Author Topic: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?  (Read 44096 times)

jengod

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According to Dave Ramsey, the average millionaire pays off their house in 10.2 years.

Ours was two months shy of 11 years. We had some savings already and got a windfall from some stock options.

Curious about other journeys and practices amongst those who do choose to pay off the mortgage “early.”

frizzywhiskers

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #1 on: September 09, 2018, 01:21:50 PM »
Paid ours off in 4 years 11 months, the goal was within our 5 year term.  Best...decision.....ever!

Silverado

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #2 on: September 09, 2018, 01:27:54 PM »
Ten years, but that includes starting over twice with corporate moves and selling at a loss. We rolled over the equity each time. I suspect we will have another move in the next year or so. Not sure what we will do. Hopefully get a cheaper house and be able to go mortgage free and have some lump sum to put in our taxable account (VTSAX is the only thing we buy in taxable, though we have three other legacy positions.)

markbike528CBX

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #3 on: September 09, 2018, 01:31:52 PM »
5.5 years,
significant help from stache withdrawals to the tune of 55%
20% down
25%  in dec 2013
10% final payoff jan2018 -  because we were 10% higher than our "enough" number and 30% above our 4percent plump-FIRE stache.

May2030

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #4 on: September 09, 2018, 02:02:57 PM »
14 years, not a millionaire. Lost a year to a bad mortgage deal and extended for a new kitchen.

House prices have more than doubled but wages have stagnated since I bought so feel lucky.

SwordGuy

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #5 on: September 09, 2018, 03:16:38 PM »
We paid off our old house in about 10 years.   Towards the end we had paid off all other debts and cut our expenses way down, so we were making from 2 to 3 payments per month.   A mortgage balance melts away pretty quickly doing that!

We were expecting to pay off our new house within 2 to 3 years, but the 2.75% fixed rate is so very good that we're investing the money from the old house sale instead.    @boarder42 convinced us it made more sense to go the full 15 year term of our mortgage this time around.

YK-Phil

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #6 on: September 09, 2018, 03:26:37 PM »
Our mortgage was paid off 7 years after purchase in 2000, but not because we were frugal, just because I got a severance payment after been fired without cause. Although I always had great jobs and earned a 6-digit income, I was a typical clown and spent without thinking. I think getting fired was the best thing that happened to me. We sold the house in 2010 for more than double what we paid.

rab-bit

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #7 on: September 09, 2018, 04:09:13 PM »
It took us about 9 years to pay off our house. We finished paying it off in 2008 just as the financial crisis was unfolding, and that gave us a great sense of security when it seemed like the world was ending.
« Last Edit: September 09, 2018, 04:11:40 PM by rab-bit »

Freedomin5

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #8 on: September 09, 2018, 06:12:16 PM »
Seven years. We could have paid it off in less than five years, but with a 3.25% interest rate during the first 5-year term, and a 2.85% interest rate on the next 2-year term, it made sense to drag it out as long as possible.

kanga1622

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #9 on: September 10, 2018, 01:20:59 PM »
We are on track to pay it off in 12 years (next spring). We aren't very high income so that slowed us down but we also cash flowed a low budget kitchen remodel, new gutters, hardwood floors on the main floor, and a total gut of the basement due to water infiltration (which then included new water heater and a bathroom remodel).

Thankfully the house is worth more than we've put into it so we should come out ahead if we ever need to sell. Lots of new construction around us so this would be a great rental property too.

boarder42

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #10 on: September 10, 2018, 02:04:17 PM »
Currently working on 30 years bc it's free money. Our mortgage is at inflation. Being ok with mortgage debt will make you a millionaire faster and keep your millions growing and around longer. Use the gift the govt is giving you if you're in the US.

dreadmoose

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #11 on: September 10, 2018, 03:01:07 PM »
Shooting for 30 years before paying it off.

With my current rate of 2.5% I'd be a fool to pay it down rather than investing. I took a 5 year fixed term so that could change once renewal is up, but anything below 6% I'll be staying leveraged until I can at least wipe it out in one shot. Tying up that liquidity increases risk too much for my liking (due to a high paying but unstable job).

moof

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #12 on: September 10, 2018, 03:02:49 PM »
Currently working on 30 years bc it's free money. Our mortgage is at inflation. Being ok with mortgage debt will make you a millionaire faster and keep your millions growing and around longer. Use the gift the govt is giving you if you're in the US.
+1.  12 years into ours so far, 12.5 left on a 15 year refi at 3%.  We hedged against a full 30 year refi.  Instead we are shoving >70k into the stache this year, and should be closer to 100k next year.

boarder42

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #13 on: September 10, 2018, 03:03:51 PM »
Shooting for 30 years before paying it off.

With my current rate of 2.5% I'd be a fool to pay it down rather than investing. I took a 5 year fixed term so that could change once renewal is up, but anything below 6% I'll be staying leveraged until I can at least wipe it out in one shot. Tying up that liquidity increases risk too much for my liking (due to a high paying but unstable job).

This reason should be in bold and all caps bc so many people incorrectly choose to pay down their mortgage for the same reason not realizing how terrible it is.

marty998

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #14 on: September 10, 2018, 03:07:09 PM »
5 years for me. Apartment has also gone up in value 70% in the 8 years I've had it now.

Don't regret it, worth doing for the piece of mind and won't delay my FIRE plans by a considerable amount.

Average interest rate was 5.5-6% so there was that consideration too...

tct

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #15 on: September 10, 2018, 10:46:23 PM »
About 6-8 months or about the same time it took me to build it.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #16 on: September 11, 2018, 02:52:39 AM »
When we bought our first house in year 2000, we started with a 30 year mortgage, which we paid off in 5,5 years. The interest on that mortgage was very high 7,5 - 8%.
Our next house was bought in 2015 for cash.
« Last Edit: September 11, 2018, 02:54:52 AM by Linda_Norway »

Cranky

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #17 on: September 11, 2018, 04:59:29 AM »
Hmmm. We bought this house in '95, with a 7 year balloon payment mortgage, which was the cheapest interest rate we could find at the time. When the balloon came up we refinanced with a 20 year conventional and then paid that off in about 7 years, as our income increased.

Car Jack

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #18 on: September 11, 2018, 07:19:12 AM »
We bought our first house in 1985.  I was sent to grad school by my company (all expenses paid) in 1988.  We rented that house and bought one in the school's town.  Sold in 1990 at about break even in the school town and moved back to the first house.  Upgraded with the crash of the economy in 1992 with a bigger mortgage.  Paid off in 2002.  So 17 years altogether.  When we paid off the mortgage, we had already paid all other debts, so had the cars paid and student loans paid.

Had we stayed in our original house, it probably would have been paid off around 1995 or so (10 years).

Keep in mind that these houses were bought back in times when rates were way higher than today.  Our first mortgage was a 15 year, 1 year adjustable starting at 13.8%.  The rate could change only 1% a year either way.  It went down every year we carried the mortgage.
« Last Edit: September 11, 2018, 07:20:57 AM by Car Jack »

Clean Shaven

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #19 on: September 11, 2018, 07:54:44 AM »
50% down, prepaid a ton each year with year end bonuses, done in 3.5 years.

It was a 30-year fixed at 3.25%. No regrets.

Semi-fired earlier this year (down to 2-3 half days per week, still have full benefits), and having a paid off house was a definite part of that.

boarder42

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #20 on: September 11, 2018, 07:56:16 AM »
We bought our first house in 1985.  I was sent to grad school by my company (all expenses paid) in 1988.  We rented that house and bought one in the school's town.  Sold in 1990 at about break even in the school town and moved back to the first house.  Upgraded with the crash of the economy in 1992 with a bigger mortgage.  Paid off in 2002.  So 17 years altogether.  When we paid off the mortgage, we had already paid all other debts, so had the cars paid and student loans paid.

Had we stayed in our original house, it probably would have been paid off around 1995 or so (10 years).

Keep in mind that these houses were bought back in times when rates were way higher than today.  Our first mortgage was a 15 year, 1 year adjustable starting at 13.8%.  The rate could change only 1% a year either way.  It went down every year we carried the mortgage.


And this is the reason this is a terrible question to ask today.  Those who currently have paid off homes likely made the correct math decision at the time of paydown due to the rate environment.  In today's rate environment I think many would be making different decisions so  the question here leads to a self full filling proficy type of an answer. 

The question you should be asking OP is why pay down your mortgage at all. 

boarder42

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #21 on: September 11, 2018, 07:57:26 AM »
50% down, prepaid a ton each year with year end bonuses, done in 3.5 years.

It was a 30-year fixed at 3.25%. No regrets.

Semi-fired earlier this year (down to 2-3 half days per week, still have full benefits), and having a paid off house was a definite part of that.

not paying off your house could have you working 0 days based on that rate and the time frame of the paydown you likely missed large market gains in favor of dumping it into your house. 

Fishindude

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #22 on: September 11, 2018, 08:00:01 AM »
Had a 15 year loan on the house / farm and paid it off in about ten.   No more borrowing for me, I don't care if you can get loans for 1.5% it's still debt and monthly payments.

boarder42

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #23 on: September 11, 2018, 08:06:29 AM »
Had a 15 year loan on the house / farm and paid it off in about ten.   No more borrowing for me, I don't care if you can get loans for 1.5% it's still debt and monthly payments.

hahaha seriously if you could get a fixed not callable loan for 1.5% you wouldnt do it - this is just dumb.  This site would just be about getting these loans and quitting your job if these were available out there.  get 10MM in loans a 1.5% and invest it in VTSAX and retire -- some things make sense this statement does not.

i dont care if you give me free money i wouldnt take it thats basically what this statement is. its actually negative interest with regards to inflation - its better than free money.

Clean Shaven

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #24 on: September 11, 2018, 08:18:21 AM »


50% down, prepaid a ton each year with year end bonuses, done in 3.5 years.

It was a 30-year fixed at 3.25%. No regrets.

Semi-fired earlier this year (down to 2-3 half days per week, still have full benefits), and having a paid off house was a definite part of that.

not paying off your house could have you working 0 days based on that rate and the time frame of the paydown you likely missed large market gains in favor of dumping it into your house.

Your views on mortgage prepayment are very clear, as you bring it up every time mortgages are discussed.  Others may well have different views.

I'm not working because I need the money.  It's a partial step into fire and a partial hedge against SORR. This is not the point of this thread though.

redhead84

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #25 on: September 11, 2018, 10:47:28 AM »
Our last mortgage payment came out this month. Wahoo!

Paid the 15 year mortgage in 9 years 2 months. We definitely aren't Ramsey followers because we maxed our tax-deferred savings and accumulated after-tax savings (1+million invested) during this time as well.

DH is very goal oriented. He wanted to be mortgage free by a certain age, and we beat that date by 6 months. We are high income earners who live in a fairly entry-level house in MCOL city so the sacrifice in the money going to investments was fairly minimal to achieve this goal, and our house is less than 20% of our overall net worth.

Fishindude

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #26 on: September 11, 2018, 12:20:24 PM »
Had a 15 year loan on the house / farm and paid it off in about ten.   No more borrowing for me, I don't care if you can get loans for 1.5% it's still debt and monthly payments.

hahaha seriously if you could get a fixed not callable loan for 1.5% you wouldnt do it - this is just dumb.  This site would just be about getting these loans and quitting your job if these were available out there.  get 10MM in loans a 1.5% and invest it in VTSAX and retire -- some things make sense this statement does not.

i dont care if you give me free money i wouldnt take it thats basically what this statement is. its actually negative interest with regards to inflation - its better than free money.

Enjoy making those payments and keeping the bankers fat & sassy if that's what you want to do.
No need to explain the investing your money vs paying off the mortgage thing, that's been beaten to death.
The average mortgage payment in America is something like $1,029.   I can think of a whole lot more fun things I'd rather do than give $1,029 to my banker each month.




boarder42

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #27 on: September 11, 2018, 12:36:15 PM »
Had a 15 year loan on the house / farm and paid it off in about ten.   No more borrowing for me, I don't care if you can get loans for 1.5% it's still debt and monthly payments.

hahaha seriously if you could get a fixed not callable loan for 1.5% you wouldnt do it - this is just dumb.  This site would just be about getting these loans and quitting your job if these were available out there.  get 10MM in loans a 1.5% and invest it in VTSAX and retire -- some things make sense this statement does not.

i dont care if you give me free money i wouldnt take it thats basically what this statement is. its actually negative interest with regards to inflation - its better than free money.

Enjoy making those payments and keeping the bankers fat & sassy if that's what you want to do.
No need to explain the investing your money vs paying off the mortgage thing, that's been beaten to death.
The average mortgage payment in America is something like $1,029.   I can think of a whole lot more fun things I'd rather do than give $1,029 to my banker each month.

The bolded part should read " avoid presenting the facts that make the ridiculous statement i'm about to make extremely ridiculous."  This is one of the worst statements in favor of paying down a mortgage its like you dont even try to understand math.

also you took the least logical and the longest path to get to not paying your banker each month by paying down your house so in eliminating your payment you actually prolonged your time of making the payment in over 99% of paydown scenarios. congrats on prolonging your misery!
« Last Edit: September 11, 2018, 12:38:25 PM by boarder42 »

PizzaSteve

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #28 on: September 11, 2018, 12:51:22 PM »
Held morgage about 16 years in our current home.  Could have paid it earlier but rates were below 3% for many of the last 6 years.  My experience suggests a mix of uncertain, but higher expected return stocks and lower but guaranteed return debt repayment was a reasonable strategy for our wealth building plan.  The total wealth outcome difference between continuing the morgage or paying it off becomes negligible as the total equity assets grew to mutiples of the remaining morgage balance, which will likely occur for those patient enough.

Good luck building wealth via equity or debt payment ya'all.

[edited:  a bit of explaining.  whatever motivates you to save is good.  Some are motivated by high returns and growing their stash, others by reducing debt and increasing home equity. Both are fine as it is the motivation to save that really matters.  A few points of return are less important to life and wealth building success than that you stick with your plan..  In the long run, it is unlikely to matter all that much.  Savers will end up with plenty of money and flexibility for their life.
« Last Edit: September 11, 2018, 02:40:23 PM by PizzaSteve »

techwiz

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #29 on: September 11, 2018, 02:14:27 PM »
Paid off in about 7 years.
Bought in 2000 with 25% down to avoid paying insurance fee or 2%.  Signed a 5 year fixed rate in the 8% range that allow extra repayment of 20% each year. We made extra capital payments since I saw that the first years of the mortgage most of the payments would be just paying interest. We switched to a flexible rate after 5 years and paid it off two years later. 

Some of the factors that made us go the route of paying it off:
-Didn't like the fact we owed the bank money (felt like we didn't really own our home)
-The statement we got from the mortgage company in the mail had a table showing the breakdown of interest and capital. This made it black and white where our payment was going and provided great feedback on our progress. Our first goal was to get the mortgage down to the point that 50% of our payments where going against the capital.
-We saw that every extra payment on the mortgage as a guaranteed 8% investment return (I had gotten burned on some investments by the dot com bubble so this was a no brainer)
-Both my wife and my income were increasing and we had money to pay down the debt. We didn't have a FIRE plan and I hadn't heard about MMM or index investing. 

boarder42

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #30 on: September 11, 2018, 02:23:18 PM »
Paid off in about 7 years.
Bought in 2000 with 25% down to avoid paying insurance fee or 2%.  Signed a 5 year fixed rate in the 8% range that allow extra repayment of 20% each year. We made extra capital payments since I saw that the first years of the mortgage most of the payments would be just paying interest. We switched to a flexible rate after 5 years and paid it off two years later. 

Some of the factors that made us go the route of paying it off:
-Didn't like the fact we owed the bank money (felt like we didn't really own our home)
-The statement we got from the mortgage company in the mail had a table showing the breakdown of interest and capital. This made it black and white where our payment was going and provided great feedback on our progress. Our first goal was to get the mortgage down to the point that 50% of our payments where going against the capital.
-We saw that every extra payment on the mortgage as a guaranteed 8% investment return (I had gotten burned on some investments by the dot com bubble so this was a no brainer)
-Both my wife and my income were increasing and we had money to pay down the debt. We didn't have a FIRE plan and I hadn't heard about MMM or index investing.

yeah i'd pay down an 8% loan now too. but i'd have remortgaged when the rates started bottoming.

texxan1

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #31 on: September 11, 2018, 02:25:54 PM »
2.7 years for me, but simply because of things going my way with job scope and being married at the time.... if not for that, I was on a 10 year plan

Linea_Norway

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #32 on: September 12, 2018, 01:36:53 AM »
yeah i'd pay down an 8% loan now too. but i'd have remortgaged when the rates started bottoming.

I would get pretty nervous when the stock market goes down. It is one thing if it does so with your savings in it. But I wouldn't like to see it go down with a mortgage on my house in it. But that is perhaps because I don't sleep well in that case. My future (FIRE) solution is to live in a much cheaper house, so that I have more mortgage-free saving to invest.

swannyboy

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #33 on: September 12, 2018, 10:31:22 AM »
I bought a duplex in 2001 on a 15 year mortgage and rented out one side for the mortgage payment.  I paid it off fully in 12 years.  At the time I was thinking I had beat the system by living rent free, but if I had been smarter I would have doubled those payments and paid it off faster. 

FoundPeace

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #34 on: September 12, 2018, 02:57:06 PM »
Congrats to all of you paying off your mortgages early! But, I have to say I'm with boarder42 on this one--with current mortgage rates so close to inflation, it doesn't make mathematical sense to pay off a mortgage early.

I'm about 30 years out on my new house at 4.3% after 20% down to avoid mortgage insurance. If I had put everything into this house that I made by selling my previous one (after 2.5 years of ownership... I got crazy lucky on that one), I would be at 90% and would be about 6 months away from no mortgage. So far my investments that I could have used for paying down my mortgage are making around 4x the interest I'm paying on my mortgage on any given month. Maybe I'll pay off my mortgage at some point, but for now I would much rather have all the free  money my investments are making for me.

Turkey Leg

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #35 on: September 12, 2018, 03:56:15 PM »
How long? Still paying, and there’s no way I’m paying it off early.

dandarc

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #36 on: September 12, 2018, 04:10:54 PM »
First time - very early 2010 to late 2013, so 4 years. Then we moved to a more expensive, but better located house. 2nd time - mid 2014 to mid 2017 - 3 years. 3 cheers for good income in a LCOL area!

If I had it over again, we'd have taken a 30 year mortgage the 2nd time for sure and still be paying it. Probably should refinance and invest, but that is a tougher sell than doing it right in the first place would have been. Can't even get her to successfully transfer an IRA to Vanguard, how can I possibly convince her "learned something new - we should re-mortgage the house and buy stocks?" At least the house is pretty cheap. Plus we don't actually live in the house now - we're temporarily on the west coast and renting, so I kind of just don't want to deal with it. The incoming rent would certainly cover a mortgage payment and then some, so cash out refinance still makes good sense.
« Last Edit: September 18, 2018, 10:07:21 AM by dandarc »

Silverado

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #37 on: September 14, 2018, 04:24:50 PM »
Congrats to all of you paying off your mortgages early! But, I have to say I'm with boarder42 on this one--with current mortgage rates so close to inflation, it doesn't make mathematical sense to pay off a mortgage early.

I'm about 30 years out on my new house at 4.3% after 20% down to avoid mortgage insurance. If I had put everything into this house that I made by selling my previous one (after 2.5 years of ownership... I got crazy lucky on that one), I would be at 90% and would be about 6 months away from no mortgage. So far my investments that I could have used for paying down my mortgage are making around 4x the interest I'm paying on my mortgage on any given month. Maybe I'll pay off my mortgage at some point, but for now I would much rather have all the free  money my investments are making for me.

Why did you put anything down? That was money you could have invested. What is PMI, 0.5% or something? Clean Shaven has it right, you folks should not talk in such absolutes.

Unrelated to the actual math and purely psychological, it has been fun the last 18months or so to see the old mortgage payment go into VTSAX. It coincided with a move to Vanguard for our taxable, so we started at zero (old taxable at TRP has monster capital gains that we aren't willing to mess with.) Seeing the curve go up instead of down like the mortgage principle has made a nice picture.



FoundPeace

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #38 on: September 15, 2018, 07:09:59 PM »
Why did you put anything down? That was money you could have invested. What is PMI, 0.5% or something? Clean Shaven has it right, you folks should not talk in such absolutes.

Yeah, PMI is like 0.5-1%, but it can also affect the mortgage rate. So, yes, you are right—if I were a purist, I might not put anything down. I totally understand the rationale and the psychology behind wanting to pay your house off. That psychology combined with PMI, and wanting to hedge my bets a bit are why I put 20% down.

By no means am I trying to talk in absolutes. I’m just saying that you are kidding yourself if you say you are paying off your mortgage because the math tells you to. I’m just saying that it is best to be honest with yourself about why you are paying off your mortgage.


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jnw

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #39 on: September 16, 2018, 01:24:52 AM »
Currently working on 30 years bc it's free money. Our mortgage is at inflation. Being ok with mortgage debt will make you a millionaire faster and keep your millions growing and around longer. Use the gift the govt is giving you if you're in the US.

I was going to pay my home off in like 2 1/2 years (owe $55k on it at 4.65%), but instead, I am thinking of putting $1800 per month into roth retirement and long term capital investments for the next couple of years first.  It would serve as a very large backup emergency fund to my $5k cash emergency fund.. then after two years I could start paying off the home say over 5 year period, while still contributing say $1000 per month between Solo Roth 401k + Roth IRA.
« Last Edit: September 16, 2018, 01:28:22 AM by JenniferW »

BTDretire

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #40 on: September 16, 2018, 04:20:38 PM »
I think it was our 4th home before we were mortgage free, but I did have mortgages on a few rentals.
We had the 4th home built and just paid as it was built.
Our 5th and last home we moved to Fl. sold all the rentals,
and paid cash for the home, that was 24 years ago.

SunnyDays

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #41 on: September 17, 2018, 06:05:33 PM »
2 years, 5 months, back in 1994.  My house was worth about 1/4 what it is now, and I had a down payment of about 2/3 of the price paid.  Interest rates were about 6% then and I made regular bi-weekly payments with extra payments on the alternate weeks.  So glad I did this, because it freed up a lot of money, not to mention the peace of mind.

Teachstache

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #42 on: September 17, 2018, 06:15:03 PM »
We bought in late July 2012 with a 20% down payment, and we paid it off in early December 2017. So that was 5.5 years. We also paid off spouse's student loan & paid cash for 2 used cars in that time. We also had a kid 3.5 years ago. We don't plan on going anywhere.

markbike528CBX

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #43 on: September 17, 2018, 09:50:00 PM »
2 years, 5 months, back in 1994.  My house was worth about 1/4 what it is now, and I had a down payment of about 2/3 of the price paid.  Interest rates were about 6% then and I made regular bi-weekly payments with extra payments on the alternate weeks.  So glad I did this, because it freed up a lot of money, not to mention the peace of mind.

It is good that the interest rate was 6% or you might incur the righteous wrath of boarder42.

401Killer

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #44 on: September 18, 2018, 08:51:05 AM »
Bought it in 2001 sometime when I was 20, $128k financed. First 12 years I wore it down to $76k principle. Then, MMM and the focus happened. While still maxing out my 401k I killed $82,873 in total payments in a little over 4 years after FINALLY being able to refinance.

Little over a year without a payment now and I don't know how I would survive with one! haha. Recently upped my savings rate to over 30% income well past 401K max.

boarder42

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #45 on: September 18, 2018, 09:39:45 AM »
2 years, 5 months, back in 1994.  My house was worth about 1/4 what it is now, and I had a down payment of about 2/3 of the price paid.  Interest rates were about 6% then and I made regular bi-weekly payments with extra payments on the alternate weeks.  So glad I did this, because it freed up a lot of money, not to mention the peace of mind.

It is good that the interest rate was 6% or you might incur the righteous wrath of boarder42.

even paying down 6% back at the time mortgage interest was deductible was probably a poor decision here.  you're effectively at a 4% rate if you're in the 25% bracket with the avg state income tax in the US. Math's hard.

and you can poke fun all you want this site is partially about understanding money and finance better to retire earlier.  This is one of the more difficult concepts to grasp and should be shouted much louder than i do.

SunnyDays

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #46 on: September 18, 2018, 02:00:56 PM »
2 years, 5 months, back in 1994.  My house was worth about 1/4 what it is now, and I had a down payment of about 2/3 of the price paid.  Interest rates were about 6% then and I made regular bi-weekly payments with extra payments on the alternate weeks.  So glad I did this, because it freed up a lot of money, not to mention the peace of mind.

It is good that the interest rate was 6% or you might incur the righteous wrath of boarder42.

even paying down 6% back at the time mortgage interest was deductible was probably a poor decision here.  you're effectively at a 4% rate if you're in the 25% bracket with the avg state income tax in the US. Math's hard.

and you can poke fun all you want this site is partially about understanding money and finance better to retire earlier.  This is one of the more difficult concepts to grasp and should be shouted much louder than i do.

Maybe you have a point, but I believe that a few years later, rates were up around the 12% mark.  I still have no regrets, but I might not do the same today.

boarder42

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #47 on: September 18, 2018, 02:06:47 PM »
2 years, 5 months, back in 1994.  My house was worth about 1/4 what it is now, and I had a down payment of about 2/3 of the price paid.  Interest rates were about 6% then and I made regular bi-weekly payments with extra payments on the alternate weeks.  So glad I did this, because it freed up a lot of money, not to mention the peace of mind.

It is good that the interest rate was 6% or you might incur the righteous wrath of boarder42.

even paying down 6% back at the time mortgage interest was deductible was probably a poor decision here.  you're effectively at a 4% rate if you're in the 25% bracket with the avg state income tax in the US. Math's hard.

and you can poke fun all you want this site is partially about understanding money and finance better to retire earlier.  This is one of the more difficult concepts to grasp and should be shouted much louder than i do.

Maybe you have a point, but I believe that a few years later, rates were up around the 12% mark.  I still have no regrets, but I might not do the same today.

if mortgage rates were at 12% a few years later it makes the decision even worse since bonds and savings accounts were likely pumping out greater than the 6% that was paid down.  its counterintuitive and you did it at a different time than we live in now where you can go read a financial blog/forum and learn to retire at 30 - and in that climate and today's climate for interest rates its a huge deterent to FIRE to pay down a mortgage thats at a low fixed rate.

its why i really dont appreciate this post by the OP at all you're getting responses from a different time and people who may be in different countries with different rate environments.  Its just looking for confirmation something is good ... like walking into a dog fighting forum and asking what the best dog is to get to start fighting with and win the most - vs asking should i even be fighting dogs in first place?

jengod

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #48 on: September 18, 2018, 04:35:55 PM »
2 years, 5 months, back in 1994.  My house was worth about 1/4 what it is now, and I had a down payment of about 2/3 of the price paid.  Interest rates were about 6% then and I made regular bi-weekly payments with extra payments on the alternate weeks.  So glad I did this, because it freed up a lot of money, not to mention the peace of mind.

It is good that the interest rate was 6% or you might incur the righteous wrath of boarder42.

even paying down 6% back at the time mortgage interest was deductible was probably a poor decision here.  you're effectively at a 4% rate if you're in the 25% bracket with the avg state income tax in the US. Math's hard.

and you can poke fun all you want this site is partially about understanding money and finance better to retire earlier.  This is one of the more difficult concepts to grasp and should be shouted much louder than i do.

Maybe you have a point, but I believe that a few years later, rates were up around the 12% mark.  I still have no regrets, but I might not do the same today.

if mortgage rates were at 12% a few years later it makes the decision even worse since bonds and savings accounts were likely pumping out greater than the 6% that was paid down.  its counterintuitive and you did it at a different time than we live in now where you can go read a financial blog/forum and learn to retire at 30 - and in that climate and today's climate for interest rates its a huge deterent to FIRE to pay down a mortgage thats at a low fixed rate.

its why i really dont appreciate this post by the OP at all you're getting responses from a different time and people who may be in different countries with different rate environments.  Its just looking for confirmation something is good ... like walking into a dog fighting forum and asking what the best dog is to get to start fighting with and win the most - vs asking should i even be fighting dogs in first place?

This thread is meant to be a place for people who have already made this decision and feel good about it to share their circumstances and their motivations. If you feel strongly about keeping a mortgage and investing the money, by all means do that, but another family's different choice about the financial structure of their home ownership has no effect on you, either negative or positive.

boarder42

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Re: Paid-off mortgage people: How long did it take you to pay off the house?
« Reply #49 on: September 18, 2018, 06:25:56 PM »
2 years, 5 months, back in 1994.  My house was worth about 1/4 what it is now, and I had a down payment of about 2/3 of the price paid.  Interest rates were about 6% then and I made regular bi-weekly payments with extra payments on the alternate weeks.  So glad I did this, because it freed up a lot of money, not to mention the peace of mind.

It is good that the interest rate was 6% or you might incur the righteous wrath of boarder42.

even paying down 6% back at the time mortgage interest was deductible was probably a poor decision here.  you're effectively at a 4% rate if you're in the 25% bracket with the avg state income tax in the US. Math's hard.

and you can poke fun all you want this site is partially about understanding money and finance better to retire earlier.  This is one of the more difficult concepts to grasp and should be shouted much louder than i do.

Maybe you have a point, but I believe that a few years later, rates were up around the 12% mark.  I still have no regrets, but I might not do the same today.

if mortgage rates were at 12% a few years later it makes the decision even worse since bonds and savings accounts were likely pumping out greater than the 6% that was paid down.  its counterintuitive and you did it at a different time than we live in now where you can go read a financial blog/forum and learn to retire at 30 - and in that climate and today's climate for interest rates its a huge deterent to FIRE to pay down a mortgage thats at a low fixed rate.

its why i really dont appreciate this post by the OP at all you're getting responses from a different time and people who may be in different countries with different rate environments.  Its just looking for confirmation something is good ... like walking into a dog fighting forum and asking what the best dog is to get to start fighting with and win the most - vs asking should i even be fighting dogs in first place?

This thread is meant to be a place for people who have already made this decision and feel good about it to share their circumstances and their motivations. If you feel strongly about keeping a mortgage and investing the money, by all means do that, but another family's different choice about the financial structure of their home ownership has no effect on you, either negative or positive.

It's an open forum I can post what I want where I want you can choose to read it or not your not blocking me from another thread asking the wrong question. Or promoting one of the worst things you can promote on this forum that is largely based around finances.

I can post daily about buying large trucks bc of how good it makes me feel but it would be inappropriate for this forum.

I was being extremely civil in those posts and the comparison I made holds if you're offended by it well then that's the norm for society today.

I post bc I don't want more people coming here thinking this is a good thing its like all the mainstream media marketing. Onlynits worse for your financial situation than how you spend.

 

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