Living without a mortgage payment is every homeowner's dream. But before you pay off your mortgage early, you should consider the following:

-If you have credit card or consumer loan debt, you might be better off paying these down or off first. Interest on a mortgage is tax deductable. Interest on credit cards and consumer loans is NOT. Paying off your mortgage may hurt your tax deductions if you are an itemizer.

-If the interest rate on your mortgage is less than 6%, and the interest rate on your credit cards is 12-20%, the interest you save by paying off the credit cards is 2-3 times more than the interest you save on your mortgage. But be careful here. If you pay off your credit cards, put them away so you don't run the balances back up again.

-Cash is King. The worst thing you can do is deplete your savings to pay off your mortgage and then have an emergency and little or no cash.

-Once you pay a lump sum of cash toward your mortgage, it is gone. Yes, of course you can get it back, but re-financing to pull cash out of your home can get costly. Banks make a lot of money originating new loans.

-If you have little or no credit card or consumer debt, and plenty of savings, but don't want to commit it all toward the mortgage, do it in stages. This may easy your transition into a new debt free lifestyle.

-Once your mortgage is gone, do yourself a big favor and keep paying the same amount into savings and watch how fast and big your nest egg grows. Finally, If your interest rate in not in the low 4's, we should be talking about your options.

Give me a call to discuss your options. - Bert Carpenter~ 888-889-9950. NMLS 40586