my first was a 32ft trailer
then a small sail boat
then a 47 ft f/g houseboat
now in a 3/2 with a pool on rare higher ground in south fla
all paid for cash on day one

It was paid off.... then the foundation gave me a serious problem. When engineering the repair more problems came up. Soon I was tearing down 1/3 of the house and rebuilding from native soil on up.

So I now owe $100K on a house I originally bought for $47K! But I do have 50 acres of water as a backyard.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1325003135.jpg

I own a couple of rentals free and clear. Have a standard 80%-4% mortgage on my principal residence and paying extra principal on that. Got lucky on some stocks in the 90's and paid things off with some reluctance but now glad I did. Conventional wisdom would have been to keep that money in the market. They are going to be most of my retirement so hoping for some slow rebound in prices over the several years.

you lucky SOB's!!

i will continue to be pounded from behind for many years to come. whatever..

It's not "luck" at all imo...it's making astute decisioins, living within one's means, and doing the right things for a long time. I've pi$$ed more $ away than I care to think about, but always took care of bidness first :).

ps: retired at 48 and not looking back...

it's lucky to be smart. :)

i'm playing by the rules. my house will be paided off early..except i'm feeling a move and new home purchase looming in my future.

That's too weird. Pretty much my story as well...also retired at 48. Glad I did so before medical issues cropped up. I'm 68 now, and grateful for the healthy retirement years.

I'll admit there was some "timing" luck involved...luck happens to those who plan well.

Divorce is the best way to kill any hopes of an early retirement. I started over financially at 36.

But we have been debt-free for 6 years which is helping to rebuild the retirement coffers.

Ian

Some was luck, sure. Lucky to have lived through the 80's and 90's housing price rises. Not feeling so lucky now that I'm heavily invested there but it will come back eventually. If I had some liquidity now I'd be doubling down hard.

I've wasted my share of money (racing and playing with Porsches) but haven't bought anything on credit (other than real estate) since I graduated college and bought my first new car. Took some pretty big risks on real estate in the late 80's early 90's. My ex was very thrifty. The divorce 5 years ago cut my retirement assets in half so I'll working for many years to come. Turned 48 this year.

my house, my 4 unit apt building and my two rental houses are all paid for as well as all my cars....like others some luck...and a lotta self control

My wife and I in our mid/late 40's happily live in a 40+ year old simple split level house on 9 acres out in flat farm country that is paid off. We have no thoughts of ever moving to anything fancier. We buy only used cars for cash and NEVER intend to go in debt again. I have old friends that have moved several times upgrading houses/locations and have healthy house/car payments.... My wife and I however are happy staying put at our HOME.

Paid off house 6 years ago. all cars (6) paid for, only payment is my new tractor (0% x 60 months). Retired from Army last January, should retire from DoD job this year. I am 51.

As KC mentioned, live within your means. Decide what you really need as opposed to what you want. I have plenty to continue screwing around with cars, racing, and I am looking to purchase a hunting camp with 30 acres minimum. Paid for both kids college, without loans. It is a combination of luck and a very easygoing wife who is financially brilliant. (I can't take all the credit)

The Kalifornia RE bubble rescued my sorry @ss.
I bought a house on a sub-dividable acre on the peninsula in the SF Bay Area
for $260k - I needed the land so I could park some capital equip't.
25 yrs. later ('08) I owed ~ $130k...sold it for $1.8 million. Unreal, eh?!!! :eek:
.
Traveled a bit - ended up in Scottsdale, AZ in Sept. '10 & bought a 4 bed/2 bath, pool, on an acre... for cash.
Except for some cranky health issues, retired life is peaceful & good.

I figure I'm stuck renting for a while, but I'm comforted by the fact that most of your free and clear properties will not have appreciated significantly by the time I'm ready to buy one of them.
I own my car free and clear, at least (though I sometimes wonder if it's an asset or a liability).

That ain't water there, Flatbutt...

Paid off first home in three years and four months (additional payment to principle!!!). We saved close to $70K by this method. My reward was by purchasing my Porsche. Then, my wife was accepted into medical school. I lived in our home while we rented a 'cottage' for her in Birmingham (UAB). Her final two years of medical school were spent doing clinical rotations in Huntsville. So, rather than renting as before, we purchased a second house in H'ville (via an equity line on our first house). We have paid over half of the loan off in the past 20 months (again, practicing the ever-simple additional payment to principle method). She graduates in May and our plan is to defintely sell our first home. The status of our second home is up in the air since we do not yet know where she will be serving her residency.

Make all attempts at paying off your loan as quick as possible (the earlier the better). Do not buy into the hype about the tax benefits of interest payments.

Got to be the best feeling of all to own your home.
When we purchased a modest home in a good location back in 2000, we never new that it would double in price and then go back down to it's original price.
We didn't care.
A 15 year loan and worked out with the lender to add an extra $500 per month on the principal.
Three years ago we just payed off the balance with some savings that we had already paid taxes on.

What I couldn't talk two of my friends out of was borrowing against their homes and buying a new Harley and the other a Toy Hauler.
The loans are amoratized, so they had to start paying all that interest again.
They both are in their 50's and got fresh 30 year loans.
Never retire.
I can't stand paying interest on anything, so I don't. The house was the
only exception. Oh.... we suffered because we had to wait to get a lot of neat stuff like new cars and consumer electronics but the best advice I can give anyone is don't pay interest for anything if at all possible.

A long time ago, I got my youngest son a desk top computer with all the
goodies using a credit card. The purchase was 2 grand and when I paid it off, the computer cost me 4 grand and was obsolete. Insanity.

I keep mine leveraged to the max, most of you small business owners will know why!!!

It is market dependent. We didn't have a crash like many (but not all) of the US markets.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1325281748.gif

We bought our present house in 1998 for roughly average price per the graph. Interesting to note the 13 year recovery period for our bubble.

Ian

Put half down and took a 20 year loan for the rest - currently 2 years in and I am paying enough extra princple to knock about 3.5 to 4 years off and I fully funded my 401K for the past two years - wish I could pay it off sooner but that is all I can handle at the moment