If I followed the no mortgage more than twice your yearly income rule, I sure as $hit wouldn’t be retired already! Did anyone here actually follow that advice? My first home purchase, in 1985 at age 26, carried an almost 4 times my income mortgage & the rates back then were horrible! Plus I had too much consumer debt on top of that. My initial down payment back then was only $10k and I carried PMI as well. I used the equity and appreciation from that and every subsequent house (6) to upscale in size & cost, and never paid PMI again. Even today I carry a mortgage that is $100k more than twice my yearly income. But my equity in the house is more than 3 times what the total cost of my first house was and 3 times larger square footage and I never once had to come up with more cash to purchase the next home. They essentially paid for themselves. (Of course, there was the occasional short term transfers amongst accounts until the previous home sold if needed. And on the last home I went for a 15 year mortgage at the last refi that was maybe 7 years mature.) By keeping more invested, I can easily pay off this place anytime, & with no tax consequences either. Of course, I did always purchase homes requiring sweat equity to appreciate like they did, until this one, and always bought & remodeled with resale in mind, and always in predictably great selling areas. After my first home, none were on the market for more than 3 weeks, and most sold in days for more than asking. Some luck was involved but really how much since I followed the same formula for 35 years.
