How much debt you have? Mortgage and student loans included.

[Anonymous]

paid off house 10 years ago
owe $300 on credit card, pay it off every time it posts balance
aside from monthly bills there is no other debt

[Anonymous]

$380k on our mortgage

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do people have such low mortgage balances in the DC area? Are the people responding people who have owned their homes 20+ years?

I think this thread is getting more responses from people pleased with their lack of debt.

Like me! Zero. Paid off mortgage on $1m property by age 35, paid off $75k student loans by age 27.

I value a debt-minimal life because it allows us to be able to afford private school comfortably on a

250k HHI

, as well as decent travel a few times per year. We pay cash for vehicles.

How did you pay off the mortgage so quickly?

[Anonymous]

PP here, how did you pay off a 1M property by 35 on a 250K HHI?

[Anonymous]

700k mortgage
13k on a car I bought for 50k.. I took a loan out at around 3% early 2021 with the intention of just paying it off over a very short period. Started aggressively paying it down and then interest on my cash quickly went above 3% and I went to the minimum. I know all you anti-debt extremists will scream about the interest im paying (probably paid less than 2000 in 3 years) but at a 2.25% delta between debt and savings rate, I’m making more in interest (which is then compounded) than I am paying on the debt. Sure, it’s a depreciating asset, but who cares? Cost to service debt is cost to service debt, the depreciating piece only speaks to risk of default/bankruptcy. Which is approximately 0.

[Anonymous]

$860k mortgage at 2.75 percent on a house worth about $1.4 million; $22k car loan at 1.99 percent, more than half paid off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do people have such low mortgage balances in the DC area? Are the people responding people who have owned their homes 20+ years?

I think this thread is getting more responses from people pleased with their lack of debt.

Like me! Zero. Paid off mortgage on $1m property by age 35, paid off $75k student loans by age 27.

I value a debt-minimal life because it allows us to be able to afford private school comfortably on a 250k HHI, as well as decent travel a few times per year. We pay cash for vehicles.

Nothing to be proud of. You poured money into an illiquid vehicle that was likely to appreciate anyway and you could take out extremely cheap debt to cover, missing out on putting all that extra free cash flow into the stock market, which has had a massively historic run up, nearly doubling. You’d have enough cash in the market now to more than pay your house note and would be sitting on - 2.5%-3% rate.

You lost millions in net worth. But at least you can brag about being debt free!

[Anonymous]

$2.9m mortgage,
Interest rate 5.5%

Home valued at $4.6m

No other debt.
Ages 45 and 57.

[Anonymous]

We have about 300k left on mortgage, and a small amount in student loans (20ishk) we could repay but there is no rush.

[Anonymous]

Mid-30s, $480k on mortgage SFH in Arlington worth about $1M. No other debt, pay for cars in cash, paid off one set of grad school loans and the other spouse was paid for by employer. Undergrad paid for by parents so a lot of privilege there.

[Anonymous]

$140K on mortgage. I hate debt but am keeping it since interest rates are so high now. However, the same day rates drop below 4%, I'm writing a check to pay it off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do people have such low mortgage balances in the DC area? Are the people responding people who have owned their homes 20+ years?

I think this thread is getting more responses from people pleased with their lack of debt.

Like me! Zero. Paid off mortgage on $1m property by age 35, paid off $75k student loans by age 27.

I value a debt-minimal life because it allows us to be able to afford private school comfortably on a 250k HHI, as well as decent travel a few times per year. We pay cash for vehicles.

Nothing to be proud of. You poured money into an illiquid vehicle that was likely to appreciate anyway and you could take out extremely cheap debt to cover, missing out on putting all that extra free cash flow into the stock market, which has had a massively historic run up, nearly doubling. You’d have enough cash in the market now to more than pay your house note and would be sitting on - 2.5%-3% rate.

You lost millions in net worth. But at least you can brag about being debt free!

Also get to avoid the risk of retirement and all that boredom!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do people have such low mortgage balances in the DC area? Are the people responding people who have owned their homes 20+ years?

I think this thread is getting more responses from people pleased with their lack of debt.

Like me! Zero. Paid off mortgage on $1m property by age 35, paid off $75k student loans by age 27.

I value a debt-minimal life because it allows us to be able to afford private school comfortably on a 250k HHI, as well as decent travel a few times per year. We pay cash for vehicles.

Nothing to be proud of. You poured money into an illiquid vehicle that was likely to appreciate anyway and you could take out extremely cheap debt to cover, missing out on putting all that extra free cash flow into the stock market, which has had a massively historic run up, nearly doubling. You’d have enough cash in the market now to more than pay your house note and would be sitting on - 2.5%-3% rate.

You lost millions in net worth. But at least you can brag about being debt free!

Also get to avoid the risk of retirement and all that boredom!

Right, lord knows it’s better to retire with a lower net worth and no mortgage than to have a higher net worth and a mortgage…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do people have such low mortgage balances in the DC area? Are the people responding people who have owned their homes 20+ years?

I think this thread is getting more responses from people pleased with their lack of debt.

Like me! Zero. Paid off mortgage on $1m property by age 35, paid off $75k student loans by age 27.

I value a debt-minimal life because it allows us to be able to afford private school comfortably on a 250k HHI, as well as decent travel a few times per year. We pay cash for vehicles.

Nothing to be proud of. You poured money into an illiquid vehicle that was likely to appreciate anyway and you could take out extremely cheap debt to cover, missing out on putting all that extra free cash flow into the stock market, which has had a massively historic run up, nearly doubling. You’d have enough cash in the market now to more than pay your house note and would be sitting on - 2.5%-3% rate.

You lost millions in net worth. But at least you can brag about being debt free!

Also get to avoid the risk of retirement and all that boredom!

lol

this comes up every week. Rarely does it ever make sense financially to pay off your mortgage. For middle class investors with a low net worth, sure, go for it follow Dave Ramsey.

For investors, keep your leverage. I would much rather have 15M net worth with 2M in mortgages and 13M in liquid investments then 3-5M net worth and no debt. You do you but over long periods of time the compounding can be the difference of many millions

[Anonymous]

$330K mortgage (2.75%) on house worth 1.5 mil. No other debt.
Savings low as we paid off my med school loans and my DH school loans.
51 years and 52 years old.