Paying off the mortgage because debt free feels good

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Scott 2
Posts: 2825
Joined: Sun Feb 12, 2012 10:34 pm

Re: Paying off the mortgage because debt free feels good

Post by Scott 2 »

Well, I now owe one cent on my mortgage - the closest I could get through the website.

The final payoff amount includes this month's accrued interest and a $40 free. I don't have a printer to mail in the form, and I'm not paying thirty bucks for a wire transfer. I figure this stops accrual of significant interest and will trigger them to send the final form.

I did learn once paid, the bank needs to do some stuff related to releasing the lien against the home. Then after a month, I need to reach out to my insurer to have them removed, and to the county, to ensure they are removed and I have a copy of the document that proves I own the house.

So I guess I'm doing it this year.


Lucky C - Still trying to make time to look at the math more. I'm at the end of my accumulation phase, continuing to work because my situation is good, so the numbers are a little different.

lilacorchid
Posts: 476
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2011 3:20 pm
Location: Canada

Re: Paying off the mortgage because debt free feels good

Post by lilacorchid »

Congrats!!!

We did it on the old house and I personally loved having the extra cash flow which is really the big change. The non-logical part of me was thrilled with having so much more freedom with my money. We recently bought a new house and decided to take out nearly the entire amount on a HELOC just because we like the freedom so much. My husband also has a job where his hours change, so he is pretty happy to have that freedom as well.

Scott 2
Posts: 2825
Joined: Sun Feb 12, 2012 10:34 pm

Re: Paying off the mortgage because debt free feels good

Post by Scott 2 »

I was able to remove my lender from my property insurance via the insurance company website. The release of lien appeared in the website of my county recorder, along with the releases from my prior refinances, which I suppose I should have looked for in the past.

It feels great to be debt free. Not that I had money stress before, but I feel wealthy now. The downside is much of my motivation to be financially responsible seems to have disappeared with the debt. I just spent forty bucks getting pizza delivered, cause hey, it's Monday and why not?

cmonkey
Posts: 1814
Joined: Mon Apr 21, 2014 11:56 am

Re: Paying off the mortgage because debt free feels good

Post by cmonkey »

Scott 2 wrote:The release of lien appeared in the website of my county recorder
I actually took screenshots of the records on the county website, as if the official document wasn't good enough. :D

Congrats!

Scott 2
Posts: 2825
Joined: Sun Feb 12, 2012 10:34 pm

Re: Paying off the mortgage because debt free feels good

Post by Scott 2 »

Revisiting this, financial stress is pretty much non existent without a mortgage. For me, the low cash flow demands provide a better quality of life.

Correspondingly, so is some financial discipline. Anything under $100 feels irrelevant. From the perspective of maximizing net worth, paying the loan off was suboptimal behavior.

I'd do it again though. Maybe even sooner.

Papers of Indenture
Posts: 197
Joined: Sun Sep 01, 2013 11:40 am
Location: Baltimore, Maryland

Re: Paying off the mortgage because debt free feels good

Post by Papers of Indenture »

I'm planning on doing the same.

Dragline
Posts: 4436
Joined: Wed Aug 24, 2011 1:50 am

Re: Paying off the mortgage because debt free feels good

Post by Dragline »

It certainly would be a good diversification move at this stage if you had been riding the bull market but are worried about getting bucked off.

ThisDinosaur
Posts: 997
Joined: Fri Jul 17, 2015 9:31 am

Re: Paying off the mortgage because debt free feels good

Post by ThisDinosaur »

I do both. Half my savings goes to stocks and the other half to mortgage and student loans. It doesn't make sense to buy bonds with a lower interest rate than my debt, but I'd also hate to miss out on any irrational exuberance.

thrifty++
Posts: 1171
Joined: Sat May 23, 2015 3:46 pm

Re: Paying off the mortgage because debt free feels good

Post by thrifty++ »

In a sense though having zero debt might give you the freedom to take higher risk actions which have a higher potential reward. Eg high risk stocks, starting higher risk business strategies, taking up new career options which you would have otherwise not have undertaken etc.

Jason

Re: Paying off the mortgage because debt free feels good

Post by Jason »

For someone my age, my net worth is weighted towards securities as opposed to house, so I've been very aggressive recently.

I understand rationally the rent vs. buy vs. payoff enchilada, but I want to be done with it.

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