Thought I'd combine two or three of our favorite topics.
I just refinanced my mortgage at 3.25%. I'm 57. According to
www.immediateannuities.com I can buy single life SPIA that makes my (30 year fixed) P&I payments for about 94.5% of my mortgage loan amount. Pretty nice if you don't care about leaving some debt for your estate if you kick off early. Plus, the SPIA continues payments after 30 years if I'm still around (only 87), providing some longevity insurance once the mortgage is paid off. I can certainly see some cases where this might be preferred over just paying the mortgage off.
Unfortunately (or not!), I'm also married. DW is 52. That kind of kills the SPIA price for a joint annuity with a younger female. It goes to 113.5% of the mortgage amount. Maybe with the longevity aspect that still looks OK. I didn't price out a deferred annuity.
So I guess we'll wait a few more years before pricing this out again. But for some here it might be an interesting idea.