Quote:
Originally Posted by Ch28
This is the best approach, imo.
I'm going to assume you have young kids, so I've always been in the mindset that it'd be better to have a 'smaller' space if it meant you weren't anchored to a massive mortgage. The amount of money and stress that it frees up for you to spend with the kids going on vacations and enjoying life is well worth it.
My parents paid off their mortgage really quickly when I was a kid, but that wasn't without any sacrifices. We never really went on any family vacations, except for the odd road trip down to Seattle or Victoria. I was always very jealous of all the other kids that would go on their annual summer vacation with the family, while I was stuck at home watching tv/playing in the backyard/video games. I don't really hold any sort of resentment towards my parents because of it, since they just wanted to get rid of that mortgage ASAP. I do wish they lessened up a bit on the mentality that the mortgage had to be done ASAP and spend some money doing other young family things like vacations.
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Maybe it's the new reality, but I just presumed I would have a mortgage a fairly long time. Also, this is a a different era than when our parents had mortgages in the 80's.
I just renewed at 2.45% variable. In the 80s, they were approaching 20% so it made a lot of sense to pay off your mortgage as fast as possible. The rate is sufficiently low these days I feel fairly comfortable with a large mortgage.