Author Topic: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club  (Read 889311 times)

solon

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3050 on: January 16, 2022, 07:55:09 PM »
On page one of this thread, runewell has a great formula for determining the mortgage vs invest question. A great formula, usually eye-popping in most scenarios.

The question I have is about the assumption. It assumes you have a pile of money equal to your principle balance, and you are trying to decide if you should pay off the mortgage all at once, or invest it. But that's not the situation I'm in, and I think many people are with me. I don't have a big pile of cash, I have $1,000 a month from my paycheck.

Is there a formula that helps you decide what to do with an extra $1,000 a month? Is it the same as runewell's formula, just at a smaller scope?

JJ-

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3051 on: January 16, 2022, 08:39:00 PM »
On page one of this thread, runewell has a great formula for determining the mortgage vs invest question. A great formula, usually eye-popping in most scenarios.

The question I have is about the assumption. It assumes you have a pile of money equal to your principle balance, and you are trying to decide if you should pay off the mortgage all at once, or invest it. But that's not the situation I'm in, and I think many people are with me. I don't have a big pile of cash, I have $1,000 a month from my paycheck.

Is there a formula that helps you decide what to do with an extra $1,000 a month? Is it the same as runewell's formula, just at a smaller scope?

It's slightly different, but if you keep it simple the concept is similar.

Keeping it simple, if you have a $100k mortgage, or 10x$10k mortgages, the monthly payment for the $100k will equal the sum of the 10x$10k mortgages.

What this means is for every $ of that mortgage you can run a separate analysis. You could technically run runewells formula for each monthly extra payment you make, put in an annualized sum, or honestly run an online investment calculator interest gained result vs a pay down mortgage interest saved result. That will give you the data you're looking for rather than wiping it out all at once. You'll also want to ignore any "monthly payment reduction" l, focusing on interest only, unless you factor in a recast because the main mortgage payment will not change.

Real life variations will happen for sure. For example year 1 that $12k in the market may be flat but over 10 years avg 5%. One year of prepayment knocks time off the end of that loan and you'll see that savings in 20+ years.

The important thing to remember though is that that whole mortgage balance is the sum of a bunch of tiny chunks of money that can be assessed at the same rate (in most cases) as the parent mortgage.

getsorted

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3052 on: January 17, 2022, 01:21:51 PM »

It can't be much money on such a small loan.  I'd however try and get passed PMI.  You never know when you'd like to sell and having a bit more equity could help.

Unless I'm reading my statement breakdown wrong, it's $31 a month.

I don't plan on ever selling this house. If I did want to move, I'd rent it out before selling -- it's in a great rental market (near a large hospital and a college) and I could easily get almost twice the mortgage payment in rent. I think I may be firmly in the DPOYM club now.

Viking Thor

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3053 on: January 17, 2022, 02:44:18 PM »

It can't be much money on such a small loan.  I'd however try and get passed PMI.  You never know when you'd like to sell and having a bit more equity could help.

Unless I'm reading my statement breakdown wrong, it's $31 a month.

I don't plan on ever selling this house. If I did want to move, I'd rent it out before selling -- it's in a great rental market (near a large hospital and a college) and I could easily get almost twice the mortgage payment in rent. I think I may be firmly in the DPOYM club now.

Its probably a good deal to get rid of PMI, hard to know for sure without knowing all the details. You save on the PMI and on the mortgage interest if you pay a little extra to get the necessary loan to value to remove PMI.

Its at least worth looking up with the bank how to get rid of it which differs accordingly to your loan/bank rules. Sometimes you can get rid of it with an appraisal above a certain amount.

Once you know the rules you could do a calculation of how much you would save versus the cost and effort involved.

feelingroovy

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3054 on: January 17, 2022, 09:59:39 PM »
I'm going to just ask an ignorant question-- is it worth paying extra on the mortgage if you have PMI?

I bought a house in 2020 for $70k (heck yes Missouri prices) at 2.95% on a fixed-rate 30-year mortgage. I only put about $2000 down. How do I math it to figure out if it's worth paying extra to get PMI removed?

Do you have any idea if the house has appreciated?

We also bought a house with PMI in 2020. I was able to get the PMI removed last month with a reappraisal. It should pay off in a year.

We needed it to go up 12%. The appraisal came back 27% increase over what we paid for it. To be fair, we have already put on a new roof and did some updating of a bathroom.

But maybe check your neighborhood sales and Zestimate.

Dicey

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3055 on: January 17, 2022, 11:56:56 PM »
I'm going to just ask an ignorant question-- is it worth paying extra on the mortgage if you have PMI?

I bought a house in 2020 for $70k (heck yes Missouri prices) at 2.95% on a fixed-rate 30-year mortgage. I only put about $2000 down. How do I math it to figure out if it's worth paying extra to get PMI removed?

Do you have any idea if the house has appreciated?

We also bought a house with PMI in 2020. I was able to get the PMI removed last month with a reappraisal. It should pay off in a year.

We needed it to go up 12%. The appraisal came back 27% increase over what we paid for it. To be fair, we have already put on a new roof and did some updating of a bathroom.

But maybe check your neighborhood sales and Zestimate.
How much did the appraisal cost?

OP, at $31/month, I'd be tempted to just let the PMI ride for a while.

feelingroovy

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3056 on: January 18, 2022, 02:33:14 PM »
Our appraisal was $495. Our PMI was a little higher so we had a 12 month payback. It's worth it if you're confident it will appraise high enough.

getsorted

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3057 on: January 18, 2022, 02:59:04 PM »

Do you have any idea if the house has appreciated?

We also bought a house with PMI in 2020. I was able to get the PMI removed last month with a reappraisal. It should pay off in a year.


I checked with the lender, but they will only use the original loan amount to calculate PMI, not the appraisal value. The idea being that an appraisal is a purely theoretical value until a valuation event (the sale) occurs. However, they were more than happy to issue me a HELOC nine months after the sale based on the appraisal value.

As to Zillow, it's interesting - the Zestimate when I bought in October 2020 was the same as the appraisal value and asking price -- $90,000. After the house sold to me for $70,000 (surprising everyone), the Zestimate dropped to $74,000 and climbed over the last year to $87,500. It's difficult to say what it would really sell for. The nearly identical houses around me have much higher Zestimates.

I plan to own this house forever, either as my home or a rental property.

couponvan

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3058 on: January 18, 2022, 03:24:36 PM »
Could you use the HELOC to pay down the original PMI balance. (Assuming the math works.) I.e if you only need $5K and it’s 5%, then the interest payment of $21/month is less than the PMI cost.

sonofsven

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3059 on: January 18, 2022, 04:10:43 PM »
It might be too low a balance, but have you thought about a re fi?
Online is easy.
I got a message from Lender Fi that claimed they are closing in eight days.

NorthernIkigai

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3060 on: January 19, 2022, 04:54:33 AM »
So I've just finished reading this whole thread and found it very useful, thanks y'all! I was already familiar with the general argument in favour of keeping a mortgage, but there was a lot of nuance and detail in here that was new to me, and it's also fascinating to see how mortgages work in different places.

I guess I belong in this club, having only paid the agreed monthly payment since spring 2014. When we first took it out, it felt awful to be in debt, although the amount was less than half the value of the home we bought. I was torn between "a mortgage is almost free money, we should stretch this out" and "we need to pay off this horrible thing as soon as possible". So I figured if I can't decide between these two courses of action, just paying the agreed amount is probably the best... And as soon as the amount dropped into five figures, it didn't feel horrible at all anymore.

Mortgages here are almost always variable rate, with a specific base rate (in our case the 6 month Euribor) + an agreed margin for the bank. This means that the rate changes every 6 months, but it's not something that's up to the bank. We pay the same amount every month, and if the rate goes up, the loan takes longer to pay (and if it goes down, the loan term gets shorter). So with this setup, banks wouldn't usually lend you money for 30 years, since the loan term has to be able to expand if rates go up. I think banks also don't really consider pensioners to be able to handle mortgage payments, so they'll only give you loans that end by the theoretical (very high, nowadays) national retirement age.

When we first took out the loan, the base rate was just above 0.4% and the bank's margin 1%. Since then, the base rate has dropped somewhere below -0.5%, and we've twice renegotiated the margin, first to 0.65% and then to 0.45% (I think the first of this was free and the second cost a few hundred euros). Since contracts currently include a clause that the bank will not pay the customer any interest, we now pay that 0.45% ... while smiling and thinking of this MMM club. Our original contract didn't include that clause, and I've heard that some customers have actually been in situations where the bank pays them to keep their mortgage! Meanwhile, the projected end date of the mortgage has moved from spring 2028 to summer 2027 because of the lower base rate and those renegotiations.

So it's possible to follow the DPOYM philosophy, even if you can't have a 30-year fixed loan. A combination of a much larger down payment and muuuch better rates does the trick just as well.

talltexan

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3061 on: January 19, 2022, 08:02:04 AM »
We are glad to have you join us, @NorthernIkigai !

When I was reading those early posts, the peculiar American access to a long term at a fixed interest rate was a major foundational requirement of the DPYM club. That doesn't mean it's unwise to float a large mortgage balance. It just means you're bearing more risk per currency unit of debt than someone with a lengthy fixed term would be.

In my own case, I was paying toward an Adjustable rate mortgage from 2013-2020. During the initial five year "teaser" period (when my rate was fixed at 3.0%), I paid ahead slightly so as to ensure that any rate resets would limit the monthly payment to what our household could manage. The first reset took us up the maximum, but we were able to swing the payments with no difficulty, and the second annual reset--this was after the yield curve inversion--actually reduced the rates.

Retire-Canada

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3062 on: January 19, 2022, 08:18:27 AM »
We are in the DPOYMC here in Canada with adjustable rate mortgages. The way the mortgage/housing market is structured the Government cannot allow rates to sky rocket suddenly as that would lead to so many defaults they economy would crater. So while rates are not static I don't feel particularly vulnerable with this type of mortgage. The low starting rate of each 5 year term means that we can take quite a few rate increases before we would have been better off on a 5 year fixed term mortgage.

If the SHTF these mortgages have generous repayment terms so we could pay it off quickly if the math did make sense at some point.

In the meantime we'll enjoy our 1.45% mortgage rate and keep borrowing while letting that ~$500K stay invested.

talltexan

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3063 on: January 19, 2022, 08:58:13 AM »
Because of investment gains, I now have a taxable investment account with a balance more than 15% in excess of our mortgage balance on our primary resident.

Of course, those investments could have a year in which they decline by 35%. It's happened recently...

trc4897

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3064 on: January 19, 2022, 09:34:03 AM »
So I used to be on the pay off the mortgage early mindset (before reading this thread). I have about $11k in extra payments applied to the mortgage since 2017. Has anyone ever done a recast? Chase offers this for free and it should lower my monthly payment by $100 or so. I don't see a downside in doing this.

Some info on my mortgage: 3.5%, $89k remaining balance ($140k purchase price in 2017)

JJ-

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3065 on: January 19, 2022, 09:59:32 AM »
So I used to be on the pay off the mortgage early mindset (before reading this thread). I have about $11k in extra payments applied to the mortgage since 2017. Has anyone ever done a recast? Chase offers this for free and it should lower my monthly payment by $100 or so. I don't see a downside in doing this.

Some info on my mortgage: 3.5%, $89k remaining balance ($140k purchase price in 2017)

No experience in doing it, but I'd do it if it's genuinely free and invest that $100 accordingly.

Telecaster

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3066 on: January 19, 2022, 01:04:24 PM »
So I used to be on the pay off the mortgage early mindset (before reading this thread). I have about $11k in extra payments applied to the mortgage since 2017. Has anyone ever done a recast? Chase offers this for free and it should lower my monthly payment by $100 or so. I don't see a downside in doing this.

Some info on my mortgage: 3.5%, $89k remaining balance ($140k purchase price in 2017)

Totally makes sense to recast in your situation.

Dicey

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talltexan

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3068 on: January 24, 2022, 12:01:30 PM »
Because of investment gains, I now have a taxable investment account with a balance more than 15% in excess of our mortgage balance on our primary resident.

Of course, those investments could have a year in which they decline by 35%. It's happened recently...

Checks Markets

Perhaps I shouldn't have been bragging about that taxable investment account just yet.

nereo

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3069 on: January 24, 2022, 02:49:51 PM »
Because of investment gains, I now have a taxable investment account with a balance more than 15% in excess of our mortgage balance on our primary resident.

Of course, those investments could have a year in which they decline by 35%. It's happened recently...

Checks Markets

Perhaps I shouldn't have been bragging about that taxable investment account just yet.

Check the market again
:-P

dragoncar

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3070 on: January 24, 2022, 05:13:37 PM »
Because of investment gains, I now have a taxable investment account with a balance more than 15% in excess of our mortgage balance on our primary resident.

Of course, those investments could have a year in which they decline by 35%. It's happened recently...

Checks Markets

Perhaps I shouldn't have been bragging about that taxable investment account just yet.

Check the market again
:-P

I’m on a horse

nereo

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3071 on: January 24, 2022, 06:40:59 PM »
Because of investment gains, I now have a taxable investment account with a balance more than 15% in excess of our mortgage balance on our primary resident.

Of course, those investments could have a year in which they decline by 35%. It's happened recently...

Checks Markets

Perhaps I shouldn't have been bragging about that taxable investment account just yet.

Check the market again
:-P

I’m on a horse

Huh?

RWD

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3072 on: January 24, 2022, 06:43:26 PM »
Because of investment gains, I now have a taxable investment account with a balance more than 15% in excess of our mortgage balance on our primary resident.

Of course, those investments could have a year in which they decline by 35%. It's happened recently...

Checks Markets

Perhaps I shouldn't have been bragging about that taxable investment account just yet.

Check the market again
:-P

I’m on a horse

Huh?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=turAjKH1UVo

talltexan

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3073 on: January 25, 2022, 09:14:45 AM »
Indeed, Jan. 24 was crazy! $QQQ down 5% at one point, but closes in the green. Definitely one of those days where I am grateful to have a commitment to long term, buy/hold investing rather than trying to dance in/out of positions.

Unfortunately, I did have a put contract I'd sold expire, so I had to log into ETrade and do something with that money. I opted to just put it into shares of $AVEV--not doing anything fancy with options--at current prices, which worked out well by the end of the day.

Radagast

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3074 on: February 12, 2022, 12:31:48 PM »
The mortgage-as-an-inflation hedge thing has been working out very well. As readers may know, we did a large cash-out refinance last fall (put in SCHX, VEA, VWALX), which increased our monthly payment by $500. Since that time we are charging an extra $100 per month for rent, and I got a raise, which offset the higher payment. My wife will get a raise next month, which will also independently offset the extra $500. A 2.75% mortgage in a 7% inflation world is free money, and a lot of it!

Tyson

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3075 on: February 12, 2022, 12:48:37 PM »
The mortgage-as-an-inflation hedge thing has been working out very well. As readers may know, we did a large cash-out refinance last fall (put in SCHX, VEA, VWALX), which increased our monthly payment by $500. Since that time we are charging an extra $100 per month for rent, and I got a raise, which offset the higher payment. My wife will get a raise next month, which will also independently offset the extra $500. A 2.75% mortgage in a 7% inflation world is free money, and a lot of it!

Very nice.  I too still have a very low % rate mortgage.  It's actually a little lower than the last time I posted in this thread - I had to refinance when my ex-wife left me.  Overall I lost some income when she left and to keep the house I had to give her all the $$ from the savings and retirement accounts.  But I've doubled down on savings/investing since then and just paying the minimum to my mortgage. 

Net result?   I now have a house valued at over $900k, a mortgage of $330k, and savings/investments at $225k.  One of my big goals before the divorce was to have enough $$ saved up to pay off the mortgage in full, if I ever needed to.  We'd 'just' achieved that prior to the divorce, but of course all assets get split down the middle here in CO.  Honestly I'm a bit shocked how fast the investments have rocketed up.  Once it hits $350k I'll actually breath a huge sigh of relief. 

Holocene

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3076 on: February 12, 2022, 04:27:22 PM »
Yep, definitely happy with my 3% mortgage with inflation at 7+%.  I also did a refinance in the fall and took out around $30k.  I mainly did this because the interest rate was actually better than a straight refinance and I wanted to take advantage of the $2k Amex offer from Better.  Some of this cash was invested in VTI and some went into i bonds.  It also allowed me to keep investing the max to my Mega Backdoor Roth and now Roth 401k at 50% of my paycheck.  I'm planning to FIRE in approximately 7 weeks, so thought about pulling back my contributions to pad my cash a bit.  But now I don't have to so I get to stuff a bit more into Roth before I call it quits.  I'll be happy to keep the mortgage in retirement as long as I own this house.

Radagast

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3077 on: February 12, 2022, 09:23:03 PM »
The mortgage-as-an-inflation hedge thing has been working out very well. As readers may know, we did a large cash-out refinance last fall (put in SCHX, VEA, VWALX), which increased our monthly payment by $500. Since that time we are charging an extra $100 per month for rent, and I got a raise, which offset the higher payment. My wife will get a raise next month, which will also independently offset the extra $500. A 2.75% mortgage in a 7% inflation world is free money, and a lot of it!

Very nice.  I too still have a very low % rate mortgage.  It's actually a little lower than the last time I posted in this thread - I had to refinance when my ex-wife left me.  Overall I lost some income when she left and to keep the house I had to give her all the $$ from the savings and retirement accounts.  But I've doubled down on savings/investing since then and just paying the minimum to my mortgage. 

Net result?   I now have a house valued at over $900k, a mortgage of $330k, and savings/investments at $225k.  One of my big goals before the divorce was to have enough $$ saved up to pay off the mortgage in full, if I ever needed to.  We'd 'just' achieved that prior to the divorce, but of course all assets get split down the middle here in CO.  Honestly I'm a bit shocked how fast the investments have rocketed up.  Once it hits $350k I'll actually breath a huge sigh of relief.
Divorce sounds rough, including financially. I have been seriously thinking that a married couple of two should not call themselves fully financially independent (in the FIRE sense) on a 4% withdrawal rate, unless they can also support themselves separately, which is more likely a 3% or 2.5% rate together. It seems that independence which depends on marriage is not fully so.

Tyson

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3078 on: February 12, 2022, 09:54:42 PM »
The mortgage-as-an-inflation hedge thing has been working out very well. As readers may know, we did a large cash-out refinance last fall (put in SCHX, VEA, VWALX), which increased our monthly payment by $500. Since that time we are charging an extra $100 per month for rent, and I got a raise, which offset the higher payment. My wife will get a raise next month, which will also independently offset the extra $500. A 2.75% mortgage in a 7% inflation world is free money, and a lot of it!

Very nice.  I too still have a very low % rate mortgage.  It's actually a little lower than the last time I posted in this thread - I had to refinance when my ex-wife left me.  Overall I lost some income when she left and to keep the house I had to give her all the $$ from the savings and retirement accounts.  But I've doubled down on savings/investing since then and just paying the minimum to my mortgage. 

Net result?   I now have a house valued at over $900k, a mortgage of $330k, and savings/investments at $225k.  One of my big goals before the divorce was to have enough $$ saved up to pay off the mortgage in full, if I ever needed to.  We'd 'just' achieved that prior to the divorce, but of course all assets get split down the middle here in CO.  Honestly I'm a bit shocked how fast the investments have rocketed up.  Once it hits $350k I'll actually breath a huge sigh of relief.
Divorce sounds rough, including financially. I have been seriously thinking that a married couple of two should not call themselves fully financially independent (in the FIRE sense) on a 4% withdrawal rate, unless they can also support themselves separately, which is more likely a 3% or 2.5% rate together. It seems that independence which depends on marriage is not fully so.

I never thought it would happen to me, until it did.  It was quite the shock.  Especially after 23 years of what I thought was a pretty good marriage.  And an 11 year old daughter caught in the middle. 

I'm still a little raw about the whole thing.  But on the other hand, it was better that it happened 3.5 years ago and not today because the financial hit would be even greater now.  At least I still have some time to triage and recover. 

And this was a person that I trusted completely.  So yes, I agree with you - if you are planning FIRE, have a contingency plan for divorce.  The divorce stats are breathtakingly bad.  You have a FAR better chance of FIRE failing from divorce than just about any other cause, at least as far as I can see. 

FragglesRock666

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3079 on: February 17, 2022, 06:03:35 PM »
The mortgage-as-an-inflation hedge thing has been working out very well. As readers may know, we did a large cash-out refinance last fall (put in SCHX, VEA, VWALX), which increased our monthly payment by $500. Since that time we are charging an extra $100 per month for rent, and I got a raise, which offset the higher payment. My wife will get a raise next month, which will also independently offset the extra $500. A 2.75% mortgage in a 7% inflation world is free money, and a lot of it!

Very nice.  I too still have a very low % rate mortgage.  It's actually a little lower than the last time I posted in this thread - I had to refinance when my ex-wife left me.  Overall I lost some income when she left and to keep the house I had to give her all the $$ from the savings and retirement accounts.  But I've doubled down on savings/investing since then and just paying the minimum to my mortgage. 

Net result?   I now have a house valued at over $900k, a mortgage of $330k, and savings/investments at $225k.  One of my big goals before the divorce was to have enough $$ saved up to pay off the mortgage in full, if I ever needed to.  We'd 'just' achieved that prior to the divorce, but of course all assets get split down the middle here in CO.  Honestly I'm a bit shocked how fast the investments have rocketed up.  Once it hits $350k I'll actually breath a huge sigh of relief.
Divorce sounds rough, including financially. I have been seriously thinking that a married couple of two should not call themselves fully financially independent (in the FIRE sense) on a 4% withdrawal rate, unless they can also support themselves separately, which is more likely a 3% or 2.5% rate together. It seems that independence which depends on marriage is not fully so.

I never thought it would happen to me, until it did.  It was quite the shock.  Especially after 23 years of what I thought was a pretty good marriage.  And an 11 year old daughter caught in the middle. 

I'm still a little raw about the whole thing.  But on the other hand, it was better that it happened 3.5 years ago and not today because the financial hit would be even greater now.  At least I still have some time to triage and recover. 

And this was a person that I trusted completely.  So yes, I agree with you - if you are planning FIRE, have a contingency plan for divorce.  The divorce stats are breathtakingly bad.  You have a FAR better chance of FIRE failing from divorce than just about any other cause, at least as far as I can see.

I'm sorry about your divorce, man, they suck so much.  If it helps, I am in a MUCH better position financially AFTER my divorce than I was before.  It does take some time to recover after the initial shock, and part of my problems before had to do with his spending habits that I don't have to worry about anymore.  But things get caught up and stabilized after a while. 

Tyson

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3080 on: February 17, 2022, 07:00:38 PM »

I'm sorry about your divorce, man, they suck so much.  If it helps, I am in a MUCH better position financially AFTER my divorce than I was before.  It does take some time to recover after the initial shock, and part of my problems before had to do with his spending habits that I don't have to worry about anymore.  But things get caught up and stabilized after a while.

Thanks, I appreciate that.  And you are right, even after the divorce I am almost halfway back to the cash/investment level I had back then, plus I kept the house which will probably increase in value another $100k this year.  So, it is working out, but it's just frustrating because I was so caught off guard by the whole thing. 

Dicey

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3081 on: February 27, 2022, 08:52:55 AM »
I think of this thread and everyone who has participated in it when I peruse all the OMG Inflation! threads that are popping up. Again when I note that mortgage rates are on the rise.

Keep on keeping those lovely, lovely mortgages!

Also, I'm giving the side-eye someone who is active here *and* on one of the mortgage payoff threads. WTH? You know who you are.

couponvan

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3082 on: February 27, 2022, 09:21:48 AM »
I think of this thread and everyone who has participated in it when I peruse all the OMG Inflation! threads that are popping up. Again when I note that mortgage rates are on the rise.

Keep on keeping those lovely, lovely mortgages!

Also, I'm giving the side-eye someone who is active here *and* on one of the mortgage payoff threads. WTH? You know who you are.

WTH? Is it me? I have no idea what I have done. I have plenty of mortgages. LOL.  Even a 75% LOC on the FIRE house that hasn't been tapped but is signed at 3.75% for 10 years that we are ready to consider accessing. Have you mortgaged your current home yet? It might be a decent idea for retirement....

Dicey

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3083 on: February 27, 2022, 09:36:38 AM »
I think of this thread and everyone who has participated in it when I peruse all the OMG Inflation! threads that are popping up. Again when I note that mortgage rates are on the rise.

Keep on keeping those lovely, lovely mortgages!

Also, I'm giving the side-eye someone who is active here *and* on one of the mortgage payoff threads. WTH? You know who you are.

WTH? Is it me? I have no idea what I have done. I have plenty of mortgages. LOL.  Even a 75% LOC on the FIRE house that hasn't been tapped but is signed at 3.75% for 10 years that we are ready to consider accessing. Have you mortgaged your current home yet? It might be a decent idea for retirement....
Not unless you're from Texas...

We re-fi'd two of the rentals at just the right time. The third one had a pretty low rate, so we left it alone. We've strongly considered a loan on the primary before DH retires, but we're going to get a large inheritance that we don't need, so why pull a mortgage that we don't need either? MPP for sure. Our latest scheme is scouting for a condo that we can evict the Bonus Kid into. It's the only way we can see him launching. Alas, a 1+1 costs at least $400k here, which freaks us out. Still cheaper than renting, but sigh, it feels like Economic Outpatienting in the worst way. At least we would be using inherited money??? BTW, we're only thinking of making the down payment on it. He has enough savings to make payments for at least two years,  plus he has a job, which should be enough time for him to figure things out. Of course, we'll have to get the loan or carry the paper...

dragoncar

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3084 on: February 27, 2022, 12:35:44 PM »
Ok I gotta hear about the bonus kid… is there a thread on it?  Did you get it with credit card miles?

Dicey

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3085 on: February 27, 2022, 02:10:04 PM »
Ok I gotta hear about the bonus kid… is there a thread on it?  Did you get it with credit card miles?
Alas, not a particularly interesting story. BK came with the husband. There might be some details in my journal, but Dog knows where. Absolutely  no CC miles, but DH package included many other benefits, most of which are far superior. BK is 29 and having him around is no hassle really, he just isn't going to launch if he isn't shoved.

couponvan

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3086 on: February 28, 2022, 06:37:38 AM »
Glad it’s not me! I hear you on launching bonus kid. We keep asking the oldest what his plans are after college. Much is riding on whether he passes certain exams….$400K sounds about right for a tiny 1BR in your area.

talltexan

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3087 on: February 28, 2022, 10:02:13 AM »
I remember being in my twenties--there wasn't a public health situation mind you--and realizing that an "ease out" strategy would be more effective than simply announcing I was moving out.

Then I was in my thirties with young kids, and the new strategy became "ease out" the legos for building with grandkids. Made everyone happy.

Radagast

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3088 on: February 28, 2022, 08:02:16 PM »
I was talking to my coworker last week who was proudly paying down his 2.75% 20 year mortgage and only had 6 years left. I was like "yeah right I'm keeping my 2.75% 30 year, it's losing 7% of its value every year and in 6 years at this rate the monthly payment will be cheaper than my power bill, and I'm only slightly joking."

dragoncar

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3089 on: March 01, 2022, 12:00:27 AM »
I was talking to my coworker last week who was proudly paying down his 2.75% 20 year mortgage and only had 6 years left. I was like "yeah right I'm keeping my 2.75% 30 year, it's losing 7% of its value every year and in 6 years at this rate the monthly payment will be cheaper than my power bill, and I'm only slightly joking."

PG&E?

Dicey

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3090 on: March 01, 2022, 12:09:04 AM »
I was talking to my coworker last week who was proudly paying down his 2.75% 20 year mortgage and only had 6 years left. I was like "yeah right I'm keeping my 2.75% 30 year, it's losing 7% of its value every year and in 6 years at this rate the monthly payment will be cheaper than my power bill, and I'm only slightly joking."

PG&E?
Hahaha! Our PG&E bill was $715 in January and we keep our heat at 65.

nereo

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3091 on: March 01, 2022, 05:28:53 AM »
I was talking to my coworker last week who was proudly paying down his 2.75% 20 year mortgage and only had 6 years left. I was like "yeah right I'm keeping my 2.75% 30 year, it's losing 7% of its value every year and in 6 years at this rate the monthly payment will be cheaper than my power bill, and I'm only slightly joking."

I’ve been frustrated by the tone and context of many posters on this forum regarding inflation and our circles of control. We have deliberately designed our lives to weather inflationary shocks, and we’ve been implementing measures to do so for several years. For most of this forum’s existence when the subject of inflation came up - often in the context of having “inflation hedges” such as a fixed low-rate mortgage - posters would inevitably chime in that they believed inflation was a largely solved problem and the Fed would never allow the kind of price spikes we saw in the late 70s. But we saw it as a potential risk so we modeled our AA and our lifestyles accordingly.

Now a common narrative is how inescapable inflation is, and how it’s certainly much higher than the “bogus” headline numbers released each month. Ironically some the loudest complainers are also the ones continue to rush to pay off low-interest fixed debt. In multiple active threads mustachians who comment about how inflation hasn’t had a large impact on their finances because they did X, Y & Z years ago are told they are just plain lucky or shouted down as not understanding their own finances.

I can’t help but draw a parallel to the broader concept of ‘early retirement’, since that is at the center of this forum. Certainly one will have difficulty retiring early if they are in their 40s living paycheck to paycheck with massive cc debt. Posters who have achieved FI by this point are often chided for being overly optimistic or just plain lucky, (even, increasingly, on this forum). Often they are dismissed as their experiences are so contrary to the norm even though they made a series of deliberate decisions over many years which go them there.

The same can be said for mitigating inflation. If you assume it’ll never happen and then wait until we’re six months in there’s not a ton you can easily do to have immediate impacts. But start early and you can blunt the worst of it, and be one of those that don’t really notice increased prices.

talltexan

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3092 on: March 01, 2022, 07:08:21 AM »
Oddly enough, many young people are told inflation is the central risk as a motivator to get them using risky investments.

It seems like if that's your only true worry, you could be buying i-bonds.

Dicey

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3093 on: March 01, 2022, 07:49:53 AM »
Oh, you are so right, nereo!

I keep hearing bullshit ads about how inflation is going to destroy your nest egg. Well, sure it will if you're a dumbass and don't keep your money invested.  For those of us who have followed mustachian principles and continue to, there is no need to fear. We're in far more danger from the likes of Putin than inflation.

dragoncar

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3094 on: March 01, 2022, 11:34:55 AM »
Oh, you are so right, nereo!

I keep hearing bullshit ads about how inflation is going to destroy your nest egg. Well, sure it will if you're a dumbass and don't keep your money invested.  For those of us who have followed mustachian principles and continue to, there is no need to fear. We're in far more danger from the likes of Putin than inflation.

The biggest downside to inflation with taxable invested FIRE assets is that you pay taxes on phantom gains (so if inflation continues to run 7% PA, and you sell your stocks for a 100% inflation gain 10 years later, your effective investment return will be reduced by 10-20% long term capital gains).  I might have messed up those exact numbers but you get the idea

Yes, having a fixed mortgage probably offsets this downside

nereo

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3095 on: March 01, 2022, 11:49:36 AM »
Oh, you are so right, nereo!

I keep hearing bullshit ads about how inflation is going to destroy your nest egg. Well, sure it will if you're a dumbass and don't keep your money invested.  For those of us who have followed mustachian principles and continue to, there is no need to fear. We're in far more danger from the likes of Putin than inflation.

The biggest downside to inflation with taxable invested FIRE assets is that you pay taxes on phantom gains (so if inflation continues to run 7% PA, and you sell your stocks for a 100% inflation gain 10 years later, your effective investment return will be reduced by 10-20% long term capital gains).  I might have messed up those exact numbers but you get the idea

Yes, having a fixed mortgage probably offsets this downside

Good point. For us the mortgage exclusion ($500k on gains for married filing jointly) on primary residences (2 of previous 5 years occupancy) will more than cover any “phantom gains”. Our entire home is well under the $500k cap. But for others in HCOL regions (like my sister in the SF Bay Area) they can easily exceed the exemption after a decade or two of living there.

Note, though that it doesn’t change if you pay off your mortgage early or not. Appreciation are gains which occur regardless of whether it’s your money invested or the banks. Given the choice I have, I’m going to invest the banks money.

dragoncar

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3096 on: March 01, 2022, 03:57:03 PM »
Oh, you are so right, nereo!

I keep hearing bullshit ads about how inflation is going to destroy your nest egg. Well, sure it will if you're a dumbass and don't keep your money invested.  For those of us who have followed mustachian principles and continue to, there is no need to fear. We're in far more danger from the likes of Putin than inflation.

The biggest downside to inflation with taxable invested FIRE assets is that you pay taxes on phantom gains (so if inflation continues to run 7% PA, and you sell your stocks for a 100% inflation gain 10 years later, your effective investment return will be reduced by 10-20% long term capital gains).  I might have messed up those exact numbers but you get the idea

Yes, having a fixed mortgage probably offsets this downside

Good point. For us the mortgage exclusion ($500k on gains for married filing jointly) on primary residences (2 of previous 5 years occupancy) will more than cover any “phantom gains”. Our entire home is well under the $500k cap. But for others in HCOL regions (like my sister in the SF Bay Area) they can easily exceed the exemption after a decade or two of living there.

Note, though that it doesn’t change if you pay off your mortgage early or not. Appreciation are gains which occur regardless of whether it’s your money invested or the banks. Given the choice I have, I’m going to invest the banks money.

True on the DPYM calculus

And yeah I’m already over the 500k exclusion in under a decade at this house.  Been thinking about tricky ways to step up my basis (sale to parent, return sale.. just pay transfer tax and escrow, but doesn’t work with a mortgage) Poor me right?  But I do believe most tax values (exemptions, AMT caps, etc) should be inflation adjusted. On the other hand, not inflation adjusting that stuff is just a lazy way for lawmakers to phaseout/sunset which is possibly intentional

Holocene

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3097 on: March 01, 2022, 07:38:47 PM »
I was talking to my coworker last week who was proudly paying down his 2.75% 20 year mortgage and only had 6 years left. I was like "yeah right I'm keeping my 2.75% 30 year, it's losing 7% of its value every year and in 6 years at this rate the monthly payment will be cheaper than my power bill, and I'm only slightly joking."

PG&E?
Hahaha! Our PG&E bill was $715 in January and we keep our heat at 65.
Wait, seriously?!? For just your own single family house?  That seems ridiculously high.  That really is more than my mortgage.  In the highest month, my combined electric/gas costs were around $175.  And that's to heat up a house and myself in the frozen tundra.  Natural gas costs are up around 33% for me this year, but my electric rates are pretty much steady.  I honestly can't fathom a $700 electric bill.

Dicey

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3098 on: March 01, 2022, 10:23:50 PM »
I was talking to my coworker last week who was proudly paying down his 2.75% 20 year mortgage and only had 6 years left. I was like "yeah right I'm keeping my 2.75% 30 year, it's losing 7% of its value every year and in 6 years at this rate the monthly payment will be cheaper than my power bill, and I'm only slightly joking."

PG&E?
Hahaha! Our PG&E bill was $715 in January and we keep our heat at 65.
Wait, seriously?!? For just your own single family house?  That seems ridiculously high.  That really is more than my mortgage.  In the highest month, my combined electric/gas costs were around $175.  And that's to heat up a house and myself in the frozen tundra.  Natural gas costs are up around 33% for me this year, but my electric rates are pretty much steady.  I honestly can't fathom a $700 electric bill.
Neither can we. Our house is energy efficient, built in 2006. Energy efficient windows, additional insulation, blah x3. We also have a higher Tier 1 Baseline allotment than average, due to the use of c-paps. Oh, and it's about 2600sf, so large, but not a McMansion.

The following month it dropped to "only" about $450. Gah! Fortunately,  the same damn redwoods that prevent us from being good candidates for solar have allowed us to use the A/C for an average of only five days per year since we've owned the house. So we breeze through the summer months, but get killed during the winter. Imagine if it was actually cold here in NorCal.

We have no mortgage, so it's definitely higher, which is why I posted. People think their costs will vanish when they "kill" their mortgage. Others of us know (ouch) that it ain't necessarily so.

Holocene

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Re: DONT Payoff your Mortgage Club
« Reply #3099 on: March 02, 2022, 07:18:41 PM »
Neither can we. Our house is energy efficient, built in 2006. Energy efficient windows, additional insulation, blah x3. We also have a higher Tier 1 Baseline allotment than average, due to the use of c-paps. Oh, and it's about 2600sf, so large, but not a McMansion.

The following month it dropped to "only" about $450. Gah! Fortunately,  the same damn redwoods that prevent us from being good candidates for solar have allowed us to use the A/C for an average of only five days per year since we've owned the house. So we breeze through the summer months, but get killed during the winter. Imagine if it was actually cold here in NorCal.

We have no mortgage, so it's definitely higher, which is why I posted. People think their costs will vanish when they "kill" their mortgage. Others of us know (ouch) that it ain't necessarily so.
Has this year been an anomaly or is this a normal winter electric bill for you?  I mean I knew CA was expensive, but this seems ridiculous!  If this is mostly for heating, have you considered other ways to heat?  How do you heat now?  I hear good things about heat pumps.  I think your climate would be warm enough for them to work well.  I mean at $700, it might be cheaper to literally light dollar bills on fire for heat :)

I was going to recommend looking into solar but guess that's a no go.  I love redwoods so wouldn't be too upset about that though.  And to get back on topic, you have lots of mortgages for your rentals so I guess you can afford to pay ridiculous energy bills!  Yay for the DPOYM club!

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!