I know there are a lot of threads debating the merits of paying off a mortgage vs investing. But what if you FIRE with several years left on your mortgage? In our case, that would mean saving up an extra $360000 (!) for the 4% SWR to cover the $14400 in mortgage payments, or withdrawing more than 4% for the first several years until the mortgage is paid off. In that situation would it be best to pay down the mortgage faster even if it means losing out on greater investment returns? As long as I keep working, we can invest $50 k per year. We could do all mortgage (paid off in 3.5 years), all investments, or maybe a mix, where we maximize investments in our tax-sheltered accounts and put what we would have put in our non-registered account into our mortgage?
If you want more details, our situation is a bit odd. My husband is 41 and I am 38. He wants to work until at least 55 and I want to stop or scale back sooner rather than later. My calculations tell me I could do that now, but that is assuming the markets don't tank for a long period of time and we have no unusually large or unplanned recurring expenses come up. As a consequence, I would feel more comfortable waiting until we have enough funds to cover our retirement expenses above and beyond what his pension will cover, even though if all goes well our money will keep growing and we will end up with more than we need (we can easily live off just his salary when I retire/scale back, but will be able to invest very little at that point).