No debt at all other than what is charged and paid monthly. (Age 61-me 59-H) Love the freedom.
We also have a good amount saved for retirement. So hopefully, God willing, we will have a challenging and exciting retirement. But not for several years.
What I meant by challenging is something I want to do in retirement, not financially challenging.
My mortgage isn’t scheduled to be paid off until I am 74. We had to buy our first house when my husband accepted a call to a church that did not provide housing and moved from a church that had provided a parsonage. Because of the provided house, the salary was very low, which meant we financed 100% of the house.
I’m 56 now, and will never be able to retire. Husband lost the pastor job and now makes minimum wage, so no more extra payments against the mortgage. I moonlight to pay it as it is. It is VERY scary. I am trying to convince husband (who will probably never serve another church) to officially retire as a pastor and start drawing his denomination pension at age 62 (a year from now) while still working his current job so that we can pay off the mortgage sooner.
61 and mortgage paid off about 3 years ago. However, I’ve been uncertain/confused as to whether paying off the mortgage should be driven primarily by age or by employment and cashflow in the coming years. What I mean is this - both DW & I are gainfully employed and fully capable of handling the mortgage; perhaps we would have been better off investing instead of making extra payments. The returns with the latter option, given the relatively low mortgage rates and tax benefits seems worse.
I think 55-65 s a pretty broad age range for this question - and it will also vary depending on where you live. I would guess that if you live in a less expensive part of the country - say a median housing price of $200,000 or less - it would seem reasonable to be mortgage free by 60. But if you live in a more expensive part of the country - probably less realistic. So, while we will have a mortgage until we sell our house and relocate, the equity in our home will make it possible for us to downsize and buy the next home for cash.
^ If Rockville is a city in the area/state I think it is, it is a quite upper-end area (in my standard.)
The house we own in another state is not in a very expensive area as compared to houses in many expensive areas on either coast.
If we did not move and did not refinance, we would have paid off the mortgage. We had actually been living in that city long enough to pay off a 15-year mortgage easily. But we could not afford to live in a good school district in the first half of our years in that city. (We actually lived in a cheap apartment for several years first and then bought a house in a less-than-ideal, “wrong” school district.) Refinancing our last house two times (I think) prevented us from paying off the mortgage also. Well, we can not have everything; something has to give.
I am excited about how much money we will be able to squirrel away once we pay off the house. If I work for another 10 years… We plan, the Fates laugh!
We got a 30-year mortgage in '97, and refinanced a few times as rates came down. Our last refi was to a 15-year mortgage at 3.25%, which will be paid off slightly before our original mortgage would have ended, when I will be 64. We could buy the house for cash, but prefer to invest the money that would otherwise be tied up in home equity. Although I will be happy when it’s gone!