How many have fully paid off their Mortgage?

Probably millions out there with fully paid mortgages. But not me. Hoping to wrap it up in the next 22 years or so. Just a few hundred thousand to go!

haven't but...

80k in July 2010, 48k now. I'm 26. Should be paid off as a 30th bday present to myself

Down to 4 digits, so 10 months to go.

Bought my $300k house at age 30 with a 15 year mortgage. Had it paid off at 45 and had a couple of years to save before I started paying college tuitions. Best decision I ever made to bite the bullet and do a 15 year mortgage.

Bought a place 6 years ago in the hills of Santa Cruz,CA.

Paid $780K for it. I'm 34 and it will be paid off in two more years.

Cars paid off

No credit card debt

Looking to retire by the time I'm 50.

Single, no kids

Technically haven't paid it off, but I owe about 180 and have 230 in the bank. Could have paid it off at 32, but keeping money more liquid to make a better offer on a bigger house (market here is nuts).

Nope- it's the only thing I can write off on my taxes.

Used to think paying off my mortgage was smart and admirable. That said, with mortgage debt as cheap as it is, I've been unequivocally better off taking my excess cash and investing it. Add to that the tax write off on mortgage interest and taxes and it only gets better.

Bought a $350k house at 25. Had liquid investments to pay it off around age 30. My advice would be to get a reasonable mortgage at the current cheap rates, have at least 20% equity and invest your excess cash in a diversified set of stocks and bonds.

Are you saying you get a tax write off on your property taxes if you have a mortgage, but not if the home is paid in full? Interesting.

I aggressively paid down my loan for 10 years, then sold and moved to a less expensive area. The combination of the two allowed me to pay cash for the new house. 44yo. Don't care if there are small advantages to having a cheap loan, the peace of mind of having a home paid for is more than worth it in my opinion.

Old Country Buffet wrote:

Add to that the tax write off on mortgage interest and taxes and it only gets better

Lighten up Francis wrote:

Are you saying you get a tax write off on your property taxes if you have a mortgage, but not if the home is paid in full? Interesting.

This makes me tend to not believe anything in the remainder of your post. Either that or you got extremely lucky considering your ... abilities.

Borrowed $217,000 at 30 with a 30-year fixed, paid off at 40.

Paying off a mortgage early is stupid if you locked in a rock bottom interest rate. I have 3.25% on a 15 year. Borrowing costs on that loan are negligible. If I put $1k a month into paying it off early, I would get it paid off about 5-6 years early. But, with the benefit of compounding interest, I would come out way ahead if I invested the $1k a month as the returns would be well ahead of 3.25%. Can't beat the time/value of money when investing.

Precious Roy wrote:

Paying off a mortgage early is stupid if you locked in a rock bottom interest rate. I have 3.25% on a 15 year. Borrowing costs on that loan are negligible. If I put $1k a month into paying it off early, I would get it paid off about 5-6 years early. But, with the benefit of compounding interest, I would come out way ahead if I invested the $1k a month as the returns would be well ahead of 3.25%. Can't beat the time/value of money when investing.

Agree that you can make this work well for you, disagree that paying off the mortgage early is "stupid". The argument for paying off early is risk mitigation. If you lose your job and can't pay your mortgage, your investments aren't going to let you come live with them. A paid off mortgage also frees up hundreds if no thousands a month for you to invest. I'm not arguing absolutely for one way or the other, just pointing out that one way is not inherently "stupid". You can make either work for you.

As for the tax deduction, that's just spending a dollar to save a quarter.

You people are very touchy. Agree that you still get the real estate tax deduction regardless of having a mortgage. That said, the interest deduction does reduce your effective cost of borrowing. My point was that I have been better off paying down my mortgage at a slow rate in light of today's low interest rate environment where I have a rate in the low 3% range. It had allowed me to invest excess cash and earn returns well in excess of my cost to borrow for my home. Of course this is more "risky" than paying off my mortgage, but history has proven that a reasonable amount of leverage can be a good thing. Like anything, it all comes down to your risk tolerance. Investment horizon is also important. I have another 30+ years before I hit retirement age so I can accept more risk.

Paid it off at age 45. Owed $250,000 on a $450,000 house.

Old Country Buffet wrote:

You people are very touchy. Agree that you still get the real estate tax deduction regardless of having a mortgage. That said, the interest deduction does reduce your effective cost of borrowing. My point was that I have been better off paying down my mortgage at a slow rate in light of today's low interest rate environment where I have a rate in the low 3% range. It had allowed me to invest excess cash and earn returns well in excess of my cost to borrow for my home. Of course this is more "risky" than paying off my mortgage, but history has proven that a reasonable amount of leverage can be a good thing. Like anything, it all comes down to your risk tolerance. Investment horizon is also important. I have another 30+ years before I hit retirement age so I can accept more risk.

Did you just change your name and reply to me? LOL.

I don't disagree with anything you said, I just disagreed with calling the alternative stupid. You made a solid case, there was no need to resort to insults.

It obviously depends on the cash flow invested in other higher earning investments, spread between the interest rate on "safe" cash equivalents v tax-affected interest rate on a certain liability (your mortgage) and personal preference. It would be "stupid" (your word, not mine), if I wasn't fully funding two 401(k)'s, two 529 plans, and had personal guarantees on three commercial real estate mortgages and a commercial loan on an operating business. I will await opportunities for additional investments and likely tap my home equity line of credit (balance of $0) to make it happen with low-cost financing.

Yes, the probability of your scenario creating more wealth in five years compared to paying off the mortgage is pretty high - but comes at a cost and should have a much higher probability given the risk/return for higher earning assets compared to the certainty created by paying off a liability.

In a prior life before a family and a mortgage when I had little money I used margin to amplify returns. Beneficial in the long-run, if you can stomach a margin call along the way.

yes, you can always make the math look better, but the freedom you have from a paid off house doesn't fit into a calculator.

You are more free to change jobs, use that monthly payment to invest in other areas, take risks, etc.. Math just can't account for that.

The guys arguing against paying off debt at the lowest rates in recent memory are saying that you greatly optimize cash value by investing in securities given current market conditions rather than the equity in your home given current RE market conditions. They're absolutely right.

The guys arguing that owning a home free and clear are placing a premium on the value of peace of mind over the cash they're leaving on the table by doing so. If you're one to have debt-anxiety rather than an eye on optimizing gains than this is also right. In this case however, value is not synonymous with dollars.