The dream of home ownership isn't really that special. While it's nice to have a place you can call home you don't own it outright until your mortgage is paid off. My two bedroom place is ideal for a single professional geek like me, however sometimes I regret buying it and wish I'd rented for longer.
Sure I love my pad, it's in a nice neighbourhood, close to a park and the local shops are handy and yet I feel tied down, not only to the mortgage payments but also to the maintenance and repairs that have needed doing since I bought it. On top of the building insurance I pay every month.
To be honest I'd like to "own my house" and become mortgage free. With my credit card debt gone I have extra money to put into the mortgage. This is my next debt step.
Some might think I should invest the money for a higher return. For me it doesn't make sense, right now I'll leave my work pension to invest every month. The fact is paying off your mortgage early will save you thousands in interest payments.
I don't want any form of debt and that means the mortgage too. I'm sick of giving banks my hard earned cash and paying them for decades so I can have a roof over my head at over twice the price of the property.
With all your debt gone you can build wealth faster instead of banks and credit companies taking it away every day. I prefer having no debt then a 30 year mortgage eating at my investments.
Imagine not having any lenders and being empowered to invest without any debts dinting your assets. A home that's paid off quicker is more of an asset then slaving away making the interest payments.
Having a mortgage is also a risk without an emergency fund in place. What would happen if you couldn't make the payments for some reason like illness or an accident. Do you have insurance and an emergency fund to cover for an unexpected crisis?
I want to pay off my mortgage faster over investing because that's my personal choice. When I get my mortgage statement and see that 75% of the payments only cover the interest and the actually balance hardly goes down it makes perfect sense that I should work to pay it off faster rather than invest in the markets.
Having no debt is better than having debt and once all the debt is gone and the mortgage paid off I'll gain years to plough the saving into index funds.
I'm paying off my mortgage early, without a mortgage you can be finally free from debt and it zapping away your wealth. Complete debt freedom means you don't owe a penny and you never need to borrow money again.
What would you do with the money, invest or clear the mortgage faster? If you have a mortgage how would you feel if it was cleared earlier? Let me know by the commenting below.
