Should You Pay Off Your Mortgage Before You Retire?
Paying off your home mortgage before you retire is a major financial achievement, but you don't necessarily have to eliminate all housing debt in order to retire well. Low mortgage interest rates mean it can make financial sense to continue to make mortgage payments during your retirement years. "Interest rates are changing the game," says Bryson Roof, a certified financial planner for Roof Advisory Group, a division of Fort Pitt Capital Group, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Rodney Brooks
An award-winning journalist, writer and author and my specialty is retirement planning and other personal finance issues. I have written for many national publications, including USA TODAY, The Washington Post, U.S. News & World Report, AARP and National Geographic. I am available to speak on personal finance, financial literacy and the racial wealth gap.
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The author tells the history of the Freedman’s Savings Bank, how it grew much too quickly, why it failed and the impact on Black America. The Freedman’s Bank offered a safe depository for formerly enslaved people, expanded quickly and gained millions in deposits – mostly ranging from $5 to $50. But inexperience and corruption doomed it to failure, costing may of the small depositors their savings.
