[David]

I know that for many people, the goal is to have a paid house before retirement, and I believe financial experts will provide the same advice.

As for me, I am preparing to buy a new house, but I have decided to save up to 30% of the money before financing the remaining amount.

I just prefer to have cash in the bank for emergencies, rather than spending it on equity that I may find difficult to obtain. Perhaps this is also because I am just a Paranoia.

Everything in the United States seems to be so turbulent due to politics, extreme weather, etc., that if SHTF and I have to move to other places in a hurry, I have cash to get housing in other places, otherwise the money will be trapped in a house that I may not be able to sell quickly or cannot sell at all.

Curious about others’ opinions on this..

[Kim]

I prefer to at least have a primary residence paid off, the sooner the better. Having to pay for anything, including a roof over your head, affects your cash flow.

[David]

Paranoia is expensive.

[Dion]

The last thing I would ever want would be a paid off primary house.

Cash flow sets us free not equity.

And if I wanted equity I would prefer paid off rentals. Since the primary home gets a better interest rate.

Suggested: Is there a general knowledge of when house prices should be going down?

[Andrea]

To each, their own. Do what lets you sleep at night.

[Dion]

You can’t take our a mortgage that will never be repaid, they will only give you up to your working life pension age…

[David]

Cash ain’t gonna save you if SHTF.

We just bought a modest house for cash and we are excited that we won’t haemve a 7.5% mortgage or that I’ll be a slave to a high paying job. We did the big house with a payment thing and it was stressful to us making that $2500 payment every month and then HOA fees and the higher everything that comes with a bigger house….and that was at a 3% rate.

Now I could go work at Starbucks or Home Depot 20hrs a week for a few years and we’d be OK.

You can check also: My biggest goal is saving for a house

[Nicholas]

I am in the no debt camp. Going into retirement with all debt paid off relieves potential worries. I also would not want to generate extra taxes by needing to cash in investments for house payments. I do appreciate this is a personal choice.

[Suzanne]

For me… having the literal security of a “roof over my head” in the late stage of my life is much preferable to any return that I could gain by investing this same amount. We tend to not see the reality of old age which might certainly include an unwillingness to move from place to place which renting could create.

I’m a nomad at heart and live international but I suspect as I get closer to my 80’s I would want to stay put.

If anything, a reverse mortgage would make more sense if I don’t care about it being “paid off” but don’t want the burden of having to have the cash to pay the loan or risk not owning the property.

Would you also like to explore: My husband and I are trying to weight pros and cons of selling our house

[Tamara]

I like having no house payment, but if I have to, I’ll consider a reverse mortgage to access equity. You can also tap that equity in other ways. A house payment also affects cash flow.

[Laurel]

Completely agree. Plus with the tax incentives, you can’t lose! Check out Ric Edelman – he’s an amazing award-winning financial planner that recommends the same thing. It sometimes feels like I’m making a mistake, but then I go back and read his books and few better about it!

[Shelly]

I did something similar. I prefer to have multiple streams of money and I’m getting more from high yield savings accounts than my mortgage interest costs.

I absolutely did not want to be house poor.

I do pay extra every month and did a 15 year mortgage.

[Jule]

It depends on how much money you have. Some people would prefer to have less expenses due to low income. Others don’t mind having a mortgage because they gave more than enough assets to cover for their expenses and prefer to have the money invested.

[Jessica]

That’s one way to look at it. The other way is to have a paid off house, if property taxes go up, you just have that, not a mortgage. These two ways of financial advice have been around a very very long time.

For me, I would rather start my retirement with no mortgage, or owe very little on the mortgage. But you can always buy a house after retirement too. My dad and his wife bought a different house and he was 82 and she 79.

There are always HELOC and reverse mortgages too. Do what works for ya.

[Author]

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