Our mortgage payments are so low that we couldn’t rent a decent two-bedroom apartment for what we’re paying now. The reason our five-year plan got de-railed was due to the real estate boom here - we can sell for really large bucks, but we can’t afford to buy anything else. Well, that’s what it’s looking like - we’ll know for sure in 2.5 years when we are actually ready to sell and see what’s available then.
Thanks for the info, walrus. No, not too simplistic at all.
Oh, by the way, we’re not paying a lot into RRSP’s - my husband’s company contributes to both of ours. Our primary focus is debt-consolidation and reduction at this point.
This is essentially what I’ve done, except that I never owned a house.
When I first saw this thread, I was going to say that increasing house debt was a bad idea. But then I saw that you live in Calgary, one of the few places where I suspect house values are good to increase for the next few years (or as long as the oil boom lasts, anyways).
So I think that increasing your lower-interest house debt is probably a tolerable gamble… in your case. Eliminating your high-interest debt is always a good idea, of course, but in other circumstances than Calgary I’d recommend that you pay it off as fast as you can without increasing the debt in your house.
