Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Retiring with a mortgage

One of the prospects that I have pondered is the fact that when I want to retire, it's likely that I will have a home mortgage payment to make still. In fact my wife is wanting to buy a bigger house now, so I could be making house payments until I'm in my 80's!!

That's why I found this article at Liz Strauss' blog quite interesting - Two myths that get in our way. His advice re-inforces exactly the path that I have decided to follow. I took out a HELOC and bought some real estate and have continued that strategy to pyramid my net worth during the past year. My goal is to accumulate over $1M in net worth in real estate before I retire from my engineering job. I also am on a path to have nearly $1M in my 401k if I work until I am 66, so the prospect of 20 more years of mortgage payments after retirement doesn't seem as daunting.

I love this quote:

"Would you rather retire with $12,000 a month income and a $2,500 house payment? – OR $3,000 a month income with a free and clear home?

The answer to that question is the path you’ll be on for the rest of your life. "

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I pretty much agree with you. I don't, however, view my own home as a way to get into other properties. I have no problem pulling money out of one investment property to put into another.

I see what you're getting at though. So many people look to cut their expenses to the bone instead of figuring out ways to increase their income.

-limeade

Anonymous said...

limeade has left a new comment on your post "Retiring with a mortgage":

I pretty much agree with you. I don't, however, view my own home as a way to get into other properties. I have no problem pulling money out of one investment property to put into another.

I see what you're getting at though. So many people look to cut their expenses to the bone instead of figuring out ways to increase their income.

-limeade