Retirement and still owing on a mortgage?

[santa2u]

I've been retired for about five years now and just refinanced, I did a cash out and paid off several big bills so now we can breathe at the end of the month. I took my retirement as a lump sum and turned it over to my son-in-law who is a financial planner. I told him he had incentive to make me money. If he makes money, he stands to inherit it. If he loses it, I move in with him. Now, that's what I call incentive. So far, we're doing OK. Did take a pretty good hit for the past year or so, but seems to be coming back now. Now, if we can just get Obummer out of office before he takes any more of my money.....

 

[dmccarty]

... I took my retirement as a lump sum and turned it over to my son-in-law who is a financial planner. I told him he had incentive to make me money. If he makes money, he stands to inherit it. If he loses it, I move in with him. Now, that's what I call incentive...

THAT is the BEST incentive I have ever heard! :thumbsup::laughing::laughing::laughing:

Later,
Dan

 

[scoutcub]

I also have been lurking on the retirement threads with great interest.
I'm PLANNING on retiring in 5 years.....at 55. Still have great health, and if I can be financially able by then, I have soo many projects to keep me busy. I simply cannot wait to retire!
Regarding mortgage's....I will still have one on the house we live in. But we want to build the retirement house on our property a few miles away.....so with the sale of this house, it should (almost) fund the cost of the new house. I've been doing numerous upgrades to the house increasing it's value.

There's a lot of if's in my plan, but if I can have enough cash reserves it should work. My long term retirement budget does allow a $1000 per month mortgage payment. I'm fortunate enough to have a military pension, 1 rental house paid off, and another within 6 months of being paid off. I have another rental that I will never pay off, only when I sell it....

Bottom line - as most everyone has stated, it would certainly be advantageous to have no mortgage payment. However, if financially able, and figured into a realistic budget, I think it's doable. Any thoughts about refinancing with these low rates? My last house I bought with a 15 year note at around 4%.....I think you could do even better today.
Best of luck in your decision!

 

[Storm56]

We are planning on retirement at the end of this year, age 55, a life long goal it appears we are going to meet. It meant doing without some of the things we wanted to do, and saving and saving and saving, did I mention saving? Also no mortgage was part of our plan, we paid off our mortgage at age 48. We own 343 acres so I have many projects to keep me busy.

I also did something kind of unique. I created a slush fund of about $85,000 to "borrow" from for future purchases, thus I am going to be my own bank. We need to make a purchase, borrow it from the slush fund and pay myself back with interest. It takes discipline, but I think it will work.

We also set ourselves up that if something happens to social security, we can still live. I kind of figure the govt will screw us out of it about the time we are able to collect.

 

[Uncle Doug]

We started planing on our retirement home about 5 years before the expected retirement date. We had a large home at the time. We did an equity loan on that home. In Texas you do not have to disclose where the money is going. We figured to sell the larger home when we moved out.

Our 12 acre farm had been paid off for several years and planed to build on that piece of land. We had a 800 sqft shell home built and paid the builder $18,000 cash. Spent the next 6 months completing the interrior of the home. In the end we spent about $30,000 on the retirement home. We moved in almost 2 years ago which was 3 years prior to the retirement date.

With the housing market the way it is we decided not to sell the older home for now but have kept it rented out. This has covered the payments and taxes. We still plan on selling when the market gets better.

So now less than one year from an age 55 retirement we are moved into our retirement home on the farm. No payments on the house, land paid off, tractor and all current equipment and barn paid off.:thumbsup:

Now if we could just get the taxes locked in but will have to wait until 65 I think in Texas to do that.

The key to an early retirement is planning. A 5 year plan is minimum, a 10 year plan is better. The earlier you start the sooner the plan comes together. I have been telling my coworkers for 10 years that I will retire at 55. Most of them are my age and just now starting to plan. One asked me yesterday if I was still on plan, I told him I was ahead of schedule and just waiting on the calendar to catch up.

 

[mikim]

Same story with us. We sold property and saved pennies to build the retirement home. Ended up with just 60% cash for the new house (in progress) but we are able to live and make payments on my retirement income and her working paycheck is discretionary funds. We would have had 80% but we spent it on the TBN cabin in the avatar. In a couple months we should have 2 new vehicles paid for and have just the house payment to deal with. It's on a 15 yr note and I'd like to get it paid off in 5....we'll see.

 

[sltretired]

I "retired" last year at age 55 with a pension (teacher). We sold our suburban home and are in final preparation for the build of our new home on 170 acres that we purchased (7 yr. mortgage) in '06. That piece is 75% paid off and we will roll over the balance into our construction loan that will be about 50% of the build cost. We are also budgeting about $1000/mo. for mortgage. My financial advisor says "spend the bank's money as long as interest rates are low". Sounds good to us.

I think that "retirement" is not necessarily the best term for what most of us do after starting to collect on our investments and/or receiving a pension. My wife and I continue to work building our own businesses and pursuing our vocational passions. That said, my wife is busy "winning" the PCH 10 million dollar prize. Boy, does she have philanthropic plans for that!

This all happened with a dream first and then planning for it. She is certainly the big dreamer (she wanted that 170 acres even as I hedged) and has taught me the value of dreaming big!

Now we have a 1/2 mile gravel drive, power cut, well and are in final preparation for our build that will start as soon as weather allows (April?). We couldn't be more excited. We will save further as I will be the GC as well as a grunt on site for the rest of this year. We hope to be in and settled before the weather turns late this year. I know that I'll be learning a lot!

 

[JDgreen227]

I "retired" last year at age 55 with a pension (teacher). We sold our suburban home and are in final preparation for the build of our new home on 170 acres that we purchased (7 yr. mortgage) in '06. That piece is 75% paid off and we will roll over the balance into our construction loan that will be about 50% of the build cost. We are also budgeting about $1000/mo. for mortgage. My financial advisor says "spend the bank's money as long as interest rates are low". Sounds good to us.

I think that "retirement" is not necessarily the best term for what most of us do after starting to collect on our investments and/or receiving a pension. My wife and I continue to work building our own businesses and pursuing our vocational passions. That said, my wife is busy "winning" the PCH 10 million dollar prize. Boy, does she have philanthropic plans for that!

This all happened with a dream first and then planning for it. She is certainly the big dreamer (she wanted that 170 acres even as I hedged) and has taught me the value of dreaming big!

Now we have a 1/2 mile gravel drive, power cut, well and are in final preparation for our build that will start as soon as weather allows (April?). We couldn't be more excited. We will save further as I will be the GC as well as a grunt on site for the rest of this year. We hope to be in and settled before the weather turns late this year. I know that I'll be learning a lot!

Congrats on your retirement and your dream home...DIY is the BEST way to go. My wife's brothers and I built on 1450 square feet and upgraded the original 900 square foot house (shown to the left of the picture) and the only thing we DIDN'T do was dig the foundation hole, dig the well, and install the furnace and A/C. Local codes required a mechanical contractor to do that part of the project. It's a lot of work to build yourself, but you will gain so much experience and take real pride when you point out "I did that myself" and if you goof, nobody will know except you...and best of all, you will also learn by fixing your mistakes.

I have a favorite story:

TO ERR IS HUMAN

A young apprentice once applied to a master carpenter for a job. The older man asked him, "Do you know your trade?" "Yes sir" said the young man, proudly. "Have you ever made a mistake?" inquired the veteran. "No sir" the young fellow answered, feeling certain he would get the job.

"Then there's no way I'm going to hire you" , said the master carpenter," because when you do make a mistake, you won't know how to fix it."

 

[czechsonofagun]

That's my future, if I am lucky. The mortgage goes till 35, I will be 71. But with the inflation, I hope the payment will not be hurting that much anymore

 

[Financegal]

Depends on a person's situation. I retired in 1999 and sold my home, used the profits to put a lot toward a new one in 2004. So I am one that will probably not pay off this mortgage. The first one was two payments away. It's whatever works for you.