The best debt Brian and I even have ever had?No longer counting credit score rating playing cards that receives a commission off every month?Is our loan. And quite an entire lot the complete time we had that, we were captivated with paying it off. We made greater payments as regularly as possible, and I (in my traditional hyper-organizational mode) entered all the ones bills on a spreadsheet to maintain music of our last predominant, our growing equity, and the time left till it became paid. We did not have a
Now, many financial advisors would say this wasn't really the best move on our part. After all, they'd argue, by throwing all our spare cash at our mortgage, we were only getting a 4.5% return on our investment (or 6% before we refinanced); most likely we could have done better than that by investing in stocks. Now, I would argue that a guaranteed 4.5% return is nothing to sneeze at, but even granted that we could have done better in the stock market, I think paying off the mortgage was still the right choice for us. We're both incredibly uncomfortable with the idea of being in debt, and we were never going to feel entirely secure until that debt was gone.
I realize, of course, that most people don't feel this way. But I'd like to argue that even for those who don't, devoting your extra money to paying off debt has more benefits than you may realize. Aside from the obvious financial perks—more cash to spend or invest, more security—it has documented benefits for your mental and even your physical health. And it has the potential to make your relationships with other people—especially people who share that debt—stronger as well.
Learn about the 17 reasons to get rid of debt in my latest Money Crashers article:
17 Reasons Why You Should Get Out of Debt – Benefits of Being Debt-Free
