On Tuesday, November 21, 2017 at 11:58:31 AM UTC-5, wrote:
On Tue, 21 Nov 2017 11:17:22 -0500, wrote:

Normal people should not be going into retirement with debt unless
they have the liquid assets to pay that debt off ... and that is rare.

Personally I like the idea that I can cut back on the luxuries I pay
cash for and live very cheap if I need to because I don't owe anyone
any money.

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Everyone's situation is different. I have no problem carrying debt
forever as long as I can earn a higher return somewhere else.
Additionally, the government subsidizes home mortgages via the tax
deduction on interest paid.

Yeah, we financed for 15 years and are about 4 years away from paying it off. The interest deduction has about gone away, and the tax man is eating us alive. Even with losing the state tax deduction the higher standard deduction in the new bill will help me out somewhat.

What I'm looking at right now is restructuring my retirement accounts to prepare for that time. As part of our company's 401k, I have free access to a financial planner, but he comes across as a salesman, and he's selling the market. Spends all of his time explaining how the market is smart, it always recovers even if there's a correction, blah, blah. Fortunately, we have a friend who manages investments (including one of mine), and I trust him. He's next on the list to sit down with.