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.
One of the worst things you could do is pay off your house?
Suuuuuuuure.
lets see its worse than
1. cable tv
2. eating out daily
3. paying a lawn service
4. using a clothes dryer
5. driving 50 miles or more RT to work daily
6. paying a bi weekly maid
its worse than all of that and you can even combine most of it depending on the cost in your location in most cases(read greater than 90%) historically for a 200k mortgage.
you can interpret worst as you please but in this land of pinching pennies its one of the worst when things on that list are harped on the most.
stepping over dollars to pick u pennies.
How's it compare to buying a boat? Just curious where that one falls in the list.
my boat is far cheaper to operate and own than the earnings i get investing in lieu of paying down my mortgage - but i also dont have a celebratory thread looking for others to comfort me on a FIRE site in my poor choice for use of little green soldiers.
if you're interested in numbers a year or 2 ago i posted a thread about its cost in the antimustachian wall of shame and comedy where stuff like this belongs.
We bought a house in the late nineties with an 80% 1st and 15% 2nd mortgage, put down only 5%.
In a few years, our equity had grown, so we refinanced into an 80% for 30 years.
Rates dropped, we refinanced and restarted the 30-year clock. Around then we changed jobs and moved out; our house became a rental.
Rates hit 3.5% on a 30-year fixed and we refinanced, and restarted the clock again.
Our equity has continued to grow and we now have a nice big HELOC on the house we can access if / when we need it.
The Federal and our State governments subsidize us on the > $13k of mortgage interest our tenants pay for us every year, as well as subsidizing our contributions to our retirement plans, medical insurance, HSA, IRA, our child(ren)'s college tuition, and the qualified dividends we earn and reinvest every year.
We could now pay off our mortgage(s)
six times over with the assets which we accumulated
by NOT paying off those fuckers, and still have enough cash to buy a new big-assed 3/4 ton pickup truck or two and drive it to and from the restaurants where we could eat morning, noon, and night if so inclined.
Those of you who are considering prepaying your mortgages should listen to the stories Dicey, B42, and I are telling and examine the math with your left brain, not with your heart.
Those of you who already prepaid your mortgages still have an opportunity to take out new mortgages now while rates remain low.