- Joined
- Jul 2, 2007
- Messages
- 5,293
I'm 53. 1st house bought w/ 30 yr fixed rate (can't remember %) as newly wed 26 yr olds in 1989, sold in 1996 and remaining equity less realtor fee plus savings rolled into down payment for 2nd place in a 15 yr fixed rate mortgage. Second place paid off in 2004. 2006 bought next (3rd and current) house on a 15 yr fixed rate. Paid it off last year. It's a personal preference thing in my opinion, some people don't mind carrying whatever amount of debt they're comfortable with. I'm comfortable with as little debt as possible and once I take out a loan of any kind I tend to work aggressively to pay it off asap. If the [censored] hits the fan and need large amount of cash, having a paid off house or at least an aggressively paid down mortgage allows you to obtain that cash via home equity loan very cheaply at today's rates. I tend to roll the lack of any monthly loan payments into savings, a 457b (by being able to payroll deduct larger pre-tax amounts than I would if had debt payments to make), and an IRA. As you can tell by mention of 457b, I am also a public employee.