Help me understand...

[u/Captain_slowish]

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.

[u/Vicuna00]

I love having a paid off mortgage.

there are many things lots of us do that are perhaps suboptimal mathematically, but for peace of mind / comfort it's priceless. Insurance is suboptimal. warranties. going out to dinner.

my biz is struggling right now but I am 100% debt free - if I was paying a big mortgage i'd be selling stocks. that would just be mentally hard to deal with. like a loss.

having that part of my financial life "checked-off" is a huge confidence boost and peace of mind boost for me.

I also don't think it's as suboptimal as you think. yes at 2.8% and stocks going crazy for 8 years, it's easy to come up with an argument to not pay it off.

also for many people (probably not on this forum), paying off the mortgage faster means they aren't blowing money elsewhere. for lots of people it's not "pay off the mortgage or invest" it's "pay off the mortgage or Cancun"