As I look around on forums and blogs I see many theories and arguments about weather paying your home off is better or worse in the long term.
I can say without a doubt that for me having my home or principle place of residence fully paid was on of the biggest factors in my financial freedom journey and general life happiness.
It relieves a whole lot of stress factors and of course the interest bill that comes every month.
It clears a huge asset that can then be used as collateral for an emergency fund, or an extremely good opportunity.
In my case that doesn’t mean borrowing on the house and investing in ETFs or shares, well not unless there’s a crash and the index is down 30% or more.
Paying off the house wasn’t all that fast either, it takes many years of saving, investing and occasionally selling when the price is right over a couple decades. For most of us it’s a slow process.
There are methods of accelerating the repayment term such as paying weekly instead of monthly, paying a little more than only the interest or selling other assets and using the proceeds to pay off some or all of the loan.
In my case I’m very glad that the loan was actually a line of credit. So basically as the loan is paid off the funds are available for redraw at any time.
And when it’s paid off in full, or close to it I have the equivalent of a credit card with a limit of hundreds of thousands at my disposal.
And just like all credit card debt, it must be used wisely for my financial wellbeing.
Often the argument for not paying the home off is that the funds can be invested elsewhere at a better rate.
This may be true in some cases though it also depends on many personal factors including ability to get a loan, household income, future plans.
So don’t dismiss the idea of paying off your home loan quickly and do a thorough assessment of your current financial situation and goals before making a decision.