I don’t think it is necessarily stupid to pay off low interest debt today. I’m in a situation now where I’m debating jumping in on the low end of the market with a 3-4 year mortgage payoff goal. My plan would be to be debt free and have a greatly reduced cost of living which would free me up to do what I really want in life without depending on my current income. I’d rather not pay rent or a mortgage. That would cut my monthly income requirement in half.
To each his own, but I see a huge attraction to debt free living. I don’t want to be tied to my current job and income and feel reducing liabilities would be greatly liberating.
I predict the response to this way of thinking would be that I should save my extra money now instead of paying down low interest debt so I can invest it in the future at a rate of return greater than my mortgage once CD rates rise.
At some point it comes down to what you value in life. Right now I feel I would value debt free living today over higher savings rate at some unknown future date.
