Could I Have Retired at 54 With a Mortgage?

Could I have retired at 54 if we still had a mortgage? _________________________________________________________________________________________ 📊 PLAN YOUR RETIREMENT WITH BOLDIN I use Boldin to model retirement scenarios, spending, taxes, and other long-term financial decisions. If you want to build and test your own retirement plan, you can check it out here: https://go.boldin.com/scottunlocked Disclosure: This is an affiliate link. If you purchase a paid Boldin plan through my link, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. _________________________________________________________________________________________ In this video, I explain how becoming mortgage-free affected our early retirement decision, reduced the amount of spending our retirement portfolio needs to support, and gave us more flexibility when markets don't cooperate. I also discuss the counterargument: keeping a low-interest mortgage and investing the money instead may produce a better result on a spreadsheet. For us, however, eliminating the mortgage meant lower fixed expenses, more flexibility during market downturns, and greater confidence when I made the decision to retire at 54. A paid-off house isn't a requirement for early retirement, and paying off a mortgage early won't be the right financial decision for everyone. This is simply how becoming mortgage-free fit into our retirement plan—and why the difference between fixed and flexible expenses matters so much to me now that we're living without a traditional paycheck. What about you? Would you feel comfortable retiring with a mortgage, or is having a paid-off house an important part of your retirement plan? Let me know in the comments. ⏱️ CHAPTERS 00:00 Could I Have Retired With a Mortgage? 00:39 Why the Monthly Payment Matters 01:01 The Fixed-Cost Difference 01:46 Flexible Spending vs. Fixed Expenses 02:20 Reducing Pressure During a Downturn 03:00 Paying Off the Mortgage vs. Investing 03:49 Why It Worked for Us 04:35