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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm sure this will get me yelled at, but honest question... Why are so many folks here seemingly proud of having no debt/mortgage on a house? Given that we were in an extended low-interest period, we all had options to lock-in low-cost mortgages.

For example, our principle residence has a value around 3mm. We have a mortgage of around 1.6mm, at 2.75%. While we have plenty of assets to forego the mortgage, we have had that money at work in the market instead. We've done way, way better post-tax than the 2.75% we're paying to the bank. If anything, I wish we had levered up a bit. We have multiple other properties, and each has a loan roughly at 50% LTV.

Sure, there is a bit of risk here--the market could tumble. But over the next 20+ years, I think it a rather safe bet that we'll do better than 2.75% with our investments, even recognizing there will be multiple market cycles in there.

If anything, I'm kicking myself for not going to higher LTVs on our real estate portfolio while rates were low. [/quote]

You’re writing this from the perspective of a person living beyond their means or otherwise underinvested in the stock market to begin with. If the only way you can afford to significantly invest in the stock market is to take out a loan against your assets and invest, then you can’t possibly have a properly balanced financial portfolio. You’re taking a risk in assuming that the stock market will continue to grow at previous rates. Many people – just like you – refinanced in the 1990s at what seemed like very low rates against their suburban McMansions and then went all-in on growth stocks. The picture wasn’t pretty for these people 2000-2013. Many tried to hold out for a positive return, but were constantly being forced to sell stocks at a loss to make mortgage payments, taxes, rising insurance, and more.

Better is to have a budget that actually closes in the appropriate way. In parallel to maxing out pre-tax retirement/HSA, 529s as needed, and to incurring a monthly PITI, you should also be putting another chunk of income into a taxable brokerage account equivalent to your monthly PITI. If you can’t afford to do this, you’ve splurged on too expensive a house. [/quote]

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