If you're debt free today and all I owe is my mortgage which will be gone by then, believe me, we'll both be doing awesome.

 

Everyone is all of a sudden a bunch of Financial Experts

Best to stick with somthing you know about+

 

I said 6% because I didn't want to be hyperbolic. You're 50% loss scenario is being hyperbolic. If you want to debate let's use realistic numbers. Even in this **** economy I'm up so if you lose 50% investing you shouldn't have control of your own finances to begin with.

Let's say, however, that you put it in something like Vanguard's Long-Term Treasury fund. It's up 30% YTD and has only has 3 minor down years in the past 15. It's up 8%(ish) long term.

Look...I'm not saying paying off your house is stupid. If you don't want to futz with investing then pay off your house. It's no big deal. I just don't agree that someone with a paid off house and good savings habits is in so much better shape than someone with nothing but a mortgage and good savings habits. They're both wayyyyyyyyyyyyy ahead of the power curve.

I strive to keep a very comfortable positive net worth. Like I said in a previous post, debt is not evil...mismanagement of debt is.

 

No you said 8% initially, if you're "up" in this economy then you're the exception not the rule, because many people have lost over 50% of their retirement in this market. Vanguard is currently up 6.8% since inception, but down nearly 2% for the year. And most long term investments require a significant penalty to pull your money out. So if you need to dip in to pay the house down if you lose a job all your profits are wiped out anyway.

 

My scoot is not a toy.... I do ride to live...
a little tough love for you
Your wife will probably run off with a guy who does ride...

 

Best of luck to ya...

 

Sh*t, now that would suck huh?

But really, I don't mean to minimize the ownership of a Harley by saying it's my toy, but in my situation, it's a hobby for me, not a way of life. Right now, in my life, my first priority is to be debt free and to get rid of everything that stands in my way of achieving that quickly. The Harley is on that list....for me. I know some can't agree with that, and I respect and understand that.

 

I don't think you're being a D, you're just passionate about motorcycles and see what I'm doing as sacriligious (sp?). I respect that.

It was a bad purchase on my part. I was riding waaay before I even thought about getting married, much less having a kid. When the first one came, the wife refused to ride anymore but never told me not to. I sold my other bike that we used to ride together on and bought this one. I should have never gotten this bike, I just didn't want to let go of riding. Also, at that time, I did not have a take home car.

Then I got the take home car, the second kid popped out and my time to ride became even smaller. Emergency money was needed in a big way for hospital bills that weren't expected (in addition to the normal, no complication delivery bills that I saved for), a busted washer and dryer, a flood in the house due to that busted washer that needed to be mitigated, and other crap.

I am now having to borrow thousands that will take me months, if not years to pay off if I don't change my spending/saving habits. And I will have to be working overtime like crazy to do it.

It just didn't make any financial sense to me to have the payments on that bike that wasn't really being ridden the way it needed to be, when I could be applying that payment to help knock off that debt. The way it is now, I am month to month with very little extra money because of all of my payments I got myself into.

There are plenty of other sacrifices that we as a family are going to be making too, not just me.

I decided that enough was enough, and that if I am going to be working my tail off on overtime, I'm only going to do it for the time required that it allows me to be debt free. After that point, I will have my emergency funds ready, be debt free, and I will ride again with a paid for Harley. I will no longer be forced to work overtime, but only if I want to. Just typing that makes me feel better. I can't explain it, but it actually lets me breath a little easier knowing that I will get there one day.

 

++++++ This is 100% correct. I am a living example of a fella that played by the rules and got the American Dream slapped in my face. When I retired, I was counting on my pension, and the proceeds from the 401k I'd been building up for years. Thank God, I made the decision to double down and get my morgage paid off before I pulled the plug. If I'd been throwing it all in my 401k for the interest, when the houseing bubble popped, I'd a lost my ***. I lucked out, and things worked out OK....because my ranch is all mine....my pension is carrying me....and the chump change left in the stock market isn't enough to even worry about anymore.....I laugh when I see the DOW JONES fell 400 points yesterday. It's a shame, but trusting those thieves is a sucker move anymore.

I'd advise anyone to make your monthly morgage payment, and add whatever you can extra onto the principal. You'll save years off your loan, and save thousands in interest. Knowing my place is my own, when I pull down that driveway is a unexplainable feeling. Come what may, I'm insulated.

 

What wisdom there is in this thread. My wife and I decided years ago to have no debt and pay cash. We had a mortgage now paid off, and a country place paid off early, too. We bought used cars for cash and in many, many years we never had a car payment. We sent three daughters through college and paid for three weddings and had a nice savings account and retirement accounts when it was time to retire. We still live in the house we bought 40 years ago for little money. I have two nice used bikes I bought for cash. I can sleep at night. No, we are ordinary Americans: my wife was a school teacher and I a government worker. We enjoyed moderate salaries and did not over spend and go into debt. Thank God. I wish our country followed the same patterns discussed here.