Given your family situation – I agree with your wife – she has a job. A very important one.
But stress will kill you. My husband was working on a very stressful job – his BP was where yours was. I talked him into quitting and getting a different job. It was 4 years ago – and a different job market, though.
Like you, I’ve got 9 years left on a 15 year mortgage. Unlike you, I’m older, with younger kids. We’re looking at retirement coincident with college. There is no way I want a mortgage in that time frame.
You need to do something – you’re no good to your kids and wife if you stroke out. I see your options as:
– change your stress levels by adjusting your work load.
– take out very healthy sized long term disability insurance and life insurance – so if you do stroke out your family is still taken care of.
– change your stress levels by reassessing your finances.
When you bought the house – did you think the mortgage that you took out was too big for your budget? Or did things change in the meantime? You planned on paying it on this schedule, what changed? The value of the underlying house is really irrelevant if you bought the house to live in – not as an investment.
