Paying off the mortgage pays many dividends-- not paying thousands in interest to the bank and knowing that no matter what happens, you aren't going to lose the house. Plus not having that monthly payment really leads to peace of mind and a lot more flexibility in the types of paid work you can do. Not as much pressure to bring home more bucks if the house is paid for.
Is it obvious the hubby and I paid off our house? We're in our early 30s. Our experience with Hurricane Katrina (we had a house in New Orleans...) really changed our perspective on mortgages and having some giant awful bank owning your loan. For us, we decided we should be master of our own destinies, rather than relying on the whims of Citibank, so we paid off our next house a month after we bought it. We did cash out $70,000 in stock to make that happen.
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