Should I Pay Off My Mortgage? Pros and Cons

Should you pay off your mortgage?

This lesson assumes you currently have a mortgage on a primary residence and are now asking “Should I pay off my mortgage?” You are deliberating between paying it off as soon as you can, making payments for the full term, or some hybrid between the two options.

Numbers, psychology, and behavioral finance are all part of the equation. Because you know how to make decisions that align with your values, you will make a decision that works for you at this point of your journey and you will continue to revisit and reconsider over time. That is just fine. This lesson provides you with different and justifiable perspectives to consider.

Read:

• Waking Up in a Paid-Off House // A Farewell to Our Mortgage  by Tanja Hester of ournextlife.com
• Showdown! Should You Pay Off Your Mortgage or Invest?  by Paula Pant of affordanything.com
• The Actual Math Behind Paying Down Your Mortgage vs Investing  by A Blinkin of funancials.biz
• Am I Crazy for Paying Down My 2.875% Mortgage?  by A Blinkin of funancials.biz. This post is written three years after the one above it and depicts just how factors can have a variety of impacts over time in one’s own journey.
• Debt Free by Forty: Why I Chose to Pay Off My Mortgage  by Physician on Fire of physicianonfire.com
• The New Reason To Pay Off Your Mortgage Now  by Ashlea Ebeling of forbes.com

Take Action:

1. Visit Mortgage Payoff Calculator – Extra Payments. Familiarize yourself with the calculator by inserting your loan amount and the time duration for which you could pay off your mortgage. You will see how much a monthly additional payment would be and the interest savings for your assertiveness. During this exercise try to imagine what it would feel like to no longer have a mortgage payment and to possibly be 100% debt-free. Is that worth a few percentage points difference you may have earned if you kept the mortgage payments the same and invested additional funds in a stock market index fund?

Additional Resources:

• Paying Off the Mortgage is a Mistake I’ll Never Regret  by Rob of mustardseedmoney.com on physicianonfire.com
• Is Now the Time to Pay Down Your Mortgage?  by Allan Roth of aarp.org
• 8 Compelling Reasons to Pay Off Your Mortgage Early  by Andy Hill of marriagekidsandmoney.com

Quote:

“Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.” – Matsuo Basho