Who carries a mortgage into retirement?
Jeremy of GenXFinance and I are having an interesting discussion over on AllFinancialMatters about people who carry mortgages into retirement. My contention was that most people do not and should not. He pointed to a BusinessWeek article that has some interesting data in it, but I'm convinced that they are spinning the data to make it more dramatic so they can create a story around it. Bottom line: less than 25% of people in their 70s have a mortgage and about 44% of those in their 60s have mortgages. It's not clear which of these people are retired and it's not clear whether or not these mortgages are for retirement homes or primary homes. In short, there are enough missing pieces to the puzzle to draw any solid conclusions.BTW, there was also some discussion around paying down my own mortgage in preparation for early retirement between me and Larry Nusbaum. You can see that discussion in the comments here.
posted by fin_indie @ 12/16/2006
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2 Comments:
At 12/18/2006 9:44 PM,
StealthBucks said…
Lovin the thoughts. I also think most older types do not have mortgages. You will note that Suze Orman is now also firmly in your camp. Her latest hyperblabbing relates to paying down the mortgage fast and damn well close to first. It's all about improving cash flow. Besdies, high income earners get hosed on the phase out.... even though presently we are phasing out the phase out to only be potentially rephased in by the new political tidal wave of Nancy Pelosi) Don't bet on politics, just pay down the mortgage.
At 12/19/2006 7:38 AM,
fin_indie said…
Ouch. That might be the first Orman reference on my blog. :)
In general, she has some good advice, but it's not really advice for folks like us (read: financial goal oriented). What I really dislike is the outright and often times patronizing tone she uses to get her points across. I guess that's her shtick...
In any case, yes: pay it down, improve cash flow, and have more piece of mind in your non-working years.
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