About an hour ago, I paid off my mortgage.

The reality is slowly dawning on me that this was my last major task as a father and husband, and now, I owe no one nothing save for my beloved two cats.

Others who have finished paying their mortgage, what response did you have after you paid yours?

Great feeling.

Don't be shocked when your Credit Score drops for a while.

YOU are now responsible for paying your property tax and Homeowners Insurance ( no more escrow)

It’s the greatest feeling for sure. Just the peace of mind it gives you knowing you always have a nice place to live for cheap comparatively to those with a mortgage or forever renting. Now if we could get rid of property taxes.

It shows how much bs the credit score really is because mine dropped after paying off our house. The reality is who cares I will never have to borrow money for the rest of my life.

You will be amazed how quickly you will start stacking money and how quickly your portfolio will start growing.

Congratulations!

I cashed in some stocks and paid the mortgage early. It allowed me to plan for an earlier retirement and to better enjoy life. Been debt free for several years and it’s quite a load off the shoulders.

Congrats. Now you can cancel the scam that is insurance.

I paid mine off 3 months ago. Great feeling, like now I can finally relax and enjoy the rest of my life. Kind of a sense of freedom, too.

I paid mine off back in December. What a great feeling.
Debt free, until I bought a new truck in April. But I'll pay that off in 2 years or less, so not a big deal.

We paid ours off in 2010 & paid the same amount into stock accounts and cash accounts ever since. It's amazing how much it's added up to over the years.

I have about three years left on our mortgage. At 3.75% APR I see little value in paying it off early, I can earn more than that in an ordinary savings account. Yeah, it would be a little bit of a relief to not be under the obligation, but it's auto-payed from a checking account, and I rarely have to pay any attention, or (horrors!) write a check. Besides, in a cheaply-built mid-century modern house, I just know that something will cost me $major when I finally own the whole thing, Murphy just seems to work that way.

Congratulations to 2340 and those other members who have achieved one of life's most important milestones!

Looking forward to this and great to read. I’ve almost got enough equity in my current home to fully build my permanent metal home on my rural land. Well home is paid for with the equity, need a bit more appreciation to pay to be my own utility company (kWh/water). Then the double down occurs. No more mortgage, nor utility bills sans internet!

Yep...did that a long time ago by making extra payments and they had the balls the first time to use the extra money for insurance.

I kept the payments in an Excel spread sheet and came out by 1 cents in my favor.

For me it feels OK to die now. There were other moving parts, but paying off the house was the biggest goal.

Congratulations!

quote:

Originally posted by Sig2340:
I owe no one nothing

Sorry to hear you owe everyone something, though.

My response was to quit paying homeowner's insurance at the same time. The fact that flood and wind insurance were double my mortgage payments was the impetus for paying the mortgage off early. That was 19 years ago and the house is still here. We did get close to flooding last year though, but we would have been fine because I put the money that was going towards insurance into ETFs: SPY and MDY. Plus, I now drive a nicer car than my former insurance agent.

quote:

Originally posted by vinnybass:
We paid ours off in 2010 & paid the same amount into stock accounts and cash accounts ever since. It's amazing how much it's added up to over the years.

^^^^^
THIS !!!

Paid off our mortgage in October 2008. Split same amount of mortgage fund into a house maintenance account (things still break over time) and investment accounts. If you can swing it without discomfort, you should consider this.

quote:

Originally posted by Sig2340:
and now, I owe no one nothing

Except property taxes...or the bastards will come and take it!

We paid ours off maybe 10 years ago. I’m guessing because it’s been a while since I thought of a mortgage. First sense we got was it didn’t seem real. Then we spent some time building more savings liquidity. From there we decided to save the equivalent in payments into an investment account. But the feeling of freedom has been with us ever since. Except for delinquent taxes, no one can take the property away.

Congrats, OP, that's awesome! We paid ours off about 5 years ago, and it was a pretty good feeling. We did several things to make it possible. I got a credit card through the same bank our mortgage was through, and all the rewards went towards the mortgage principal (they've since changed that so you can't do that anymore). I also refinanced five years in to a 15 year loan with a much lower interest rate, which instantly shaved 10 years off our remaining term, and kept the payment about the same. I also always paid extra into the principal every month, as much as I could afford, which often was double payments. We paid off what was initially a 30 year loan in 15 years, and saved a bundle on interest.

It was the only debt we had, so it was nice to be done with it, and a great feeling to know that whatever happens now the bank can't take our house. And I have peace of mind knowing that if something happens to me, my wife and kids will at least have a place to live.

Practically speaking, our payment wasn't super high to start with (cheap repo house that we did a lot of work on ourselves), and other costs (insurance, taxes, utilities) have since ballooned to the point where I'm spending almost as much on those alone as I was a mortgage payment. So long term I didn't end up with a bunch of extra cash in the budget, but it's nice to not have to be paying for those expenses AND principal and interest at the same time.

Paid the home off early which was fantastic. Unfortunately, the property tax and insurance is now what the mortgage used to be. Now I see how seniors can be taxed out of their homes. No senior reduction for property taxes here where I live unless you are BELOW the poverty level. Basically, even if you get a pittance for social security, you will probably be above the cutoff. Scam.

Congrats!! I'm approaching the same and can't wait. One of the first things will be to allocate the mortgage payments towards savings so that I can buy a new car; current car is about 25 years old so on its last legs.

After that, will see about renting in alternative locations as possible retirement locations (while keeping the existing house as fallback).

quote:

Originally posted by Johnny 3eagles:

Don't be shocked when your Credit Score drops for a while.

Now, you are in a better position, at least potentially to not have to borrow money.
I have a great credit score (paid off mortgage) but couldn't care less, I never need it.