Taking money off the table • Hacker News Board

Re: Taking money off the table

#111

Post by throw0101c » Fri, Oct 31, 2025, 12:14 PM UTC

gbriel wrote: post #58

throw0101c wrote: post #46

I participate in a personal finance sub-reddit, and there is often a question of whether someone should pay off their mortgage (completely, or make some lump sum payments). The mathematical answer is that if your interest rate is lower than the expected returns of some kind of portfolio you have, than you'll make more money investing. But I like to bring up what Morgan Housel, author of the book The Psychology of Mon…

If you have a 2.6% mortgage which is less than inflation, then you are making money from the bank. Paying that off would be ridiculous.

> […] then you are making money from the bank.

Yes, that is the mathematically correct answer.

Re: Taking money off the table

#112

Post by fred_is_fred » Fri, Oct 31, 2025, 1:31 PM UTC

GCA10 wrote: post #29

There's a crucial extra factor that isn't in the original article, but ought to be: Money's ability to buy great experiences decreases as you get older. I've seen this with beach vacations, road trips to see a favorite band, fast cars, ski trips, etc. Seize the moment, friend! What you can do NOW with that 10% slice will never exactly be on your possibilities map again.

I took a few months off intentionally in between jobs to hike and camp and hang out with my kids. Now that my kids are older my only regret is that I didn't do it for longer.

Re: Taking money off the table

#113

Post by csa » Fri, Oct 31, 2025, 3:38 PM UTC

lostlogin wrote: post #108

csa wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you won’t sleep though, that ability vanishes at 40 I’m not sure why you say that. If one takes care of themselves in terms of diet and exercise, good sleep should be a thing for most of their life. I’m in my 50s, and I sleep about as well as I did in my 20s (possibly better).

For me, diet and exercise seem unhelpful in the face of even minor stress. Being exhausted when I go to bed helps and I ride a bike to get that, but having the time to get my milage high enough isn’t always possible.

> For me, diet and exercise seem unhelpful in the face of even minor stress.

Good point.

I probably should have written something like “…diet, exercise, and mental health”.

Re: Taking money off the table

#114

Post by reverendjames » Sun, Nov 02, 2025, 4:45 AM UTC

throw0101c wrote: post #46

I participate in a personal finance sub-reddit, and there is often a question of whether someone should pay off their mortgage (completely, or make some lump sum payments). The mathematical answer is that if your interest rate is lower than the expected returns of some kind of portfolio you have, than you'll make more money investing. But I like to bring up what Morgan Housel, author of the book The Psychology of Mon…

If you make that big of a decision at the dinner table without excel, it implies that you make the decision without doing the math, which implies you are stupid.