It’s not your parents’ retirement anymore. That is the central message of a recent USA Today article that weighs the benefits of carrying mortgage debt into retirement.
There is no clear-cut solution whether having mortgage debt during one’s retirement years can either benefit or harm a retiree’s savings. Rather, since retirees have differing financial circumstances, the answer to this question largely yields a two-word reply: “It depends.”
“There is no yes or no answer. It depends on the individual situation,” says Katherine Dean, senior vice president of wealth planning at Wells Fargo Private Bank, in the article. “There’s a lot of reason to continue to take a mortgage into your retirement years if you benefit from the tax rates and you have enough income. You wouldn’t necessarily be in hurry to pay that off, especially if you have a low interest rate.”
While there is no one-size-fits-all solution, one financial advisor notes that his clients prefer to pay off their mortgage, as long as it doesn’t come at the expense of other savings assets like 401(k) plans and Roth IRAs.
Read more at USA Today.
Written by Jason Oliva
