What age did you pay off home mortgage?

[disneychrista]

I bought my house April 2009, 30 year mortgage. I pay an extra $75 per month and put an extra $5000 when I got my first time home buyers credit last year. If all goes well I should have it paid off in about 24 (more) years, I will be 62. My goal is to have it paid off by the time I am of retirement age, which will be 80 by then .

 

[DawnM]

If we pay no extra and stay in our current home, we will be 58 when the house is paid off.

The problem will be in 7 years when our oldest hits college age. We can afford for him to live at home and commute to the local school, but that may be all we can offer unless I go back to work.

We also don't owe on anything else other than mortgage, and we do have a 6 month emergency fund and adequate retirement, but we don't have funds for things like another car, etc...if we need one.

We go back and forth about selling, even at a loss, and downsizing....but the houses we have looked at are just not meeting our needs.

SIgh.

Dawn

 

[DawnM]

If you paid cash for a house:

How did you do it? Did you live at home until you saved when you were young? Did you inherit money?

Just curious. My parents lived overseas and I had no parents to live with, so I had to rent and I rented in Los Angeles, it was very hard to save any significant amount, and certainly not enough to buy a house with, while renting and paying bills on my own.

Dawn

 

[crisi]

I think a lot of factors come into play here, especially location.

I think resources (and living within them) is somewhat more important than location - for high cost of living areas often have higher average salaries - and a lot of the people who paid it off young or bought with cash young had extraordinary income events - DVCgirl's first house was in high cost New Jersey - but they had stock options. I live in Minneapolis - not San Francisco in terms of prices - but not rural Michigan other - but we had both options and an inheritance to give us a kick on getting the mortgage paid down - while having emergency savings, retirement savings, and - how did someone put it - still "live" during our kids precious childhoods. Someone else mentioned an inheritance.

There are two parts to the budget equation - how much you spend, and how much you have to spend. Where the second is MUCH greater than the first, paying off your mortgage is not a huge deal - regardless of where you live. When you spend at the same rate you earn - and especially when your earnings are small enough to make it a struggle to do anything but that, its going to take a long time to pay off a mortgage.

There are - frankly - a lot of well off people who hang on the Dis Budget board who also happen to be frugal. Its hard and frankly not 'fair' - regardless of where you live - to compare financial status with someone who has twice or three times - or more - the average household income - and still "CVSes."

 

[mrodgers]

Age is a bit irrelevant. I don't know when I will pay mine off, but it will be much sooner than my coworker. I bought my house when I was 28. He built his 2 years ago when he was 35.

Who knows what will happen, but I'm just starting on the Dave Ramsey stuff. Thus I may have it paid off 20 years from now, or I may have it paid off in 7 after all other debts, e-fund, etc.

 

[dmank]

If the govt took away the tax deduction on mortgages, we would be a lot more willing to pay off the loan. As it stands now, we own div paying stock, fully fund our 401Ks, pay cash for the cars, have an emergency fund, fund our kids 529s and have our "play" money for DH's apple habit and my vacation addiction!!

In any case we have a 15 year mortgage, so I guess we'd be around 50 if we don't pay it early. Once the mortgage write off amt for taxes goes lower (principal higher) we'll look to pay more of it off.

That being said, if our house was paid off, I would want to move asap!! Of course, I'm always looking to upgrade - need a house with 9' ceilings since DS is destined to be 6'5".

 

[thebeesknees]

If we don't do anything more than the minimum payments, I will be 48 and DH will be 53 when it is paid off. DH maxes out the retirement funds every year and funds the kids' education accounts as much as possible, so we don't have much left after that to put toward extra principal payments; maybe $50 a month if we're lucky. Our short-term goal is to start increasing our emergency fund next year. After we have that at a more comfortable level, we will try to put more toward the mortgage.

 

[Swimalie]

If you paid cash for a house:

How did you do it? Did you live at home until you saved when you were young? Did you inherit money?

Just curious. My parents lived overseas and I had no parents to live with, so I had to rent and I rented in Los Angeles, it was very hard to save any significant amount, and certainly not enough to buy a house with, while renting and paying bills on my own.

Dawn

My husband's case, he was an officer in the military for 5 years and just saved a lot. When he got out, he had enough to pay cash for a house. The area where he lived was also inexpensive. Since then, we've moved twice, added a family and added $400,000 on to the price of a home.

 

[jmpellet]

and still "CVSes."

I'm one that CVSes but probably doesn't need to

 

[rubato]

Glad to read these two (honest) replies! When I read the first few posts I felt terrible as we will be 110 before ours are paid off! LOL

However, we too have well funded retirements, kids' college funds AND we too are choosing to *live* during these wonderful child raising years that are speeding by so quickly. And that includes traveling with them, including some WDW trips too!

[/QUOTE

I don't know if you meant it this way, but I felt insulted by your comment. I wasn't being dishonest about paying off my house and no one else probably was either. I too, am choosing to "live" during my child raising years. That's why we got the house paid off before children.
I'm sure, in thinking about it, that you didn't mean it to be insulting. And, no one who says that they paid their house off is trying to make anyone else feel insulted.

 

[disneychrista]

If the govt took away the tax deduction on mortgages, we would be a lot more willing to pay off the loan.

You do realize you are paying MORE in interest on your loan than you are saving on your taxes right? If this is the only thing holding you back PAY OFF THE MORTGAGE!

 

[tonums]

27. We bought our house in Fl after selling our fixer upper upper that was fixed in PA. This house was a fixer upper too, but its all ours! It helps alot that the market jumped radically after we bought our first house, and we moved to a lower cost of living area after selling at the peak. We only have about 30k of actual money into this house, the rest was appreciation from our first place.

 

[lisaross]

same w/me...but it will be my son!

We took out the mortgage in 97 - originally a 30 year mortgage - refinanced in 2002 for a 15 year..hoping to have it paid off when i turn 50 - husband 51. Total life of mortgage about 20 years!

We are on track to pay the mortgage off right as our DD graduates from high school.....so we will go straight from mortgage payment to college tuition

 

[DawnM]

This was my thought as well.

Now, we may have to get more kids once ours aren't eligible for a tax credit!

Dawn

You do realize you are paying MORE in interest on your loan than you are saving on your taxes right? If this is the only thing holding you back PAY OFF THE MORTGAGE!

 

[dmank]

You do realize you are paying MORE in interest on your loan than you are saving on your taxes right? If this is the only thing holding you back PAY OFF THE MORTGAGE!

I do know this. But I also know that this is one of the few deductions we receive. It's about making choices - there is limited money. Is it better to take, say, an extra 10K and pay of the house (and forego the tax deduction) or put into stocks (that pay a 5% dividend which is more than our interest rate realizing we have to pay taxes on the dividends) or funding a college fund (which gets sheltered from taxes), or buying a car on credit (no deduction), or fully fund 401K (also sheltered from taxes).

We have chosen to diversify somewhat into all of these areas, taking advantage of tax laws where we can.

If we cashed in stock and emptied most of our EF, we could pay off the loan tomorrow. We've just chosen not to do that b/c we want the diversification.

The way the markets (bond, stock, housing, money) have been over the past couple years though, I totally get paying off the mortgage - that is the one thing we owe money on and to have it paid off would be nice. It would be peace of mind, but it does come at a price (ie, foregoing other investments and limited diversification).

 

[Piglet4Ever]

We paid off our house last yr, it was a 30 yr mortgage we paid off in 6 yrs. I am in my late 30's, Dh in his early 40's. We had bought and sold two houses previous to buying this one and made a good profit which allowed us to make a sizable downpayment. We have no children and no other debts so that allowed us to put so much into the house. When DH went on deployment we put all that extra money he was making right into the loan so that was a huge help.

We feel so great having the house payed off, Right now we are renting it out while we are in a different state for DH's job, so all that money is profit that will go right into savings once the taxes are paid.

 

[stich1fan]

We are in our early 30s, and we have 5 years left. So if we make min payments I guess 38, but we did pay off our dvc already.....

 

[disneychrista]

Now, we may have to get more kids once ours aren't eligible for a tax credit!

Neither of my kids qualify this year.

I do know this .... It's about making choices - there is limited money.

I was just saying if the tax deduction is the ONLY reason one is not paying off a mortgage that, that is not the smartest choice. Now I agree it is about choices and firmly believe that everyone has to do what is right for THEIR family.

 

[rw_hadley]

We are on track to pay the mortgage off right as our DD graduates from high school.....so we will go straight from mortgage payment to college tuition

This is pretty much our plan for a big chunk of DD's college.
We'll have our mortage paid off by the time she's 12. (And I'll be fifty-mumble.)

 

[TnTWalter]

paid it off last year....hubby 40 and me 39. Probably move in about 5 years...hopefully will have enough to pay cash for most if not all of the next house.