Here are my stats:
43yoF - working full time making $140K
$900K in stocks, mutual funds, IRAs - on average earn about 10% return per year
No debt other than mortgage- owe $180K on house worth $600K
Mortgage rate is 2% (it is a 30 yr 5:1 arm in year 10)- has been low for years
My goal is to stop working a corporate bullish*t job (although I work from home barely 20 hrs a week and get paid for full time with excellent benefits) and find something to do that I love.
What would you do?
Thanks in advance
The math suggests you keep paying the minimum until the rate gets a big higher, but given you are considering going into a lower paying job that you love, it may be easier to just pay it off and cut your living expenses way down.
The situation I'm thinking is you find a new job that you enjoy that pays you $55k, and you can no longer stay cash flow positive each month between living expenses and the housing payment (even though the rate is tiny). In this case, you basically have to sell off some investments each month to fund the mortgage... not a good trade off.
If, however, you can stay cash flow positive with a lower paycheck, then as long as the rate doesn't start creeping up too high (maybe 4.5%?), it may be worthwhile to keep paying the minimum.