Replies

And even if I do one day have to finance something, well, I may be deluding myself but I bet 50% down will eat up a whole lot of “no credit history.”

Bingo...Dave Ramsey talks about this a lot. If you plunk down a large down payment, a lot of banks are going to sit up and take notice (he puts it a lot more intelligently than I, but that's why he's a millionaire and I'm not)

Besides, if you pay off that mortgage, and then a life event like losing your job happens, then you still have a roof over your head :) Not to mention doing something productive with that mortgage payment you no longer have like investing it or putting it away for retirement.

As Dave says 'If you live like no one else now, then later you can live like no one else.'

(We've paid off over $12,500 of non-mortgage debt since April with $4500 to go on a student loan, which we hope to dispatch with after tax time. We have emergency savings, plus other savings--a first in our marriage. We live on $3600 a month take home for a family of six--two kids in Catholic school with another heading there next fall. Anyone who says that we can't live on cash can ask us for advice :P Our whole Christmas is paid for--in cash, saved up since May)

Fifty years ago it was not a way of life to live on credit, yet today you're looked at strangely if you don't live on credit.

It's better to invest money earlier and let it grow tax-free compounding than to pay off your mortgage and then start investing the payment.

You will have more than enough to pay the mortgage and a solid retirement or emergency fund if you become unemployed.

Dave should be teaching people how to become their own bank rather than how to pay off the mortgage.

As I said earlier, equity is not save or liquid (especially of your unemployed) and it has no rate of return.

What's the good of paying off your house and having a lot of equity you can't reach or make money from?

We've paid off over $12,500 of non-mortgage debt since April with $4500 to go on a student loan, which we hope to dispatch with after tax time. We have emergency savings, plus other savings--a first in our marriage. We live on $3600 a month take home for a family of six--two kids in Catholic school with another heading there next fall. Anyone who says that we can't live on cash can ask us for advice :P Our whole Christmas is paid for--in cash, saved up since May

You are my hero!!! :-) It's a lot easier for me and my wife, we do not have kids, but for a family of six! That is AWESOME, keep up the good work! And I can only imagine the deep and lasting lessons your children are learning from this. Nice job.

As far as being thought a weirdo if you don't live on credit, tell me about it! I mention the way I do some things, and it's like I am the unabomber or something. Sheesh. And then people wonder why our country is in such a state. If you can't afford it, don't buy it!!! What a concept!!!

Thanks for the post, it's really great to hear it!