Poll - This is a simple Poll - Is your primary residence fully paid off? AKA no Mortgage, Line of Credit or other Lien.

Is your primary residence fully paid off AKA no Mortgage, Line of Credit or other Lien?

  • Yes

  • No

Results are only viewable after voting.
Modest balance left at 2.375%. No hurry to pay it off.
 
Final few years of a 20-year at 3.375% so not in a hurry.
 
Mortgage was paid off prior to retirement. Some very large, unexpected expenses came up and we did a 15 yr re fi 4 years ago, 2.36%, borrowed only what we needed, not what the bank wanted to give us!
Better deal than pulling $ from our accounts, even the "emergency fund".
 
pacergal said:
Mortgage was paid off prior to retirement. Some very large, unexpected expenses came up and we did a 15 yr re fi 4 years ago, 2.36%, borrowed only what we needed, not what the bank wanted to give us!
Better deal than pulling $ from our accounts, even the "emergency fund".
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This was my situation as well. The expenses weren’t unexpected, but there was no point in pulling out a large sum of money from a retirement account and paying taxes on it when interest rates were around (under) 3%. We took out a home equity loan. Last year we sold that home, paid off the mortgage and a month or so after the sale we paid off the mortgage we needed to buy our current home. There was enough from the sale plus some of our after tax money to make it work. Plus, interest rates were closer to 6%. Harder to justify a mortgage at that rate.
 
engineernerd said:
Had two bad experiences with mortgage lenders over the years that convinced us going mortgage-free had health benefits that probably outweighed any wealth-building advantages of a possible low rate.

Anger is bad for your health, or so I read somewhere...
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I had a bad experience with the lender I refinanced my mortgage back in 1992 (I had to report them to the state banking department). After starting to pay down chunks of the mortgage in early 1997, the lender sold my mortgage to another lender later in 1997. I was quite relieved to be rid of that lender because I wouldn't have to deal with them as I neared getting a payoff notice in early 1998. The new lender was a pleasure to deal with and the payoff went very smoothly.
 
We bought our current home using an adjustable rate loan that had a 10 year fixed period of 3%. Just after the rate started adjusting up quickly, we were shopping for a new car. Instead of paying cash for the car as we usually would, I found a 3.24% auto loan. So used those funds plus others to pay off mortgage before it adjusted to near 8%. Auto loan has 1 year left.
 
84% with paid off home is a very impressive number! And I bet many of the remaining have super low rate mortgages.
 
I guess it's not surprising that 83.8% of people on this forum have paid off their home. Lot's of like minded people around here. I was a yes by the way.
 
we paid off a 5% mortgage early in 2003 and free and clear on all things since then, including the new place.
 
Maybe if the poll had asked "How long has your primary residence been paid off?" would have been more informative, since most here do have it paid off.
 
To my mind, the interesting questions are: 1) whether someone is carrying a mortgage on their primary residence in retirement and why; 2) if not, precisely when did they pay it off in relation to their retirement date and why.

In our case, we paid it off in 23 years, about 2.5 years prior to retirement, so that we could reduce our mandatory spending in retirement. Now, we absolutely must pay only our taxes, utilities, insurance and food. The rest of our spending is almost purely discretionary.
 
Gumby said:
In our case, we paid it off in 23 years, about 2.5 years prior to retirement, so that we could reduce our mandatory spending in retirement.
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We paid off precisely for this reason. We wanted to reduce the cashflow requirements (especially before medicare eligibility) so that we can manage income better and qualify for ACA subsidies.
 
Gumby said:
To my mind, the interesting questions are: 1) whether someone is carrying a mortgage on their primary residence in retirement and why; 2) if not, precisely when did they pay it off in relation to their retirement date and why.

In our case, we paid it off in 23 years, about 2.5 years prior to retirement, so that we could reduce our mandatory spending in retirement. Now, we absolutely must pay only our taxes, utilities, insurance and food. The rest of our spending is almost purely discretionary.
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We paid off our home because at the time we had a lot in company stock and decided at a stock peak that taking a little off the table to cover our house was a good idea. We weren’t paying nearly as much in annual interest on the mortgage by that time either. We were hoping to retire soon as well, another consideration, and we did two years later.
 
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When we bought our house 5 years ago we took out a small loan of about 100k at a rate in the 4 percent-ish range. I don't think it makes sense to pay it off early with money from the investment portfolio. I'm recently retired, and DW has a few years to go.
 
audreyh1 said:
84% with paid off home is a very impressive number! And I bet many of the remaining have super low rate mortgages.
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I'm actually impressed by the number of folks that have a similar or lower rate than our own.

Frankly, we could pay off the loan at any time, but why bother?
 
We made the "mistake" of paying off a low interest mortgage a few years ago. Covid-era uncertainty, plus job uncertainty at the time, we felt there was more value in owning the home outright. There is a certain feeling, and value, when you own a home with no liens. But when we look at what that money could have done in the market since then just by stuffing it in some index funds? Yeah, there was a cost. Such is life. We did what we felt was right and in our best interest at the time.
 
Paid off when I turned 45 by sending in an additional $200 per-month principle payment along with my mortgage payment. That reduced my 15 year mortgage to 10 years. It's been 25 years now, since I've had a mortgage payment!
 
chemEguy said:
Nope. But in 2022 (I think) we refi’d our 30 year mortgage with 20 years left to a 15 year mortgage.

Interest rate? How about 1.875% no points.
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Holy Moly!!!

Wish I could have gotten that rate... I tried to refi mine (at 3.125%) but the loan amount was too small to get any kind of good rate.. so, have to live with what I got..
 
When I was married and owned my home, it was fully paid for. When we divorced and I bought a condo I took a small mortgage for 85K because the interest rate was 2.75 so I took a 30 year loan. Obviously, I will never live to pay that off. That’s fine with me.
 
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