Anyone mortgage free?

We aren't mortgage free and don't plan to be (unless we do what the OP did, which isn't happening). I'm not selling my house to buy a double wide. I will sell to downsize but unless we move far from where we are, we can't pay cash even with our 300K in equity unless we want a small condo. Funny, depending on where you live what you consider a hefty mortgage payment. Ours is $3800 and our property taxes are 9K/yr and we've been here 15 years (refinanced to 3.75% a few years ago). Now, we have almost 6000 sq feet on 2/3 acre, but to "downsize" to even 2000 sq feet we would still have a mortgage payment. Our financial planner doesn't seem too concerned about us paying it off, but he knows we do plan to downsize and our retirement income will more than cover it. I'm retiring in just under 2 years when I'm 60 and DH plans to in about 4 years when he's 65. We have no other debt and currently live on about 1/2 of our take home pay which leaves plenty to tithe, vacation, add to our investments, and gift to others so having a mortgage doesn't really bother us. I know almost no one who is mortgage free under the age of 65 or 70 in this area (NoVA). Most who are either inherited money or have been in their homes 30 years and paid it off over that time. We probably will start paying ours down a bit, but we need to do some renovations to our 15 year old bathroom which will probably run at least 35K.

I was watching Fixer Upper last night, and a move in ready 3,000 square foot house in Waco was selling for $175,000. I say move in ready, because it had some "different" colored tile in the kitchen and interesting color choices for the walls that most of us would change, but structurally and functionally it was perfect. I know other cities a house like that would easily be well over $1 million.
My house payment was $1,100 for a $100,000 house at 12.25% 30 year (we jumped in 1983 when mortgage rates fell from 15%!) I actually paid $100 extra, so $1,200 a month. I refi-ed in 1987 to a 30 year at 9 % and a $900 payment. And I refied to a 15 year at 6.25% at $620 a month in 1991. House paid off in 2000. But the trick was, we never lowered what we paid each month from $1,200.
My property taxes started at $1,000 in 1983. Today they are $2,200 on a house valued by Zillow at $460,000. But in California property taxes are capped at 1% of what paid for the house, with the tax allowed to increase no more than 3% a year.
 
No, but we could be at any time. We have a low-interest mortgage, and enough in investments to cover it. Our plan is to have the house paid off before DH retires in 10 years. Could be next month (if we get tired of the payments), could be the week before he retires. Personally, I'd like to pay it off sooner rather than later, but it's tough to argue about the spread between the interest we're paying the the return on our other investments.
 
Yes, property taxes - around $500. Fee $285 which includes water and landscaping.

Still a wide swing to the plus side for you so far as housing costs go . Enjoy those extra tens of thousands of dollars each year!
 


Yes, and have been for the last 24 years here in the Albuquerque area. Paid off the house on 2.25 acres in 9 years by not buying new cars (old cars were paid off), no vacations, no extras period. We've kept up the simple budget by saving and paying (dickering) cash every 10 years for a new vehicle and remodeling the house as needed (contractors love cash).
 
We've kept up the simple budget by saving and paying (dickering) cash every 10 years for a new vehicle and remodeling the house as needed (contractors love cash).

are we related???? the first thing i ask any contractor is 'do you do a cash discount?', the second (if for some ODD reason they don't) is 'what about if i pay you by check instead of using my credit card?' (if they don't then i'll use the card for the reward dollars and turn around and pay it in full).

i LOVE cash discounts.
 
are we related???? the first thing i ask any contractor is 'do you do a cash discount?', the second (if for some ODD reason they don't) is 'what about if i pay you by check instead of using my credit card?' (if they don't then i'll use the card for the reward dollars and turn around and pay it in full).

i LOVE cash discounts.

Holy Guacamole, maybe we are. Way too many similar posts lately.
As a civil engineer I deal with contractors all the time. Cash is #1 (along with a good set of plans and specifications).
 


It takes a lot of stress off of us, considering that we both are retiring in 5 years. Our only expenses are:

HOUSING

HOA fee - $285 a month, which includes water and landscaping
Property taxes - $500 a year, we are homesteaders
Electric - $150 a month with AC running throughout the year

FOOD

We have date night on Friday's and spend anywhere from $30 to $100, but usually on the lower end
Plated meal service - $60 a week for 3 meals
Supplements - $60 a week including cleaning supplies and pet food

ENTERTAINMENT
Cable/Internet - $100 which we are getting rid of when our contract is up in January
Cell Phone - $60 through T-Mobile 55+ plan

CAR

My car - totally paid for
My husband's car - $350 a month - when we retire, we are getting down to one car
Car Insurance - $600 a year
Gasoline - $40 a week - I travel 60 miles to work and my husband works from home

Plus miscellaneous expenses
 
Car Insurance - $600 a year
Gasoline - $40 a week - I travel 60 miles to work and my husband works from home

let your insurance company know when you retire b/c eliminating that work commute could result in a lowered cost (ours went down when we stopped commuting and the number of miles we put on the cars annually drastically decreased).
 
We were - but with a 3.8% mortgage (not including the tax break) and most of my stocks paying 6% or greater dividends based off when I bought them, it made far more sense to take out another small mortgage and invest in dividend stocks.
 
We hope to be mortgage-free in the next year or so. We are slowing cleaning out our 5-bedroom home and plan to put it on the market. We've decided we no longer want to deal with landscaping, roof, fences, etc. We have been looking at townhomes in the the area and are narrowing which areas and styles we like best. After selling our house and paying off what's left of the mortgage, we will pay cash for a townhome and have some cash leftover. We have an adult son who lives with us, and another who is off at college. We keep joking that one day he'll come home to find a note on the door with our new address. He's fine with us moving, as long as we save him a bedroom and he doesn't have to sleep in the garage. I think we can arrange that.
 
Yes never had a mortgage here rented the first two years we were married and worked hard to buy our first home cash at 500k at 30 years old we beat the rat race. Now with a baby my wife stays home and I’m self employed our health insurance is 2,250$ a month so it feels like a mortgage.
 
Mortgage free 1974-2001, had a house built and paid cash, sold that last year, before selling borrowed money from our oldest son to have enough to downsize and buy a townhouse. The house we sold last year sold on the second day so we could pay back our son after two months. Now mortgage free again. Since we changed states we do pay an HOA fee on the townhouse, but our taxes are $2,000 less per year and utilities are a lot less. Now the kids are telling us "just go spend your money and have fun" so we are in Hawaii at the moment.
 
Mortgage free 1974-2001, had a house built and paid cash, sold that last year, before selling borrowed money from our oldest son to have enough to downsize and buy a townhouse. The house we sold last year sold on the second day so we could pay back our son after two months. Now mortgage free again. Since we changed states we do pay an HOA fee on the townhouse, but our taxes are $2,000 less per year and utilities are a lot less. Now the kids are telling us "just go spend your money and have fun" so we are in Hawaii at the moment.

Yay! For having fun and spending your $ the way you want. Enjoy!
 
Yes. Graduated college and worked two jobs. Paid off student loans in two years. Purchased our first home at a foreclosure, made improvements and sold it 10 years later making a large profit. Built our house with the profit and took out a small mortgage in 2007. Paid that mortgage off and we are debt free in our 40s with our children starting college in about 2 years. Our taxes and insurance were never part of our mortgage.
 
were mortgage free for 4 years and took early retirement and SS would have had the house paid off sooner but we live in an area where the public schools are worthless so we had to shell out big bucks for private school especially high school--college was actually cheaper then sending them to private high school--

we both love the freedom not having a mortgage --we both work though very limited part time

DH is a sub teacher--and I work pool at the hospital where I retired from--so we both basically work when someone needs time off or short on the schedule--my only requirement is 3 days per month--which is very easy to do and even then there are some weeks where I don't work at all

the only issue is we have to watch how much we make for SS and since our insurance is income based we guesstimate what income will be--which is another issue since how do you guesstimate when you have no clue how much youll work--last year we got hit with a penalty on taxes since we guessed to low!!
 
That is your choice. We would have never had the money to pay our mortgage before we retired.
I guess it depends on how old you are when you bought the house. We were both 25 when we bought our house, so with a 30 year mortgage it still would have been paid off more than 10 years before full retirement age.
 

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