did a little research. Looks like only 15% of homeowners own their homes outright in our area. I'm sure I wouldn't be in the same position if we bought post-2003.
http://rrea.com/news/did-you-know-so-many-people-own-their-own-homes/ |
Anonymous
|
Sell your house, live in a box, and you won't have to pay anything.
Mortgage fatigue? Oh my, you are so dramatic. |
Anonymous
| We paid ours off. We moved from a booming market and made quite a bit on our previous home. Initially we were going to build a big addition, but decided we did not want to do that and paid our house off instead. Our financial planner encouraged us to do that and to invest according to a plan the money we had been using to pay the mortgage. You will still have significant expenses relating your home - quite a bit of your mortgage is taxes and insurance. In our case, things worked out well in terms of taxes. Look into it carefully - but it can be the right thing to do. |
Anonymous
|
Ours will be paid off in another four years, just as our older child starts college. We planned it that way because shortly after that DH, who has a chronic disease, will likely retire.
It gives me huge peace of mind to know that we will be mortgage-free that soon. |
Anonymous
|
We have been in our house 20 years, so would be 10 years away from paying off our mortgage....
... which we had gotten as a 10-year adjustable at 8%. It would have been insane to not ever refinance, just so we could have been feeling like we were "paying off" the house. We've refinanced a number of times, and are now down to a 3.625% 30yr loan. And our house is now sellable for close to triple what we paid for it (and could probably rent it out for $1,200 more than our monthly payment). But we're not going anywhere. And we love the spending money we have from a small mortgage with a low interest rate. In days of low low interest rates, paying off a mortgage is not always the end-all be-all. |
Anonymous
| 10 years in flyover country. Then the mortgage payment went into the college fund for DD. |
Anonymous
You could still pay extra in principal. OP here- I've refinanced three times in 13 years with a 30 year mortgage and we are down to ~6-7 remaining years worse case because we paid down the loan (principal). Our 4.5% rate is considered high today but we couldn't "pay" for the refinancing costs anymore because our balance is too low. Each time we refinance, I reamortize our loan based on my estimate of when we will pay it off. IE- if I think we can pay off a 30 year loan in 15 (no penalty for early payment), I calculate the savings and if it more than offsets the cost refinancing costs I go for it. I use to think like you until I lost 1/2 of my 401k savings in 2008. For me paying off the loan represents financial security (less money needed in the emergency checking account which earns no interest). I agree though PP that when life is good, investing in the stock market would yield better long term returns. |
Anonymous
|
Bought in 1996 with a 30-year, refied in 2001 to a 15 year. Paid it off this year.
Savings (and rental income -- it's a duplex) go straight into retirement. I love being totally debt free. |