Taliban reclaims Afghanistan

[old salt]

Waffling now, on paying off the home early....but need to visit someone smarter than me to figure most prudent move.

Just like car loans. The safest investment you'll ever make is interest you don't have to pay. The peace of mind is serene.

There’s a concept of opportunity cost. Safest is not always low leverage, just like sometimes the best offense is a good defense it is conversely true that generating wealth/income can be the best way to fortify a balance sheet. Homes have carry and fixed depreciating element so if you can use the cash flow to protect the asset or the bank account that could be a better path. Consider that you cannot get cheap high leverage as an individual on anything other than real estate and comparing a truly depreciating asset like a car with a mixed asset (sticks and bricks depreciate, land generally appreciates over time).

In other words it’s far more idiosyncratic than anyone here should be telling you the answer or or providing definitive advice. The biggest thing I’m focusing on here is the word “safest” it’s just not that simple.

Always buy as much as possible on margin. Nothing ever goes wrong.

[Farfromgeneva]

Waffling now, on paying off the home early....but need to visit someone smarter than me to figure most prudent move.

Just like car loans. The safest investment you'll ever make is interest you don't have to pay. The peace of mind is serene.

There’s a concept of opportunity cost. Safest is not always low leverage, just like sometimes the best offense is a good defense it is conversely true that generating wealth/income can be the best way to fortify a balance sheet. Homes have carry and fixed depreciating element so if you can use the cash flow to protect the asset or the bank account that could be a better path. Consider that you cannot get cheap high leverage as an individual on anything other than real estate and comparing a truly depreciating asset like a car with a mixed asset (sticks and bricks depreciate, land generally appreciates over time).

In other words it’s far more idiosyncratic than anyone here should be telling you the answer or or providing definitive advice. The biggest thing I’m focusing on here is the word “safest” it’s just not that simple.

Always buy as much as possible on margin. Nothing ever goes wrong.

Never read critically or think just respond. That is always the best path...to be a blow hard.

[Typical Lax Dad]

Waffling now, on paying off the home early....but need to visit someone smarter than me to figure most prudent move.

Just like car loans. The safest investment you'll ever make is interest you don't have to pay. The peace of mind is serene.

You made a mistake cutting your post…..That was YA’s quandary. Mine will be paid off by March or June.

[youthathletics]

Waffling now, on paying off the home early....but need to visit someone smarter than me to figure most prudent move.

Just like car loans. The safest investment you'll ever make is interest you don't have to pay. The peace of mind is serene.

Trynna' help a brother out? I can pm my address to send check.

[Typical Lax Dad]

Waffling now, on paying off the home early....but need to visit someone smarter than me to figure most prudent move.

Just like car loans. The safest investment you'll ever make is interest you don't have to pay. The peace of mind is serene.

Trynna' help a brother out? I can pm my address to send check.

Making a mortgage payment has your mind stressed out? Really?

[youthathletics]

Waffling now, on paying off the home early....but need to visit someone smarter than me to figure most prudent move.

Just like car loans. The safest investment you'll ever make is interest you don't have to pay. The peace of mind is serene.

Trynna' help a brother out? I can pm my address to send check.

Making a mortgage payment has your mind stressed out? Really?

Not at all. what makes you think I am stressed?

[Typical Lax Dad]

Waffling now, on paying off the home early....but need to visit someone smarter than me to figure most prudent move.

Just like car loans. The safest investment you'll ever make is interest you don't have to pay. The peace of mind is serene.

Trynna' help a brother out? I can pm my address to send check.

Making a mortgage payment has your mind stressed out? Really?

Not at all. what makes you think I am stressed?

Wasn’t sure about your response. Nothing wrong with paying 0.99% for a car loan if you have the excess liquidity.

[MDlaxfan76]

Seems to me we're a bit off topic?

If we're giving financial advice, I think someone, prob Geneva, did make the point that home mortgage interest remains one of the most affordable ways to have debt, with the double bang of being deductible (up to a point), so if someone has ANY debt, this would probably be the best type to have. Pay off all the credit cards etc first.

Which isn't to say that if I sold my business for enough bucks, I wouldn't take great pleasure in extinguishing ALL my debts, including mortgage...but a financial advisor might well then tell me to take out a mortgage up to the break point for deduction and let that roll along, take the cash and invest in something with a solid shot at further appreciation.

Love to have that problem. First world as they say!

[Typical Lax Dad]

Seems to me we're a bit off topic?

If we're giving financial advice, I think someone, prob Geneva, did make the point that home mortgage interest remains one of the most affordable ways to have debt, with the double bang of being deductible (up to a point), so if someone has ANY debt, this would probably be the best type to have. Pay off all the credit cards etc first.

Which isn't to say that if I sold my business for enough bucks, I wouldn't take great pleasure in extinguishing ALL my debts, including mortgage...but a financial advisor might well then tell me to take out a mortgage up to the break point for deduction and let that roll along, take the cash and invest in something with a solid shot at further appreciation.

Love to have that problem. First world as they say!

Yep.

[Farfromgeneva]

Waffling now, on paying off the home early....but need to visit someone smarter than me to figure most prudent move.

Just like car loans. The safest investment you'll ever make is interest you don't have to pay. The peace of mind is serene.

Trynna' help a brother out? I can pm my address to send check.

I mean if someone’s throwing shekels around I’ll take some and say thank you sir. I got kids .

[Farfromgeneva]

Waffling now, on paying off the home early....but need to visit someone smarter than me to figure most prudent move.

Just like car loans. The safest investment you'll ever make is interest you don't have to pay. The peace of mind is serene.

Trynna' help a brother out? I can pm my address to send check.

Making a mortgage payment has your mind stressed out? Really?

I’m trying to figure out the cost of replacing my wife.

[Farfromgeneva]

Waffling now, on paying off the home early....but need to visit someone smarter than me to figure most prudent move.

Just like car loans. The safest investment you'll ever make is interest you don't have to pay. The peace of mind is serene.

Trynna' help a brother out? I can pm my address to send check.

Making a mortgage payment has your mind stressed out? Really?

Not at all. what makes you think I am stressed?

Wasn’t sure about your response. Nothing wrong with paying 0.99% for a car loan if you have the excess liquidity.

If you ever saw the LTV curves on auto loans you’d finance as long as possible. Average timeframe the lender is underwater is up around 36-42mo these days. At least this was true up to about two quarters ago, there’s such a shortage in supply of new and used vehicles that the used auto market is ridiculous.

A reason to get out of Afghanistan as fast as possible to focus more resources on fixing our supply chain-to bring it full circle for you MD

[Farfromgeneva]

Seems to me we're a bit off topic?

If we're giving financial advice, I think someone, prob Geneva, did make the point that home mortgage interest remains one of the most affordable ways to have debt, with the double bang of being deductible (up to a point), so if someone has ANY debt, this would probably be the best type to have. Pay off all the credit cards etc first.

Which isn't to say that if I sold my business for enough bucks, I wouldn't take great pleasure in extinguishing ALL my debts, including mortgage...but a financial advisor might well then tell me to take out a mortgage up to the break point for deduction and let that roll along, take the cash and invest in something with a solid shot at further appreciation.

Love to have that problem. First world as they say!

My point was Susie Orman, er OS, is giving advice that is generic from a Chinese fortune cookie when these are very individual decisions. Based on his response perhaps I should’ve avoided using words like Idiosyncratic and explained it like Mongo.

[youthathletics]

Seems to me we're a bit off topic?

If we're giving financial advice, I think someone, prob Geneva, did make the point that home mortgage interest remains one of the most affordable ways to have debt, with the double bang of being deductible (up to a point), so if someone has ANY debt, this would probably be the best type to have. Pay off all the credit cards etc first.

Which isn't to say that if I sold my business for enough bucks, I wouldn't take great pleasure in extinguishing ALL my debts, including mortgage...but a financial advisor might well then tell me to take out a mortgage up to the break point for deduction and let that roll along, take the cash and invest in something with a solid shot at further appreciation.

Love to have that problem. First world as they say!

The issue, is that itemizing is harder these days, as I understand it. With the Standard Deduction now being $25,100 filing jointly, your home mortgage really does not help you, as it did in years past.

[Typical Lax Dad]

Seems to me we're a bit off topic?

If we're giving financial advice, I think someone, prob Geneva, did make the point that home mortgage interest remains one of the most affordable ways to have debt, with the double bang of being deductible (up to a point), so if someone has ANY debt, this would probably be the best type to have. Pay off all the credit cards etc first.

Which isn't to say that if I sold my business for enough bucks, I wouldn't take great pleasure in extinguishing ALL my debts, including mortgage...but a financial advisor might well then tell me to take out a mortgage up to the break point for deduction and let that roll along, take the cash and invest in something with a solid shot at further appreciation.

Love to have that problem. First world as they say!

The issue, is that itemizing is harder these days, as I understand it. With the Standard Deduction now being $25,100 filing jointly, your home mortgage really does not help you, as it did in years past.

It depends on your rate and what your alternative use of cash is.

[MDlaxfan76]

Seems to me we're a bit off topic?

If we're giving financial advice, I think someone, prob Geneva, did make the point that home mortgage interest remains one of the most affordable ways to have debt, with the double bang of being deductible (up to a point), so if someone has ANY debt, this would probably be the best type to have. Pay off all the credit cards etc first.

Which isn't to say that if I sold my business for enough bucks, I wouldn't take great pleasure in extinguishing ALL my debts, including mortgage...but a financial advisor might well then tell me to take out a mortgage up to the break point for deduction and let that roll along, take the cash and invest in something with a solid shot at further appreciation.

Love to have that problem. First world as they say!

The issue, is that itemizing is harder these days, as I understand it. With the Standard Deduction now being $25,100 filing jointly, your home mortgage really does not help you, as it did in years past.

Does that not depend on the size of the mortgage and your other deductions, taking one above the standard?
Apparently about 34 million households (20% of returns) used to take the deduction, now about 14 million do (8% of returns).
https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/chip ... deduction/

The good news is that if you're under that amount, it's a heck of a lot easier now.

[lagerhead]

Seems to me we're a bit off topic?

If we're giving financial advice, I think someone, prob Geneva, did make the point that home mortgage interest remains one of the most affordable ways to have debt, with the double bang of being deductible (up to a point), so if someone has ANY debt, this would probably be the best type to have. Pay off all the credit cards etc first.

Which isn't to say that if I sold my business for enough bucks, I wouldn't take great pleasure in extinguishing ALL my debts, including mortgage...but a financial advisor might well then tell me to take out a mortgage up to the break point for deduction and let that roll along, take the cash and invest in something with a solid shot at further appreciation.

Love to have that problem. First world as they say!

The issue, is that itemizing is harder these days, as I understand it. With the Standard Deduction now being $25,100 filing jointly, your home mortgage really does not help you, as it did in years past.

Does that not depend on the size of the mortgage and your other deductions, taking one above the standard?
Apparently about 34 million households (20% of returns) used to take the deduction, now about 14 million do (8% of returns).
https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/chip ... deduction/

The good news is that if you're under that amount, it's a heck of a lot easier now.

Those 12% in SALT states?

[old salt]

Seems to me we're a bit off topic?

If we're giving financial advice, I think someone, prob Geneva, did make the point that home mortgage interest remains one of the most affordable ways to have debt, with the double bang of being deductible (up to a point), so if someone has ANY debt, this would probably be the best type to have. Pay off all the credit cards etc first.

Which isn't to say that if I sold my business for enough bucks, I wouldn't take great pleasure in extinguishing ALL my debts, including mortgage...but a financial advisor might well then tell me to take out a mortgage up to the break point for deduction and let that roll along, take the cash and invest in something with a solid shot at further appreciation.

Love to have that problem. First world as they say!

My point was Susie Orman, er OS, is giving advice that is generic from a Chinese fortune cookie when these are very individual decisions. Based on his response perhaps I should’ve avoided using words like Idiosyncratic and explained it like Mongo.

Interest rates have not always been this artificially low.

[Farfromgeneva]

Seems to me we're a bit off topic?

If we're giving financial advice, I think someone, prob Geneva, did make the point that home mortgage interest remains one of the most affordable ways to have debt, with the double bang of being deductible (up to a point), so if someone has ANY debt, this would probably be the best type to have. Pay off all the credit cards etc first.

Which isn't to say that if I sold my business for enough bucks, I wouldn't take great pleasure in extinguishing ALL my debts, including mortgage...but a financial advisor might well then tell me to take out a mortgage up to the break point for deduction and let that roll along, take the cash and invest in something with a solid shot at further appreciation.

Love to have that problem. First world as they say!

My point was Susie Orman, er OS, is giving advice that is generic from a Chinese fortune cookie when these are very individual decisions. Based on his response perhaps I should’ve avoided using words like Idiosyncratic and explained it like Mongo.

Interest rates have not always been this artificially low.

Boy your bringing the heat today.

[Typical Lax Dad]

Seems to me we're a bit off topic?

If we're giving financial advice, I think someone, prob Geneva, did make the point that home mortgage interest remains one of the most affordable ways to have debt, with the double bang of being deductible (up to a point), so if someone has ANY debt, this would probably be the best type to have. Pay off all the credit cards etc first.

Which isn't to say that if I sold my business for enough bucks, I wouldn't take great pleasure in extinguishing ALL my debts, including mortgage...but a financial advisor might well then tell me to take out a mortgage up to the break point for deduction and let that roll along, take the cash and invest in something with a solid shot at further appreciation.

Love to have that problem. First world as they say!

My point was Susie Orman, er OS, is giving advice that is generic from a Chinese fortune cookie when these are very individual decisions. Based on his response perhaps I should’ve avoided using words like Idiosyncratic and explained it like Mongo.

Interest rates have not always been this artificially low.

Boy your bringing the heat today.

Orman Susie.