Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Is your house paid off?

Dave Ramsey is for stupid people who can’t do math! While he does teach some good principles on doing a budget and paying off consumer debt; his “steps” are a good way to screw yourself out of at least seven figures by the time you reach retirement.

Regarding retirement, you should be putting away 10% or more of your money the second you have a retirement plan. To not take advantage of an employer match on your 401k and to lose out on the time value of compounding interest is absolutely ridiculous. To actually advise people not to prioritize this is borderline criminal! Dave’s advise could literally reduce your retirement nest egg by half.

To answer the question, I’ll have this place paid for in about four years. Well, what about security you ask? My investments and retirement are worth 4X the value of the property. I can simply pay the entire thing off if I wish, but my mortgage rate is 2-5/8 but my ROR on my investments is 45% ytd. Why would anyone take away money making 45% in order to pay off money costing a net of only about 2% after deductions? Inflation is higher than the cost to borrowers. Avoid Ramsey retirement planning at all costs!

Well hell bob, you always like to throw in your rude and uninformed mouthy comments in other people's posts. Don't like it so much now huh, retard?

Poor victim. Sniffle.

Precisely why I wrote intentionally.

(insert comment here about how much smarter i am than everyone else and how much better i have it)

Lol rem141r funny how we all get it and he is clueless. His [bleep] behavior probably won't change though. Stupid old guys stuck in their ways are like that

Paid cash for house about 7 years ago. Nothing fancy but no note to worry about. I was 41 when we bought it.

Not a boomer so I don't have 6 decades on this planet....so no, I don't have my house paid off.

With property taxes, do you ever really own your house?

Lets see interest rates 2.5-3%...... inflation 3-5% hmmmm almost like free money and gets cheaper as inflation increases and I have heard "rumors" of possible rise in inflation

Didn't say a word about his steps or the bit about having an envelope for bills and setting that money aside. I've never needed anyone to tell me how to be frugal and stay within my means. I do agree with his statement 100% about the paid off mortgage though. Everyone needs a roof over their heads and not owing anyone for it is great. You're always a slave to the lender if you owe money I'll also add that I don't have the option of employer matched retirement as I work for myself. That makes for a whole lot different ball game that most people.

You can borrow $250,000 at 2.5%, and have the tax-deduction for the mortgage interest. Then you can take the $250K and invest it in something that has a return greater than 2.5%. Over the course of our generation, that has not been hard to do. In a short-term context, I could point to phenomenally huge returns in the stock market which you could conservatively invest in through mutual funds or index funds. Because the stock market is presently driven by quantitative-easing-driven speculative trading, it's easy to see how it may not continue to be a good counterpart to a mortgage. The ugly fact is that we have these conditions because the government and the Fed are incredibly scared of debt deflation. For the time being, anyone who borrowed against their house to invest in the stock market or bitcoin is doing very well. If inflation happens the way the Fed is determined to make it, they will continue to be better off than those without debt. Not surprisingly, the government's policies are going to continue to be favorable to debtors because it is a big one itself. Consider however, just how radical its actions are to this point in an effort to avoid debt deflation. If they fail to stop deflation, the calamity could be worse for debtors than hyperinflation would be for savers.

A house with no mortgage is a type of "savings" and the government and Fed have made it abundantly clear that they're going after those savings through inflation, which is a tax on savings. While an unleveraged real-estate asset without a mortgage is better than cash in an inflationary economy, the winners will be the ones that leverage their assets with dollar-denominated debt. This is if the government gets its way. We'll see.

Good post W.Juniper, thing is saving and paying off the mortgage is a low risk proposition. Speculative debt carries risk no matter how you slice it

Our house is paid for, except the yearly insurance and property tax.

Paid off 5 years after we built it. Just sold it after living in it for 30 years(Calif home). So I was 43 when it was paid for.

Lotta smart guys here getting out of debt. In my case though i am going to hang onto the mortgage a while longer since its at 2.62%

Pay for one house. Pay 20% down on a second and the rent from the first pays for the second. Pay 20% down on a third. Half the rent on the third pays the mortgage on it,..add the other half to your monthly income.

Meanwhile all three are appreciating.

The magic 20% down.

The day my farther died.

You’re talking specifically about you and I’m rebutting Ramsey’s retirement planning. We’re not exactly talking about the same thing. Instead of borrower/lender; the conversion and bigger picture should be about how to become the master and make your money work for you instead of against you. Net worth is the goal with me. That’s not really aligned with ol Dave’s philosophy. There’s several good posts here already about this so no need for me to rehash it all - have a look at what W. Juniper and EdM said.

Yeah? But you still gotta pay the 'property taxes' (RENT) ..... Don't? And the gov't owns yer house...


No more - gettin' rid of all property in 2-3 years.. Eff this..

Basically, if you're living in a house that's paid off, you're turning down whatever it would rent for.

The first house will buy a second house.