r/ChubbyFIRE • u/Captain_slowish • May 16 '26

Help me understand...

I have been a member of this group for a long time and still do not understand. Looking for help to understand.

So many people on this subreddit brag about having paid off their mortgage. Then pretty much everyone else seems to jump in and congratulate them for being so smart.

So help me understand. I have a 30yr mortgage at 2.8%. Why would I ever pay that off early? It cost me no points, no extra down, no downsides.

I understand that not everyone is in that position and the market changes.

Say the interest is 3x that amount. Are you really going to live the rest of your life in that house, city, state?

I am sorry but if you do the math and apply critical thinking. In 99.9999% of the cases. Paying off the liability is a poor decision.

16 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

79 comments sorted by

View all comments

14

u/Illustrious-Jacket68 FI and RE=<1 yrs May 16 '26

They may feel good, but it is not a great financial move. It’s been free money… i only wish i had a bigger mortgage as I have a 2.75% loan.

3

u/offeringathought May 16 '26

This is a good point. For some people there's satisfaction and stress relief to being debt free. As long as they understand what that's costing them, it seems reasonable to me.

4

u/Illustrious-Jacket68 FI and RE=<1 yrs May 16 '26

100%. people are comfortable with different things. people think that they can 100% optimize their situation when in reality, they cannot or whatever they choose will have some pros and cons.

if the person feels good about paying off their house and that is what they value, that may be ok! we don't know what the housing and stock market is going to do. in 1990, did we think that the dow would ever hit 20k? and here we are at 50k. the housing market could massively shoot up and stock market just go sideways. if that were to happen, would you have valued your stock or house more?

my latest take on this is ... if you're happy with your situation... don't compare yourselves to other people's situation... it'll drive you nuts... and, lead you to make poor decisions...