Peace of Mind
So, what’s it like to have your mortgage
fully paid off?
Here are the answers from across America:
Lost my job due to lay offs the worst feeling was thinking how I’m gonna put food on the table and a roof over my kids head. Got back on my feet got a good job with performance bonuses put a note on the fridge that said “pay off your house” then non stop, every extra cent went to the Morgage. Now I when my wife says the electricity bill is too high I don’t sweat it my house is paid off.
It’s damn amazing.
And I might get banned for this. But as a single dude. Having a paid for house is a panty dropper.
Total relief. I developed rheumatoid arthritis at the age 40 and my husband and seriously buckled down on paying the house off (while paying cash for the kid’s college). My husband really upped his life insurance in case something happened to him and I could no longer work (we had 6 kids together).
If you get tired of having NO PAYMENTS in your life you can go take out a mortgage ANYTIME and roll around on the ground in your money like Scrooge McDuck. Seriously though…It’s incredibly “financially peaceful” to know you don’t owe anything to anyone. The economy doesn’t scare us (it’s a good time to have alotta free income to buy stocks when things are down), if the boss pisses you off you can quit with no worries about making your bills, plummeting house values don’t bother us (not selling).
We’ve never sat on the patio drinking our morning coffee and looked each other in the eye and said…”So… Do you MISS making that house payment yet?”. LOL
I feel beyond blessed to have been able to pay it off. My house is cheap but the peace I feel is completely worth it. I almost feel guilty due to how bad rents are and how expensive housing is for a lot of people.
No regrets! Always wonder if it was the right choice if we should have invested more etc. But covid sealed it. With work being crazy unpredictable totally less stressed as our monthly expenses were not as much to cover. We had more flexibility in what jobs we had/ wanted to take, and kid doing home learning just made it easier and one less thing to worry about.
30 year mortgage paid off in 8.5 years. Best thing I ever did. OMG the freedom.
Zero regrets about paying my mortgage off. It gives a sense of freedom that I value more than having additional amounts invested. I work in an industry that can be pretty ruthless with lay-offs and being debt free changes the dynamics.
No regrets. Peace of mind is invaluable to me. If I really had it with my job, I could quit, with no worries that my family would be homeless. Yes, mathematically, I could make more by investing at a higher interest rate than my mortgage, but the mental & emotional lightness is fantastic, & I am free!
No regrets. I love the monkey off my back. It was an emotional decision, not necessarily a financial one.
I paid mine off last January, and I kinda regret it. My mortgage was at 4.15% and I could be getting a nice spread on that money in a one-year CD.
That said, there’s a great amount of peace of mind that comes with no mortgage.
Word of advice: Leave the reminder in your phone that the mortgage is due, even after you pay it off. It’s a lot of fun to hear the ding, look at the phone to see “Mortgage due”, and think “Ha! Not for me, suckers!”
Paid off my house years ago – best feeling ever. No matter what, no one can take it, I’ll always have a home, and so will my kids.
We paid ours off about 8 years ago. I don’t care when people say investing that money would be a better way; the feeling of freedom and knowing nobody can touch our home unless we don’t pay the taxes is a feeling I wouldn’t trade for anything. Our payment each month was about $1500 all in – that is now cash we invest each month instead.
Zero regrets.
It’s a great feeling. My bills are now so low and I’m getting into just stacking money and trying to chase returns to replace my bills with. My relationship with work has changed quite a bit. I feel much more willing and able to take risks. For example, decided to go independent and try to get my own consulting business going. This is all while being married with two kids, 17 and 11.
Husband and I bought a house in 2018 finished paying it off in 2021… interest rates got really low but we were so close to the end and we were doing it for peace of mind anyways. We probably have less in investments but actually kind of nice to start throwing more into index funds while the market is down. No regrets so far.
All the rich people I know don’t have home mortgage. I liked the idea of no debt. So I sold stuff on ebay. Hauled scrap.metal. all kinds of stuff to make more money. Paid on mortgage 2 or 3 times a week. Now house is paid off. So happy. The amount of payment per month of interest. What’s your amount? Mine was like $350. That’s the wasted amount every month. Taxes and insurance never go away but interest can. You can only do so much with your paycheck. If you want to pay loan off earlier have to make more. Find a side hustle. Pay weekly. Roll that change. Whatever just pay it off.
It feels awesome. Best decision ever. Glad I started doing it when I did, and even more glad I stuck with it. Possibly the hardest thing I’ve ever done though. Highly recommended.
weebz22
Peace of mind is a beautiful concept
The best argument I’ve heard for why you should just pay off the house is that you can reverse engineer it. If you had a paid-for house, would you take out a loan at your current interest rate with the house as collateral and invest the money? The answer is almost certainly no. I’m Dave-ish. I just told another guy in another post to get a credit card. I agree with paying off your home though. It may not make mathematical sense all the time but peace of mind is worth a lot.
Paid off with zero regrets , best feeling and decision ever!
Bought our house in 2013. Paid it off in 2019. Knowing my wife will always have a place to live if something happened to me is a huge peace of mind thing for me. Absolutely love that we paid it off.
Paid off my house in 4 years @ 37 and want to buy another play home… it feels like a huge safety blanket incase of a financial crisis i have a roof over my head and all i need to do is pay taxes not necessarily home insurance…
I couldn’t be happier – knowing that no matter what, if my husband loses his job, if he has to take one with lower pay, or becomes disabled and I have to go to work, our house will be safe? It’s so satisfying. I can relax, knowing that we owe nothing, all we have to do is pay for utilities, insurance, and the incidentals of life (phone, internet, ice cream), and our savings will tide us over through most disasters.
We started off with a fixer upper my husband bought before we met, for $45,000. It was paid off ahead of schedule, and after 20 years of work, raising kids in there for 12 years, we sold it last year for $243,000, and were able (with a small inheritance) to buy our dream house outright.
We downsized and paid off our house in 7 years. I went into retirement fully debt free with two properties. It’s an incredible feeling!
Having no mortgage is the fastest wealth builder. Bought first house by saving up for it in cash & rented it out. I succumbed to getting a mortgage for the second one but then paid it off in 5 years promising never to do it again. Then once the second one was paid off, we bought a third (with a smaller mortgage than second property). Now laser focussed on paying that mortgage off and promise never to get a mortgage again.
The financially happiest and least stressful periods of my life were when I did not have a mortgage as the cash flow from rentals just rolls in without any worry in the world. You also make better decisions too: picky about getting the best tenant rather than taking the first person who views, having cash to invest & snowball savings, not worrying when there is an unexpected expense.
Zero regrets and I can’t believe anyone would. It gave me the financial freedom to go back to school. Once I’m done with that we will be able to do some home upgrades.
Paid off my house in 2022. Worked my tail off the last 3 years during lockdown and I have no regrets. House is worth 650k in mcol in California. I sleep so much better. If the economy dumps or we go into a recession, I am literally stress free. I don’t worry about my job, I can save so much faster each month with my paychecks.
I am investing 80% of my monthly salary into low cost funds and stocks, and CDs, in a couple more short years I will have recouped all my liquid cash growing in the market, and plus my house is paid off . The best of both worlds. If anything happens to me, my family is well taken care of and my spouse won’t have to worry about a mortgage. Having the extra monthly cash flow is enabling us to do other things like travel more now.
The best thing is not having to pay the damn banks a chunk of interest, several hundred dollars each month towards a mortgage. Over the course of 30 years, it would of been a couple hundred thousand dollars+. Ridiculous. Imagine that money sitting in your investment account instead for 30 years!
I am 40 yrs old.
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Paid off the house last month . Wife and I went crazy trying to pay it off before we were 40. Freed up a lot of money cause we are no longer making monthly payments and additional principal payments . The feeling is surreal . No regrets .
The Much Faster Formula allows you to pay off your mortgage much faster and have that peace of mind you always wanted.
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