Guess Ill never understand it. Have a buddy that has the ability and means to pay his mortgage off early and refuses beacause he'll lose his tax break. Try as I might, cant get it through his head that he is far better off without that 'tax break'..! Lenders have done a great job at brainwashing folks that mortgave interest is a good thing. He's not the only one with that warped thinking....but in the end, he earns his money and is free to spend it.

i would think 2 minutes with a calculater would show him what your talking about. your friend may have other reasons for not wanting to pay early. if you want a good credit score for example you need to be in debt and have a continuous payment history.

I hear your buddy's reasoning all of the time. It makes zero sense to me.

Danny is right. Amazing how people no longer want to sit down with a pencil and piece of paper. Seeing is believing.

Getting out of all debt should be a major priority for every wage earner. As Dave Ramsey says "Debt is Dumb."

i get a kick outta being a credit risk pretty much when we own a whole lot-debt free.not a bill late in forever.

no credit cards and over 20 yrs without a loan,little cash in the bank.

if Hillary was a banker,they'd be callin me Epstein.

Agreed Green Bay

Is it possible that with the tax break, coupled with low interest rates, that his money is better off working for him in say the stock market or the real-estate market?

Folks have differing opinions on the stock market and investing, but I think it is safe to assume it is better than giving interest money to the bank.

Not always if you have4% interest and could make 10% on stock market (was easy to do with trumps market last 3 years) that equals a positive 6% in your pocket.

Ill be there with you in a few years. My mortgage is quite possibly my last loan ever and im only 41. Once it's paid in 4 years i only plan to make major purchases with cash. I do use a credit card but pay it off monthly. It's only for convenience. Im not sure how credit scores are calculated but if mine erodes away i couldn't care less. If something like insurance costs me more because of it, those might be fun conversations where i tell them i get the best rate or im out.

Flipper, why not pay off the mortgage and put 10% in your pocket...seems better than 6% to me.

4% compounded on a long term mortgage is way more than 4% simple interest on something short term. Find the calculators and run the numbers on a 30 year mortgage and tell me the actual dollars of interest payed versus the principal. It ain't 4% for dang sure! Total interest is more than total principal.

Unless there is more to the story . It is easy to see if it is a benefit to paying it off. FIRST he has to know how much interest his is paying per year or he wouldn't know how " much " the tax break is. But he can't be gaining more as the tax credit isn't dollar for dollar. Second with taxes almost entirely done on a computer program it is as simple as changing the interest amount paid on the form and recalculating with ONE push of a button. Boom there is his answer...... ONLY reason I can think of is he doesn't have the "cash to pay it off".

I have high credit score and have not been in debt for anything in past 20 plus years. A person can get a good payment history by paying his bills on time. Paying debt on time will help credit score, I’m just saying you don’t have to go in debt to get good credit score.

LOL yea IF the dividend interest was compounded like the mortgage interest was . But for some reason the publics receiving interest is different then the publics paying interest.......

Not just mortgages. Just had a conversation with one of my daughters about payroll with holding and tax refunds. The moochers in DC have done one heck of a brainwashing job that has most folks believing it's okay to give away money all year long in the hope of being given some back.

Our tax code is written with this in mind.

A personal finance course should be required for high school graduation. It should cover interest, simple and compound, simple stuff like managing your bank accounts and filling out routine personal tax returns. It is not rocket science but there is certainly no shortage of ignorance about managing ones personal finances.

We have had everything paid of for 10 or twelve years. Last spring I wanted my wife to get a new car. She decided to get a Subaru. We have paid cash for our last couple cars, but they were offering .9% interest on the loan. We put 5,000 down on the car, but that was dumb move on our part. We should have left the money in the bank, Even with CDs at today's rates we would have come out a little ahead.

There can be several reasons to not pay off a mortgage early...Lots of variables.

I only have a few years left on my 15 year at 2.875%. I have no intention of paying any extra and put extra money to work in other ways.