Posted on 12/16/2020 5:30:44 PM PST by SteveH
i paid off my home mortgage yesterday.
(it was a really good refinance rate, but whatever.)
to do it, i liquidated some rollover stock (SPY) (i am retirement age, so it gets taxed as regular income, i believe).
then i did a bank transfer from my broker to a local bank.
finally, the local bank ,happened to hold the mortage, so i simply paid the full mortgage owed amount as of yesterday from my checking account to my mortgage account.
it still has not registered today, but i am not expecting a problem since i have a receipt that shows the internal transfer of the full amount as determined by a visit to the bank office immediately prior to the transfer (the amount evidently changes every day due to compound interest).
otherwise, the mortgage would have taken about 8 more years to pay off at the normally scheduled rate of payoff.
i need to take out about 33+% + 11+% extra money out of the IRA for federal and state taxes. this bumps me up two IRS tax brackets for this year.
in return, however, i get some peace of mind knowing that at least i own my home free and clear if anything serious should start to happen and interfere with ordinary commercial transactions (i have some conjectures about worst case scenarios which i won't go into in this post-- perhaps everyone does) (i have not spoken with any of my neighbors, most of whom are suburbanites who keep to themselves and if i am to believe voting records are somewhat liberal, with many newly arrived middle class professional immigrants from asia).
ok... good, bad, ugly? one person on FR said earlier not to do this. however, i am just too nervous.
along the way, i had an unsettling experience. i am already used to less bank branch offices being open, and those that are, with reduced hours and reduced customer occupancy.
however, last friday at 3:30 PM i was on the freeway listening to the radio and heard the USSC news. so i tried effecting a wire transfer over cell phone. the first attempt, the line went dead, and the second attempt, the wait time increased from 5 minutes to 25 minutes. i thought this was strange since i had been promised over the phone the previous day that this would be a snap to perform over the phone. after driving a couple of exits, i turned around and went back to my brokerage to perform a wire transfer to my local bank in preparation for the mortage payoff.
the brokerage local office appeared deserted, with only two cars in the parking lot. in fact it was open, but there was only one person present, only one desk and only one working monitor in the entire office, which was only dimly lit. a teller appeared on the monitor screen. i was told that no one could help me at that time and that i should try using the phone. they also had a drop box but i had no papers to fill out and there did not seem to be a printer there. i felt nervous and frustrated, and left immediately. later i heard that the brokerage employees were in fact working from home.
the situation was more normal at my usual bank, but the brokerage seemed to me to be a harbinger of a lowered level of service that might be given at the banks if things progress far enough with the bug.
anyways, the entire process took me about 5 business days not including a day or two of investigating different options of proceeding. i could probably have reduced this to three days if i went at a fast pace, and maybe shaved off another day off of that if i had known exactly what to do and when, and let it be the one and only priority for those two business days.
It’s amazing how many folks are so doggone negative, huh?
I’m glad for you!
As they say, never bet the farm unless you are willing to sleep in the fields.
> but if Biden gets in your 401k will likely be confiscated anyway.
sadly i am concerned... i am probably just a big juicy target to them...
> I think you were smart....maybe should have waited until January but smart anyway
I was seriously considering waiting another month, but the plandemic hysteria during and immediately after the election along with the long uniform string of judicial case losses seemed to indicate to me the problem was not over yet, and might be getting even worse in the near future.
i keep wondering when we will hit bottom but apparently not yet. if not yet, then when...
Better get title lock, so fraudsters don’t sell your house out from underneath you, or take out bogus mortgage...
Excellent!
I too made my final payment for my home early this summer, and just paid off my small HELOC that my wife and I used to purchase a large piece of land in Florida.
My next step is to put everything I own in a trust with my wife as the trustee (she is 19 years younger). At first it will be a revocable, but can be converted quickly to an irrevocable trust if need be.
A trust may be something you might want to think about ... just in case. Keep the Probate court away from any transfer of assets to your heirs.
If you are a firearms owner like me, then we are in a different category at this point.
My next step is to file quit claim deeds to my properties with my wife as sole owner. I expect that many of us firearms owners will be murdered in our homes or in public over the next 2 years, by the police/ATF/FBI when we do not and will not comply with their changes to the NFA act and make virtually all firearms illegal.
With my wife as sole owner of the properties, there will not be much left for the gov’t to grab as asset forfeiture property.
> 40-some percent return on my market investments this year versus my 3.6% APR mortgage. Sure, I need to refinance but still... The math.
I know, but with two homes free and clear, i’ve still got 2/3 of my equity in stocks and bonds, plus a pension, small business, and SS kicking in soon.
The problem with a mortgage is that unless one is 100% free and clear then something external, large and unexpected could still happen.
thanks! i need to steal a copy of that graph and study it!
[... I am nearly 69 and going into my wonder years with ole Joe at the helm.”
Hold tight brother, Ol’ Joe ain’t at the helm of Jack yet!
So what interest rates are low. What happens when you are unable to pay that mortgage for some unknown reason? Your brokerage account is shutdown for service, your bank puts an accidental hold on your funds in your account, the IRS freezes your assets? There are multiple reasons for wanting to be debt free. In these tough times you best have your ducks in a row. If by chance the liberals snatch all of the legislature and executive branch you can bet they will be coming for your assets.
We are never debt free. We are taxed on real property. If you don’t pay the taxes, they take your property.
For the NYC area, it is my impression from a long distance away that people are moving out of the city and into suburbs (eg Hamptons although that is probably the high end of the scale).
Personally, living in or too close to NYC has never attracted me. if i had a choice i would opt for countryside with 4 season surface running water. maybe you could find somewhere in NJ or PA... or if you could relocate, somewhere like NC. Anyways I think it is very personal and also a function of one’s career path.
We paid off our home in 2004, took us only 4 years to do it once we decided to do it. At the time we didn’t know ANYONE who had a paid-off mortgage, and Dave Ramsey was a little-known celebrity financial advisor. Our friends and co-workers thought we were freaks.
Since then we’ve been able to save a lot of money, invest wisely over time, and we pay cash for everything, including big things like cars, big home improvement projects, etc. It’s a great feeling being debt-free.
> What’s a mortgage?
Aww shucks, ... i guess sometimes some people just like to rub it in... :-)
> Now buy some silver eagles and save them to pay your property taxes if the SHTF. BUT you must sell them for fiat (dollars) to make a payment, because they will give you only “face value”. a silver dollar to them, is a dollar. Plenty of people will buy them because its easier to “spend” than a 1500$+ gold coin, and they can make topical antibiotics from silver.
I have enough commodity grade gold coin and junk silver to get me far away if i need to. i have a preference for junk silver over the shiny silver coin stuff. i am happy to be persuaded in a modified direction but these two will probably always remain my fallback currencies (along with ammo).
“You are just “allowed” to live there as long as you pay your Taxes to the King.”
You do have a valid point. If the country goes to hell and the socialists think you own to much property or want you to live in some overcrowded apartment complex communist style, then there are ways to get you off your property. One would be taxing the holly hell out of property owners.
Or simply just take it away because you are not of a particular class of people. Or just murder your whole family.
Seriously, Russia confiscated most private properties when they went commie. What’s to stop the AOC crowd?
Built a new home when we retired 10 years ago and paid cash for it all.
We have never regretted it.
Like I said if Trump stays you are safe and if they install Biden tax rates will be increased retroactive January so you might have better tax treatment selling when you did.
In any case, the decision is made and you are going to love living mortgage free. Take your monthly mortgage payment and save half and spend the other half on things you enjoy.
Do you think the market is real at this point. Trillions thrown at stimulus plus huge wealth destruction. It’s a suckers play in my opinion.
Thank you for that, and I’m not entirely serious or sure that would be the right thing to do. And, If you have more than $250k in equity - Salute! You’ve done well. I also have a pension of about $400k for as long as the USA lasts. But...and it’s a big but... I still have a daughter in college, and another soon to be. Yet, I still feel we’ve lost it all with this past election theft, and it’s only a matter of time before all numbers mean nothing. It may be better to turn it all into material things that can be traded or bartered. That is no way a criticism, we’re all in different places in life. I wish all patriots luck.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.