I believe that your post said "If I give in to the current requests for consulting piling up, the mortgage will help write-off the additional income." That statement is the one to which I was responding, and to which the common knowledge fails. My argument versus this statement still stands.

However, what you are stating now is that this statement isn't the primary reason, but an incorrect common knowledge argument to support your primary reasoning, which is that the current investment of the principal is greater than the interest rate of the mortgage, which is an income maximization position.

To that I have no disagreement:ho: to the statement that an interest payment offsets income is a behavioral bias as stated is still valid, its a tax minimization strategy inferior to an income maximization strategy.

Reverse mortgage or buy stock and rent it out using covered call options.

COBOL Girl here!
Reply to #53. CoachKandSportsguy

The older spouse can start social security and the other one can claim under them while letting theirs grow to maximum then collect under their own name. We did that. Our prior 30 year home was paid off but we close on a new build at TV in Feb and decided to carry a mortgage ..locked in at 2.75 with one chance to lower it. We will not plan to ever pay it off and do other things with our money instead.

I believe this is no longer allowed as of 2016.

You can do that as long as you were born before January 1 1954.

As a retired professor of mathematics education, I regret the misunderstandings about the word "average". Yes, the S and P does indeed average 11 percent (dividends included) over the years. But people do not realize there are very long periods of a decade or more when, if you were invested during a downturn, your investment in the S and P did not come back for over a decade.

Psychology is also in play. Most feel they can "beat the market" with wiser investments than buying an S and P index fund, but almost no one does over the long run.

I originally thought I'd "surely" do better than the 2.85% my 15 year mortgage is set to with my investments. But the $1280 P and I I pay each month interferes with cash flow and keeps me from fully living dreams of travelling the world. I will soon pay off my house earl - or at the very least put $100,000 toward a "recast", then enjoy my cash flow and travel more. I realize that the "odds" are than I will die with less than I would have through this method, but we are meant to have some enjoyment in retirement and the amount I leave to charity when I pass away should still be very nice, since I live off dividends, pension and social security, without touching principal.

By the way, I recently learned about "recast" - a gap in my education. For a fee of about $200, you can pay down some of your mortgage, your monthly payment will decrease, and you will still be paid off at the time specified in the original loan. For me, if I put down $100,000 and pay the small fee, my monthly payment drops from $1280 to $400 and I will still be paid off in 11 years (I've ben paying for four years). I can choose any amount to "recast", it does not have to he $100,000 - the fee is the same regardless of the amount put toward the recast. It is much, much less expensive in fees than a re-finance -that is perhaps why companies to not mention the possibility of recast, but as far as I know, any mortgage company will do a recast.

I have no problem at all. I own a home in TV and am building a home in the moubtain/lake region of maine. I have a more on both. Combined they are 18% of my income. Not a problem at all.

Yes, I started working for IBM in 1964, when Thomas Watson Jr bet the company on System/360.
Remember carrying those boxes of cards around being so careful not to drop them.

Thanking those who responded to my question for their helpful responses.

Unfortunately threads get hijacked as responders seem to be unable or unwilling to focus on the original question.....

I owe, I owe, it is off to work I go. Sorry but I pay attention to Dave Ramsey. There is no good debt in my mind.

Welcome to ToTV.

At least it did not get political.
:MOJE_whot: