[quote=UCGal]flu –
I think you know I paid off my house prior to retiring early. For me it allowed me to plan a retirement budget that was MUCH smaller than one that included mortgage P&I. It’s a little different situation than yours, since you’re younger and still working. If I was still working I would have put the extra money into investing… I have a fairly conservative asset allocation (60% equities, 40% bonds… 100% in index funds rather than individual stocks.)
The piece of mind having no mortgage is nice for me. Others feel differently and would rather have debt and more money to invest. We’re all wired differently.[/quote]
I was hoping you would be one of the people lurking around here and would post!!! I actually got my inspiration to pay off my mortgage earlier from you. Although my 15 year mortgage has a low 2.5% rate, I started to contemplate paying things off earlier because I felt I had too much concentrated in the stock market (individual funds, indexes, etc), and wanted a safety cushion of having a big debt paid off in case the markets go really down and my portfolio tumbles 50+% over the next few years. (I don’t think it will, but I really don’t want to take any chances IF it does). This year, the stock market didn’t treat me as well as I had hoped, and I had a lucky windfall from an acquisition and sales of other stock at the beginning of the year. So it was my way of diversifying out of the stock market and trying to get rid of my largest monthly expense. Plus, I don’t know when I will go into early retirement (voluntarily or forced 3-4 years down the road), so I guess I’m trying to play it safer now at least to guarantee I have 1 decent primary home to live in, if the rest of my finances/career crumbles.
Despite all this, I still feel like I am way to concentrated in the stock market, and was looking for more of a conservative/reliable investment. Though, I guess once I have my primary paid off, and keep my rental income in mostly cash, I guess I can afford to take more risk by staying in the markets.
The other thing I have to investigate. I am going to see if I can pay off my Mello Roos. I’ve been told that for Carmel Valley, this isn’t an option, but I’ll find out.
