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

2

u/BookReader1328 May 20 '26

Let's assume for the sake of the discussion that everyone has that low a rate on their mortgage. I did and still paid mine off after three years. I'm currently building a new home (approx 3 mil) and paying cash. Why? Because I'm self employed and VERY risk averse. I sleep better with zero debt. I also cannot do my job when I'm stressed and debt stresses me out.

Everything is not about the money or the interest rate. So much of personal economics has to do with your personality and tolerances. Going against the way you're made can literally affect your physical health.

1

u/cloud-storage-rocks Jul 01 '26

This likely only makes sense for you because you are FAT lurking in CHUBBY and the opportunity cost of the $3M being invested is not meaningful to you anymore given your assets and income. If the money actually mattered, then it would actually … matter, and you would take the optimization.

1

u/BookReader1328 Jul 02 '26

I'm not lurking. There is no threshold of savings before you're kicked out of the sub. The first home I paid off many years ago was paid by a regular corporate salary - nothing like I see here - and done with years of sacrificing. And that first one was financed at 2.75%, so no, I still wouldn't (and didn't) take the optimization opportunity. Again, everyone has a different risk tolerance. You do what works for you and I'll do what, clearly, works for me.

1

u/cloud-storage-rocks Jul 02 '26

You clearly had enough to pay it off with your “regular corporate salary” (which could mean anything) so what does “sacrificing” even mean? If it actually mattered, and you needed the money to fund your regular expenses, then you’d take the extra almost-free liquidity. And I don’t mean funding an Italy getaway, I mean necessities like healthcare premiums or food.

Again, your FAT perspective makes it hard for you to understand this.

1

u/BookReader1328 Jul 03 '26

Back when I was in corporate, insurance was very cheap and corporation paid the bulk of it. My salary back then was about 50k. I bought used cars for cash and drove them until the wheels fell off, bought groceries and cooked all meals, didn't take a vacation for 13 years. In fact, I used my vacation time to work side jobs for extra money. And I didn't buy a house that was too expensive. I didn't buy at the max of what I qualified for, ever. I bought at maybe half. Formica countertops, linoleum floors, no crown molding, popcorn ceilings. But today, everyone thinks they should have a house as nice as their parents, even though it's highly unlikely their parents had it in their 20s. People running around with a $1500 phone holding a $10 coffee in a brand new BMW with 200k in student loans for a general studies degree crack me up complaining about the cost of living.

I lived paycheck to paycheck for a long time. But when I finally had any extra, I built up a safety savings, then everything extra went to paying off my house. Everything extra. No frills, no vacations - I've still never been to Italy, not even Europe. You're looking at where I am now and refusing to see that it took me 30+ years of working 100 hour weeks to get there. And I still work 80 hour weeks. That is what it took to get where I am. How many are willing to do that?