What I do find amazing is the number of people I encounter who have retired and are still making mortgage payments. In many cases, that means they are retired and have a negative net worth. Those folks live from pension check to pension check. --- I'm, sure at some point I'll have an opportunity as a taxpayer to bail them out. My responsible behavior will be punished through taxes to support their irresponsible behavior.
You could have $1.2 million in 401(k) and IRAs, $450k in investments and have a $60k mortgage on a house worth $410K.
That would give you a net worth of $2 million not including smaller assets.
I did that much of my working life. Most of my paychecks went into maintaining my home, then into investment properties. I didn't consider that as wasting my money, instead I saw it as a way of saving. It did work, as I was able to cash in at the peak of the real estate bubble in 2005 and retire early (although I now have rental properties again, but no mortgages this time around).
Our family would be considered by many to be wealthy. But, during college and for a decade afterwards, we lived paycheck to paycheck.
Raman noodles were par for the course.
Associates of mine were buying BMW’s and Mercedes, we were driving used cars.
They had mansions with only 3-4 rooms furnished. We lived modestly.
Now, they are hurting financially.
Our years of living frugally paid off.