I reached a milestone this week--total current debt under $35,000! That's $22,300 on the mortgage (which I estimate I can pay off at the end of 2028) and the rest on loans at rates ranging from 4.99% to 7.98%). The first of those loans will be paid off in a month. That's about $360 a month of cash flow freed up, most of which I intend to put in my brokerage account so that I start building up a decent balance in a taxable account. Then another loan I will pay off a little early in January 2026, freeing up another hundred. Then the third loan I will pay off, again a little early in January 2027 (I have inherited accounts subject to Required Minimum Distributions, so I typically take a chunk (or all) of my RMD early in the year to pay down debt), freeing up $300 in cash flow (so that's now a total of $750 a month that I should be able to contribute to the taxable account by then). I'll throw an extra $2k at the mortgage in January of 2028 and that will enable me to pay it off before year end. So that will be all of the current debt gone! (Other than credit cards, which I pay off monthly.)
I'm not saying that I will be able to retire debt-free. I expect to replace my now-13-year-old car in 2028 or 2029 so that I go into retirement with a new(ish) car. I project that would be the last car I ever buy, since I expect to be in the "slow-go" phase of retirement and living in a "lifeplan community" in my early 80s by the time a 2028 acquisition runs its life course. Those communities provide transportation to doctor's appointments, the grocery store, out to entertainment events, so I expect I wouldn't really feel the need for a car by then since I would be able to satisfy my other transport needs that are not met by Uber or its like.
Plus I do expect to do some improvements to my house in the years before selling it. Nothing MAJOR, but my furnace is 25 years old, the house really needs to be painted (it hasn't been since I bought it 20 years ago), and I'll make improvements to both the kitchen and bath (which both date to the 70s or earlier) and finish replacing the appliances that have not yet been replaced (oven and dryer, and I'll probably need another water heater by then too). One of my to-dos for the next month is to go open a new HELOC because my existing HELOC (at a $0 balance for the past 6 months or so) will stop allowing me to make new draws as of November, so just as I go into retirement and have the time to deal with deferred maintenance, I won't be able to borrow to do so. A local bank has a HELOC that does not have an end to the draw date, so I'm planning to apply for a new HELOC there and close the old one out.
So chances are that, by whenever I pull the plug on retirement, there will still be some debt, but it will probably be just a 3-4 year car loan and the HELOC, which would be repaid when I sell the house in 2032 or so.
July 20th, 2025 at 12:33 am 1752968000
July 21st, 2025 at 08:20 am 1753082413
July 21st, 2025 at 01:48 pm 1753102101
July 23rd, 2025 at 05:50 pm 1753289428
July 24th, 2025 at 12:45 am 1753314327