DW and I are very excited about our pending mortgage payoff next month! We felt that after 2008 market meltdown the best place for us to put any discretionary money was toward the house. Our thinking was that, being years away from retirement, doing away with the monthly payment would allow me to cut back at work. I am 47 and DW will turn 46 soon. I am not ready to stop working from either a financial or emotional standpoint, but I sure could stand to cut back on my hours. I am lucky enough to have some flexibility at work to do so. I have weighed continuing the grind full tilt vs. at try at cutting back hours. Status qou would allow me to save enough that an earlier semi-retirement would be possible. But I would like to celebrate the accomplishment of our mortgage payoff with an immediate lifestyle change such as shortening my workday by an hour or 90 minutes and getting home early to be with the family and spend some time exercising. However, this would pose a couple of problems. Full ER or semiER would be delayed, but maybe shorther hours would make this tolerable. Also the shorter hours might elicit some questions/envy that I would not really relish. I do not plan to have a mortgage burning party or anything to call attention. I am a pretty private person and only my closest friend knows of our pending payoff. I have great respect for the variety of opinions on this board and I am interested in knowing the thoughts of this community. Keep grinding? Cut back? How to deal with questions from others? Or should we be looking at this from a different angle? Other thoughts on how to deal with this windfall of reduced monthly cash flow needs?