Paying off a mortgage (if you can) should be determined by the rate you are paying.
My rate was 3.25%. When I could only get 3% in a bond or cd, I paid it down.
But now I wish I had the money because I can earn a higher rate and thus make money on the bank’s money.
So a lot depends on the rate of your mortgage.
I hate speculating how other people spend their money.
We have no idea how much other people have, how they got it and how much debt they have.
In a physician’s case, for instance, we don’t know if their parents paid for medical school. We don’t know who paid for undergrad. They could have had a parent who was in the military and gave their benefit to their child. We don’t know if the physician was in the military or worked in a program that paid off their loans. We don’t know if they are paying back their loans or are in a PLSF program. We don’t know how much their spouse makes. We don’t know if their spouse has parents who paid for the down payment on the house. Or pay for their vacations. Or wedding. So many different scenarios.
See what I mean.
We just don’t know and it’s a fool errand to speculate about other people’s finances.
Regarding Dave Ramsey, I can see why he appeals to some people. He has a method for getting out of debt, and it works well for many people who are in debt. He provides a set of rules in a one size fits all situation, and many people in debt need that these types of strict rules to get their finances under control. However, for the general population besides those in debt, much of his financial advice is questionable at best.
Some examples are below. Note that I am not a Ramsey follower, so my understanding of the comments below may be incomplete. I do not agree with any of these recommendations. The 8% safe withdrawal rate is especially problematic. However, I can see benefits of snowball credit card debt method in certain situations. The best debt strategy is the one that results in paying off the high interest debt, and some persons need the “snowball” method to stay motivated enough to keep going.
When considering the repayment of a mortgage based on prevailing “funding” investment alternatives you need to consider the amortizing structure of most residential mortgages.
Mortgage loans are generally structured so that a larger portion of your early payments goes towards interest than principal. This is often referred to as “front-loading” the interest and had significant tax consequences.
Consequently you need to be a lot more nuanced then just comparing rates and should take into consideration the remaining life of the mortgage, the tax implications, any mortgage variability and the dynamic nature of interest rates and alternative investments.
We paid off our low interest rate mortgage prior to first retirement because we didn’t want to have to worry about it, and it felt good/helped us sleep at night. I KNEW it wasn’t the smartest thing to do financially, but we still did it.
We have a 3% mortgage that will be paid off in 5 years.
Every financial advisor we’ve talked to tells us not to pay down that mortgage.
Yes, paying off a 3% mortgage is sub-optimal from a pure Finance standpoint. That said, the FA’s ignore ‘psychic income’ which can be had by being debt free.
fwiw: I am a Finance guy and paid off our 3.125% mortgage to be done with it. No fuss, no muss.
btw: FA’s earn fewer commissions when you take assets out of their control to payoff a mortgage…
I find that taking financial advice is a lot like taking parenting advice. Most people have a core set of values, and it’s easy to find “experts” who agree with your line of thinking, and that’s where you tend to gravitate. The Ramit Sethi of today is my T. Berry Brazelton of yesteryear, ya know?
Exactly! This is why I stay in my own lane when it comes to finances. Not my business to speculate on circumstances of others.
There you go. 
Same, I refinanced in 2021 at 2.65 and jeeesh i can get CDs and HYSA that pay 4-5%
I don’t have a list, but I know a couple that is worth more than $20 billion. Neither had rich parents. He started a business, which is still going strong, and branched into some additional businesses. She has her own business that does very well, but I think that most of their money comes from the businesses he runs. They are philanthropists who give a lot of money to social and artistic causes. They are lovely people who understand how lucky they are - many have worked just as hard & weren’t as successful.
I agree about inflation. However, I expect the Secure 2.0 2025 calendar year changes that force employers to default their 401k forms to auto-enroll will have more influence than improved financial literacy. One Vanguard review found that 401k enrollment rates increased from 28% to 92%, when the form default changed from need to check a box to enroll to need to check a box to not enroll. Thaler won the Nobel prize for this type of “nudge” behavioral economics, including the 401k enrollment effect described above.
I also like Sethi and I said “ohhhh T Berry Brazelton” out loud when I read your comment. When we had our first, friends had given us books spanning the spectrum from BabyWise to the Sears’ Attachment Parenting book. It was confusing, to say the least. We landed on Brazelton and the AAP guides as our trusted experts. Which does make a lot of sense in the context of your comment re: parenting advice and financial advice.
I feel for young parents with all the dreck on the internet telling them they are doing it wrong. Too much input can be a bad thing.
Also depends on your risk profile and how you value liquidity. I would compare my mortgage rate with my long term investment returns instead of short term bond/CD/money market rates. Also for a mortgage, I would tax effect the interest cost when determining if it makes sense to pay down earlier. Usually your mortgage debt is the last to pay down as it is usually your cheapest debt.
It is math and behavior. Agree with you 100%.
Having a budget, and emergency fund, and savings/investing is information that has been around a long time.
The term ‘working paycheck to paycheck’ is not new. To me, that is very stressful living.
What has thrown people off IMHO has been high interest rates with credit cards and ‘revolving credit’, and student loans. They anticipate things happening differently ‘in the future’ with more money to pay the bills - but then the time value of money catches up with them in a bad way – they have growing debt but are not changing spending or earning behavior. With student debt, paying the minimum and not seeing how long they are stringing out the debt. Some see their student debt as a hindrance from moving forward with other adult things - home ownership, having children, or they move forward always being in debt and not truly being able to retire. Some may not see the importance of making some sacrifices in the short term for long term benefits. Reaping the rewards of having money and gaining more of a nest egg with the time value of money working for them with their investments.
We also have some debt on our home, paying 2.5% interest rate on a portion of what the home is worth. We SWAN.
We also use credit cards and a few store cards and pay off each bill every month, so pay no interest or fees.
For us, it is about convenience and benefits.
We had to ride home in an Uber last night as the person who was to pick us up had a flat tire. Interesting conversation with the driver who is into buying futures with puts and calls. Totally out of my frame of reference, but he and my husband had an interesting conversation.
To many post here are off topic.