Pay Off Mortgage Early. Is Dave Ramsey Right?

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40 Comments

1. 

   Steve
   

   March 5, 2008, 8:12

   
   

   I’m not sure I consider losing the opportunity to get $2500 back in taxes after paying $10000 in interest much of a disadvantage. Seems like I come out $7500 better off with no mortgage and no tax deduction.
2. 

   FourPillars
   

   March 5, 2008, 7:07

   
   

   Very good points for either decision.

   One other consideration is interest rate risk – if you have a mortgage that is variable or only locked in for a few years then at the end of the term you will have to renew at the current interest rate (at that time) which might be a lot higher than it is now. Reducing your mortgage helps mitigate this risk.

   Mike
3. 

   Pinyo
   

   March 5, 2008, 8:30

   
   

   Steve – I agree. In fact you just made me realized something and I will be adjusting my post.

   Basically, if you save $5,000 on interest and your marginal tax rate is 25%, you’ll lose $1,250 in tax deduction — therefore, your net saving is only $3,750. So my original statement about your investment gain must beat your interest savings is inaccurate because long-term capital gains is only 15%. For instance, to match the $3,750 savings, you’ll need about $4,412 = $3,750 / (1 – 0.15).

   Thank you for your comment.
4. 

   The Happy Rock
   

   March 5, 2008, 11:29

   
   

   I echo the sentiment on the tax savings for mortgage interest. It is nice that the government encourages home ownership, but I don’t think it is a reason to buy a house or stay in a mortgage. It is a nice benefit why you are paying a mortgage, but not something to be tied too.

   If you pay $700 a month for a mortgage, say $500 goes towards interest you get a tax break of $6000 a year. If you didn’t have a mortgage and gave the full $700 to a charity of choice, you would receive an $8400 dollar tax break. You give others the benefit instead of banks, and you get a bigger tax break.
5. 

   Pinyo
   

   March 5, 2008, 12:40

   
   

   @FourPillars – That’s a good clarification. I didn’t do a good job of elaborating on the “Mortgage Type” factor. Thank you.
6. 

   7million7years
   

   March 5, 2008, 15:56

   
   

   Look, Dave Ramsey is great and I’m all for SAVING (prepaying your house can be a great way to save … just compare the after-tax interest that you are SAVING against the after-tax ’safe as houses’ return that you can get elsewhere e.g. CD’s, Bonds, possibly Index Funds IF you have a 30 year outlook).

   However, I’m also all for INVESTING: instead of REDUCING my mortgage, I would be REDUCING MY EQUITY in my own home to no more than 20% of my Net Worth … and investing the rest, taking full advantage by locking in historically low interest rates in BOTH my own home and on my INVESTMENTS.

   In 20 or 30 years, when I’m still/only paying a few $k a month on real-estate worth a few $m, I’ll be pretty happy … AJC.
7. 

   Susannah
   

   March 5, 2008, 21:16

   
   

   I have to think that the diversification of assets issue is a big one–particularly if you are not fully funding tax-protected retirement accounts such as a 401(k) or a Roth. If you’re making $50k a year and funding your 401(k) at $7500, you’re doing great. But if there’s $500 a month left to pay down the mortgage or invest, putting it in the 401(k) knocks down your tax costs, keeps the interest advantage of the mortgage, and STILL doesn’t hit your maximum contribution. And it’s going to be worth a lot more in 25 years at 10% than you would save on a 6% mortgage.

   You do have a $250,000-per-owner tax break on home appreciation, but your appreciation will stay the same whether it’s the bank holding the note or yours outright (the joys of leverage), so that’s not an argument to prepay.

   I believe Free Money Finance just had a post about a woman who has a valuable home but few other assets. What if you’re 45 and have no money but what’s in the house? In this market, if you sell, you may lose a lot of your investment. If the money’s stuck in a 401(k), you may be eligible for a hardship withdrawal that requires paying taxes but no penalties. Or you may be stuck with a 10% penalty. But remember, if you sell your home, your “penalty” includes realtor costs, seller-paid inspection costs, and the cost of actually finding somewhere else to live. If you’ve followed Ramsey’s other baby steps, you have some cushion against this happening, but I believe the woman FMF discussed was suffering from long-term disabilities, had a spouse who died young, and was looking at living off the house and her savings FOR THE REST OF HER LIFE. At the age of 54. That’s a mandatory, unplanned early retirement, and one in which she was basically living on Social Security disability checks and worrying about the future.

   In my mind, that’s a big argument for a more liquid asset base. And just about anything is more liquid than real estate.
8. 

   OneCheapChick
   

   March 5, 2008, 21:31

   
   

   You just can’t discount the security factor in owning your home outright. Through a strange set of circumstances, I wound up with enough cash to pay off my home at the end of 2007. I did the math, and I think it would have been fiscally smarter to invest the money and keep the home mortgaged. But I paid the house off. Now, every time I hear the death-knell bells ringing about the economy, I take such great comfort in knowing that no matter what happens to the economy and my income, all I have to do to keep a roof over my family’s head is to pay the property taxes. We can stand in a soup line if we can’t afford food, huddle under a blanket if we can’t afford heat, and walk if we can’t gas up the car, but we will always have a roof over our head. It helps me to breathe every time I look at CNBC.

   Math counts, but it doesn’t always give you the straight answer.
9. 

   Dave
   

   March 5, 2008, 22:08

   
   

   Here’s a link to a column by Scott Burns which nudged me into paying off my mortgage. It is a little dated, written in 1999, but the concept is the same: Imputed income i.e. not having to pay for housing thanks to a paid off mortgage, can have tremendous tax-free returns.

   Here’s the link:

   http://www.dallasnews.com/shar.....0525TU.htm
10. 

    Fixemup Terry
    

    March 5, 2008, 23:01

    
    

    I particulary like your point on the inflation factor. Once you have a mortgage locked in, the relative value of that loan will continuously drop. It’s better to pay your mortgage off in the future (with future dollars), which will be worth a fraction of the value of today’s dollars.

    I wrote an article aimed at real estate investors entitled “Don’t Pay Down Your Mortgage” at http://www.fixemup.org/2007/12.....tgage.html, which I humbly submit for your review.
11. 

    Pinyo
    

    March 6, 2008, 17:44

    
    

    @Susannah – Thank you for bringing up 401k and Roth — I should have in my article although it’s already covered in step 4.

    If you’re not already taking advantage of 401k (with the potential company matching) and IRA, there’s no argument — invest in your retirement first!

    @Dave — Thank you for sharing the article. It’s interesting and worth further analysis.

    @Terry — Hey Terry! I am beginning to read your book. Great introduction. I think I am going to share it with my readers…very inspiring.
12. 

    PT
    

    March 8, 2008, 20:06

    
    

    Great read, Pinyo. This is a highly debated topic amongst our friends. I’m all for keeping the mortgage around for 30 years.
13. 

    Rob
    

    March 11, 2008, 20:27

    
    

    Should also take into account how far along you are in your mortgage. If you’ve been making minimum payments for 20 years out of your 30, you’ve already paid the largest portion of your total interest costs, so the tax shield and interest savings are both diminishing as your mortgage reaches maturity.

    Another thing to take into account is whether you plan on living on that house as your primary residence. True, you never really know… but if you think you’re going to retire in that house and never sell it, it’s becomes less of an asset because you won’t realize it’s appreciation in value. All else equal, you want to own an appreciating asset as quickly as you can (ie prepay your mortgage). However, if you don’t plan on ever selling it, you can more or less take property appreciation out of the decision making process. Of course, this whole property appreciation thing we probably won’t be worrying about for the next few years…
14. 

    kentuckyliz
    

    March 12, 2008, 5:57

    
    

    Yeah, I think DR is a little too crazed about paying off the mortgage. But I agree, if one isn’t very knowledgeable about investing and doesn’t have the stomach for it (beyond what’s already happening in Baby Step 4 and 5), then paying off the house is probably a better next step for the nervous nellies.

    I say let it run and increase investments instead. Perhaps have the house paid off by retirement, to lower expenses.

    Ric Edelman says keep the mortgage and stay fully invested, period. But he lives on the East Coast with plenty of high-paying jobs. If I owned a house and lost my high paying job where I live, there are no other high paying jobs. I’d have to move. Hopefully I wouldn’t lose the house before I could sell it!

    The risk of the house payment isn’t relieved until the house is paid off. Prepaying to me doesn’t seem to make sense unless you’ve piled up enough assets to pay it off outright. (Through inheritance, lottery winnings, winning a lawsuit, or saving and investing and piling it up.) If you haven’t paid it off outright, the risk of next month’s mortgage payment is always there, and the danger is losing your income for a long enough period to not be able to make the payment and then losing the house.

    I’m a happy permarenter and don’t need a house, and invest instead, so I should issue the disclaimer of taking my comments with a pound of salt because I’m not a mortgageowner. LOL
15. 

    Merch
    

    March 13, 2008, 14:54

    
    

    One thing I think is missed is that people don’t take a long term look at savings. In other words, if people had $50k sitting in account, most people would spend it on something (finishing the basement, buying a new car, taking a nice vacation). I don’t think that people have the discipline to let that money grew for 30 years without touching it.

    And I think that’s the true issue. If you can honestly invest the money without touching it, then investing makes sense. If you would be tempted to spend that money, then paying off your mortgage is better.

    If you prepay your mortgage, that money is gone. It’s not tempting you to consume.

    I was actually looking at DR’s plan. I calculated that after I paid off my debt and saved for college and retirement, I could probably pay my 30 year mortgage in about 7-8 years.

    At that time, I would have set up a behavior of living well below what I make. So investing and being tempted would be less of a risk.

    Just a thought.
16. 

    Pinyo
    

    March 13, 2008, 17:01

    
    

    @PT — Thank you. I am for keeping the difference for investing too.

    @Rob — Great point. That’s one thing I haven’t considered in my post. It definitely makes a difference.

    @Kentuckyliz — good add about your location. Another good point I haven’t considered.

    @Merch — Agreed. It takes a lot of discipline not to touch money that is sitting “out there.” Definitely something worth considering when making this type of decision.
17. 

    kentuckyliz
    

    March 21, 2008, 8:20

    
    

    @Susannah–your example wouldn’t happen on Dave Ramsey’s plan, because the woman would have already been saving 15% of her gross income in retirement investing (not counting the employer contributions), been debt free, and had a 3-6 month emergency fund; and if she had college-bound kids, she would have funded their college investment program first. Even earlier than that, establishing her basic safety net, she would have had disability insurance; and her spouse would have had 10x his annual salary in term life insurance. In effect, she wouldn’t be in the pickle she is now. You can’t describe that case then say, see, Dave Ramsey’s plan doesn’t work…because she wasn’t following Dave Ramsey’s plan!

    Dave Ramsey puts the baby steps in that particular order, taking into account an accurate assessment of life risks, because it works. Especially for ordinary people.
18. 

    Tom
    

    April 9, 2008, 12:44

    
    

    I see a lot of people talking about paying their mortgage off early as the safe thing to do. I respectfully disagree. If you have a rate of 6.5% or lower why on earth would you want to build extra equity? What does it buy you? You already own the house so why exchange the most liquid form of capital (cash) for one of the most illiquid forms (Home Equity) in the name of safety. Once this money is paid into your house the only way to get it back out if a need arises is to sell the house or refinance through a new mortgage or a home equity line. The better place to put your money is in a diversified mix of investments that you feel comfortable with.

    Let’s use this situation as an example. We have two people A & B. A overpays their mortgage in order to pay it off in 10 years instead of 30. B Takes the extra money and invests it in a conservative mix of stocks and bonds that earns 6.5%. Five years in both A & B loose their jobs and have no current income. Who would you rather be?

    A has spent all there money paying down their mortgage, but does the bank let them slide on any payments? No, as soon as the payments are missed A will be treated just like any other late payer. What are A’s options here? Slim and none. Even though A has a large amount of equity, A has no current income. Good luck getting a loan! A may be forced to sell under pressure in a market that may or may not be favorable!

    Now let’s look at B! 5 years in B has a large stash of liquid securities that he or she can sell to continue making payments and living on until he or she finds another job! B is still in complete control of his or her own destiny.

    What did it cost B for this insurance against disaster? Nothing! The money earned on the investments offset the interest paid on the loan. And 6.5% growth is a very conservative # here. You can achieve this without taking much risk at all. And once your liquid fund equals the amount owed on the mortgage you can pay it off if you like. Although at this point I doubt that you will because:
    * the psychological burden of the mortgage magically evaporates when you realize that you can pay it off at any time
    * the money is still better placed in liquid assets
    * And by this time you have figured out that you can safely get 7.5 to 8% off those investments.

    A lot of people say that paying a mortgage off early is the safe thing to do. It is safe; for the company holding your mortgage, not for you! Every extra dime you pay in lowers the risk that they will loose money if they foreclose on your house and sell it latter.
19. 

    Pinyo
    

    April 10, 2008, 8:07

    
    

    @Tom — Great comment. That’s exactly how I feel with my 5.25% mortgage

    Now, I don’t know if I am going crazy, but I’ve been considering refinancing to take money OUT of my home so that I can do something with it.
20. 

    elaine
    

    August 6, 2008, 14:42

    
    

    The problem with most of the analysis with this step is that you’ve forgotten all the previous steps that lead up to paying off the mortgage early. At this step you already have a healthy emergency fund in place (to the tune of 10s of thousands of dollars, 6 months of expenses) so the chance of you needing to invest the difference for liquidity reasons is pointless. Another point is that you can’t predict your return rates on unfixed investments. Stocks go up and down, at one point you may be paying more in interest to your mortgage company then the bank is paying you on your funds, CDs are a great example of this. Everytime it is wise to be completely debt free, house and all. There is no chance of foreclosure when your house is paid for! There is no chance of a repo when the asset is paid for! Giving to charitable organizations is a better way to recover from the tax break of interest paid on a mortgage.
21. 

    Ethan
    

    August 6, 2008, 15:47

    
    

    @Tom – Both examples you give would be a rough situation to be in. In your example of quickly needing liquidity, it seems that person B’s stocks haven’t also fallen in value. That isn’t a fair assumption, as the present market conditions can attest to. B would be in just as much of a pickle of he/she then had to sell thos “liquid” investments in a down market. These calculations never take risk into account, and that is statistically inaccurate.
22. 

    Zeke
    

    September 7, 2008, 9:47

    
    

    Back in 1978 my second wife and I were faced with buying a house due to having moved cross country. Her style was to spend any money that wasn’t absolutely dedicated to a bill due right now. In those days I didn’t have the benefit of blogs such as this one to help persuade her but I was desperately interested in getting into investment mode. Mortgage interest was very high: 9.75%! My solution was to get the shortest term loan for which we could handle the payments. This turned out to be 15 years, so over everyones objections I insisted on doing it. Not the same as paying early, but it was structured to be short.

    The point here is that I had a partner problem that overshadowed other considerations.
23. 

    Pinyo
    

    September 8, 2008, 10:13

    
    

    @Elaine — I didn’t forget about the other steps, this was part of the series. You’re right about having emergency fund in place already; however, it wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t include all the factors.

    @Zeke — Excellent point about how marriage could overshadow any of these considerations.
24. 

    bdslack
    

    October 19, 2008, 12:22

    
    

    I would be interested to hear how everyone’s opinion has been shaped by the recent events. I am paying off my house in the next three months and have never felt better about this decision (I’m 35 years old).

    BOA – Thanks for the loan, but I’m going to keep the extra 200K in interest for my family. Safe, sound, and tucked away in our paid for – family owned home that we really enjoy and will continue to use as the center hub of our family for a long time.
25. 

    bdslack
    

    October 19, 2008, 12:31

    
    

    One more thing on this huge “tax savings”.

    If you want to get a reduction in taxes so bad – don’t send your bank 10,000.00 a year in interest to do it. Give 10,000.00 to your church, the boy scouts, your college, a needy family. The tax deduction is the same and honestly after what just happened in America who do you think is going to need it more?

    The “great mortgage tax break” is a total scam. Pay for what you bought, and THEN save huge amounts of money! House money is “play money”. Nobody really gets rich on real estate. If your home goes up in value 300,000 – big deal, every other house did as well and you got to live somewhere!
26. 

    Brock
    

    October 23, 2008, 9:59

    
    

    I have a question for all of your expertise. I find myself in an unusual situation at an unusual time. I work overseas and make much more than I usually would. In the next month I will have 100k saved and I am glad I did not take the advice of a financial advisor and invest it in mutual funds after watching the market most recently. At first before research I was going to just pay off a house outright as soon as I have the cash and avoid any interest. I feel with the housing market as low as it is now that a house would be a better investment than it would normally be. Also I am worried about investing now because of the stock market. The other thing I am considering is once I pay off the house nearly my entire income will be available to invest even if it’s just in CDs until things stabilize. This is a huge decision for me and I would be very interested in anyone’s input. I have read similar discussions to this one all over the internet and I think this has been the best as far as everyone taking an unbiased look at both sides.
    I feel like if I want to have a mortgage I can pay off the first one and buy a second to rent out. Are mutual funds still safe? Also I hope to be able to return to college with my GI bill and hope that having a house paid off will make living affordable while I do so. I am lucky enough to be able to save about 8k a month and I would love to know what you all would do with that in this point of time.
27. 

    Ethan
    

    October 23, 2008, 11:49

    
    

    @Brock – Standard *I’m not a financial advisor* blurb. Mutual funds are based on stocks, so they’re suffering from current conditions as well. Ask yourself this question: If your house were paid off, would you take out a $100K mortgage to buy other investments or a rental house? If you don’t pay off your home with this windfall, that is, in effect, what you’re doing. If your house is paid off, and you’re debt-free, your best wealth-building tool (your income) is freed up, as you mentioned. Plus, you don’t run the risk of losing your income and the value of investments, leading you to possibly losing your home. Minus property taxes, once it’s yours, it’s yours. I would say pay off the house.
28. 

    Brock
    

    October 24, 2008, 2:30

    
    

    Thank you for your input. After a lot of research, excel sheets and gut feelings I am planning to pay off the house out right and then slam all of my income into a 401k that my company will match. The matching will make it worth it. Sure, the house is not liquid but I will be able to invest my full income which will give me liquid funds quickly and if I lose my income at least I have a place to live. This will make the required size of my emergency fund considerably less giving me more money to invest. I am probably over paid in my job and I know that it will not last forever and this plays a big factor in my decision also. I think the housing market and financial markets make the “paying off the house” an argument that is very specific to time and also depends on location and career and both markets and it has to be based off of a group of carefully planned person specific scenarios. I think people need to take an extremely careful look at their current environment before making any decision this large. Any more advice or holes poked in my plans would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all for the discussion. One thing is for sure, once you pay off the house you never have to worry about this decision again, hopefully.
29. 

    Pinyo
    

    October 24, 2008, 9:48

    
    

    @Brock — In the end you should do what you are most comfortable with. Your plan is not a bad one — i.e., pay off the house and free up cash flow for investing. It’s certainly less risky than investing the $100k now, understanding that you can’t beat up yourself if the stock doubles over the next few years.

    In any case, you won’t miss out completely with your plan to regularly invest into your 401k.
30. 

    Steve
    

    January 9, 2009, 21:28

    
    

    I’ve heard that Ric Edelman & some other experts are big fans of keeping a mortgage for the tax break. I’m more a fan of DR view of pay the damn thing off either on time or early if possible. Then take what use to be the mortgage payment & put it into a CD or something safe. The key to this scenario is doing something constructive with the old mortgage payment. I haven’t done the math but I’m almost positive that for most of the people in this country they willl end up with more money in their pocket even if they have to pay taxes on their investment than they will by getting a tax deduction.
31. 

    Matt
    

    August 27, 2009, 19:26

    
    

    It amazes me that people can be so led off course with this question. The fact of the matter is very simple. It is never better to pay off your mortgage early. You can analyze any aspect of it. At the end of the day, paying off your mortgage does not increase the value of your home. You are simply transferring money from one side of your balance sheet (liquid assets) to the other side (non liquid).

    Even if you saved the money by putting it under the mattress (0% return), you will have created more wealth by NOT paying down your mortgage. If you have a 30 yr mortgage, at the end of the 30 years, your homes value is not impacted by your loan pay off schedule. So a house that grows in value at 3% for 30 years, starting at $300,000 is worth roughly $728,000 at the end of the 30 years. It doesn’t matter when or how you paid the mortgage. And, what ever you saved is worth what it is worth at the end of 30 years. Add the two together and you’ll always be better off paying as little as possible on your home. Financially, you are always better off not paying down the loan. The only argument that favors paying off the loan early is the catastrophic argument that if the world’s financial system collapses or you loose your job and never get a new one…at least you have your home paid off.
32. 

    Jamey
    

    September 1, 2009, 9:00

    
    

    The fact is, you must have shelter. I can think of nothing better security wise than to own you own shelter outright…then in the worst of times you simply need to come up with HO insurance and property taxes, bills and food. The Ramsey plan does diversify in that 15% of your savings are going into mutual funds through retirement…it isnt really liquid but that is what the emergency fund is for. This plans assumes you have good disability and life in case of disaster and that otherwise you plan to work until you can access retirement. It also assumes you pay these things off as fast as possible and then invest as fast as possible to make up for lost time…doesnt leave a lot of room for fun!
33. 

    Pinyo
    

    September 3, 2009, 9:34

    
    

    @Matt – Interesting thought. I personally don’t prepay my mortgage, but I think the argument for prepaying is the money you save by paying less interest.
34. 

    Matt
    

    September 3, 2009, 11:00

    
    

    Pinyo – I understand the argument and understand why people get confused on the isssue. AT the end of the day though, the argument that you are saving interest doesn’t hold any water if people are analyzing things correctly. You have to take money from some place else on your balance sheet or cash flow and invest it in an illiquid investment and there is no gain in the growth of that investment when you make that decision. The whole point in even having this discussion or any like it, is to grow your wealth in the most efficient manner. Except for some strange situations, pre paying the mortgage will not increase your wealth down the road more than the alternatives. Unfortunately, as a financial planner for 17 yrs, I spend way too much of my time explaining this concept to clients because of all of the misinformation that is out there. You have a nice forum here, keep up the good work! – Good luck
35. 

    larry
    

    November 3, 2009, 3:25

    
    

    larry- look i saved 60000 by pre paying .I work 32 hrs week 14 hr im 42yrs old. and as you know the gov will be my retirment 2500 mo. and growing with this president . i will be payed off in 3 yrs. with 70000 eq. i dont want to work when i am 50 but i live very small.
36. 

    larry
    

    November 3, 2009, 3:34

    
    

    should i get a c card w/ 0% intrest intro. and pay it off . or i can get a loan for 15000 at 3% that i wood only use for e.fund. im debt free now but little savings. and a unstable job- econome
37. 

    FrugalWill
    

    December 7, 2009, 13:33

    
    

    There are calculators out there that show you the return on your investment if you pay off your mortgage. For example, my loan $165,000 over 15 years at 5.375% interest shows a 48% annual return if I pay $1000 extra a month on my mortgage. The idea is that I saved myself roughly $42,000 in interest changes over 15 years by paying it off in 8 years. That 48% annual return on my $1000 a month investment is guaranteed and tax-free is it not? It would be crazy to think you could do better than that investing in the risky stock market right?
38. 

    Erik W
    

    December 11, 2009, 17:05

    
    

    Here is a question for everyone. I currently live in MA and my wife and I are planning on moving to Florida as soon as we can find jobs down there. I am a CPA and she has an MBA. So while jobs are hard to come by in every state I think eventually we will be able to find something. I bought a condo years ago in MA which we will be selling and through some inheritance, savings and proceeds from the sale of the condo in MA we could buy a home outright in Florida for $300K, still have over $100K in liquid assets (cash and CDs) and aprox $230K in our retirement funds. We are 34 and 32 years old respectively. I am very seriously considering buying a home outright when we move. We will still have plent of liquid assets as well as money in the market from our retirement funds. We have no kids currently, but paln on having 1, maybe 2 someday. What do others think about this plan?
39. 

    Sean E
    

    January 4, 2010, 1:46

    
    

    The idea of a tax deduction benefit might not even be a consideration for some people given today low rates. I am unable to itemize for this reason. My family is a strong Dave Ramsey supporter but I disagree with him on some points and this is one.

    The strategy we have decided on is a combination of paying the mortgage off early and saving the rest in bonds, stocks, and CDs at about 75% in safer investments and 25% in stocks. We put about 30% towards paying the house off early and 70% into savings.

    If at some point we end up with 2+ years worth of living expenses in liquid savings we might then consider making our mortgage our #1 priority.
40. 

    Josh
    

    January 5, 2010, 14:15

    
    

    I really liked your article and the comments made me think. I think I have made the decision to pay off my house as soon as possible. I know there are some disadvantages like the comments said, use the extra money to invest, tax breaks etc…. I think for me it is the peace of mind knowing the house I live in is mine. I just setup a blog if anyone wants to follow my journey http://www.payingoffmyhouse.com I know I will need encouragement down the road. I can’t imagine what it will fell like when I I am sending in the last check.