[quote=harvey]Did all the refinancing really pay off? Typically a refi takes a few years before the interest savings is break-even with the costs. Seems unlikely that one would come out ahead with several refinances if the loan was going to be paid off in only ten years.[/quote]

Actually, it did. Because each time I did it it was at least .5% difference and each loan I held for at least 2 years and on a 15 year, the principle gets chewed down pretty quickly, especially in some months was was making a double payment for principle only. My first loan was at 30 year @ 5.75%…My last loan was 15year 2.5% ..Lol…. What helped chew down the principle was getting on a 15 year on my second refi, because personally I didn’t like how on the 30 year the first 4-5 years, most of it just goes towards interest payments.

Also, I guess plans change. I was planning to just drag this out, but the Broadcom’s acquisition kinda of threw a positive bone on the equity side, and meanwhile switching to smaller and riskier company made me sort of want to finish this off in case things don’t work out and I join a startup or something else that doesn’t pay as well as before or maybe I’ll just start to take things easier and work less.

Also, I’m looking at the stock market, and I didn’t really do that well this year. I was negative this year on the active managed portion of my portfolio, because idiot me was thinking “oh with a 2.5% 15 year mortgage, I can easily beat that by putting my money into high dividend, high quality stocks like Chevron, Exxon Mobil, and other assorted energy stock..and it’s definitely a lot safer to do that then leaving my money in Broadcom common stock”. Oops… Yeah, that worked out really well for me.

Fortunately, I came out slightly ahead after the stock appreciation from Broadcom’s acquisition and it more or less compensated for the losses I ended up taking in oil/gas/energy. Selling some some index funds earlier for long term cap gains also helped. But yeah, when my energy/gas/oil took nose dive, it got me thinking….Paying of my mortgage is like paying myself 2.5% return, which is still better than the -15 to -20% my oil/gas/energy dividend investment was going to pay me if that’s all I did.

Oh well, chalk this up as lesson learned. Don’t get too greedy and think you can outsmart the markets all the time. Sometimes boring is good.