Bucket list

@zonavar68
Your post caught my eye! Congratulations on getting a mortgage and the house that comes with it!

Your last comment about "..if I ever retire from work, I'll pay it off with the retirement funds" is what actually got my attention.

I stumbled upon this very thing a few years ago when a friend of mine retired from his job and then tried to buy a new retirement home. He was refused a mortgage from the bank he'd always dealt with because if a person is of 'retired' status, they no longer qualify for a house mortgage.

This is because it is bank policy to not allow a person to pay their mortgage from retirement funds. Therefore, to even qualify to hold a mortgage, one must be employed full-time though one's annual income is only of secondary importance, oddly enough.

What this means is, if you retired and then tried to renew your mortgage when it came due for renewal and you told the bank that you had recently retired, they would not renew your mortgage.

For that reason, many people who are near retirement age and who also hold a mortgage on their home, only keep their full-time job to qualify for mortgage renewal.

For this reason, paying off your mortgage with "retirement funds" is not going to happen.

@swirlie Well when I applied, the bank was specific about what my 'exit strategy' was, and I said I would use my retirement funds after age 70 if I am finished with work by then. At age 70, I have to close down my former government super fund account and move the money elsewhere. I could already pay the whole mortgage off now with what's in it (I worked for the state govt for 21 yrs until 2007) and it's been a 'deferred' account since then when I had to set up with a different fund when I started working for private industry.

@zonavar68
Okay, so your bank's rules are such that you can use retirement funds to pay down mortgage and interest. I should draw to your attention that those same banking rules were in place in 2008 which caused the US-led global meltdown in the mortgage and lending industry from which the USA has still not recovered.

Do you really want to be tied to that same set of financial rules as you enter your retirement years? My bet would be that you'd want to be completely debt-free before you retired.

Have you considered paying off your entire mortgage right now with what's in your former government 'super fund' account? The truth is, the interest being charged on your mortgage is higher than what the super fund is paying you after tax.

@swirlie I'm in Australia btw, with a good job and a good position pre-retirement. Most people don't try to get a mortgage in their 50's, particularly by themselves (since most people with home loans are couples), but I hope to have the house paid off in 20 yrs or less.

@zonavar68
I think it's great that you're embarking on this journey alone and in your 50's and I also know that you'll succeed because you're obviously focused on succeeding within a given timeframe. Stay working for as long as you're still enjoying what it offers. When the day comes that it's no longer fun to show up for work like it use to be, then it's time to drop off the paperwork on the boss's desk, then exit stage left and don't ever look back!