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Paying off your mortgage<\/a> early is supposed to be one of those life-changing financial moments. No more monthly house payment, more money to invest and the security of knowing that your home is completely yours. But for one 43-year-old man, reaching that milestone didn’t feel quite like he imagined. <\/p>\n Tony, from West Palm Beach, Florida, recently called “The Ramsey Show<\/a>” after paying off the remaining $110,000 on his mortgage in roughly three years. “I thought it’d be more freedom than I have,” he said. <\/p>\n Don’t Miss: <\/p>\n His house is now worth about $700,000, but instead of feeling financially set, Tony found himself worrying about everything he hadn’t done yet. <\/p>\n The Mortgage Was Gone, But The Other Goals Weren’t <\/p>\n Tony and his wife earn about $172,000 a year, and he has a pension through work. But he has only around $60,000 across his investment accounts and about $12,000 in savings. He also has three daughters. One is in high school, one in middle school and one in elementary school, and he hasn’t put much aside for college. <\/p>\n Part of the problem was how intensely Tony focused on his house. After discovering the Ramsey approach about five years ago, he started attacking his debts<\/a> and eventually sold another property he’d owned since he was about 20 to help wipe out the mortgage. <\/p>\n He also scaled back his investing. Tony had been putting around $800 a month into investments but reduced that amount when he realized the mortgage finish line was getting close. <\/p>\n “I could see the light at the end of the tunnel here that I can get this house paid off,” he said, “and tried to really push to get the house done.” <\/p>\n Trending: ‘The Walking Dead’ And ‘Invincible’ Are Two Of Skybound’s Biggest Hits. What Else Is In Its Portfolio?<\/a> <\/p>\n Co-host George Kamel suggested Tony had expected the paid-off house to accomplish more emotionally and financially than any single milestone could. <\/p>\n “You thought paying off the house would somehow solve all of the other problems,” Kamel said. “It would solve retirement. It would solve college funding. It would give you purpose.” <\/p>\n Instead, he continued, “all it did was it gave you freedom and peace and some extra margin.” <\/p>\n Paying Off The Mortgage Wasn’t The End <\/p>\n Co-host Rachel Cruze pointed out that the Ramsey plan doesn’t call for people to stop retirement investing while aggressively paying off their mortgage. It recommends putting 15% of household income toward retirement and saving for children’s college before directing extra money toward the house. <\/p>\n Cruze wondered whether Tony would have felt less overwhelmed if he’d taken another four or five years to pay off the mortgage while simultaneously building those other “buckets.” <\/p>\n Still, Tony has plenty working in his favor. At 43, he owns a roughly $700,000 home outright and no longer has a mortgage competing for his income. The hosts calculated that 15% of the couple’s income would be about $2,150 a month for retirement. Tony currently invests around $1,200 monthly, leaving room to increase that amount. <\/p>\n See Also: Nearly Half Of Americans With Retirement Plans Say They Want Private Assets. So Why Don’t Most Workplace Plans Offer Them?<\/a> <\/p>\n Major decisions about how much to invest, how aggressively to save for college and how to balance competing goals are often more complicated than not. Advisor.com<\/a> connects people with fiduciary financial professionals who help with budgeting, taxes, estate planning and more. Its matching quiz takes about five minutes, and once you find the right fit, you can book their services right away. <\/p>\n Using the assumptions on the show, Cruze calculated that starting with $60,000 and investing roughly $2,000 a month for the next 25 years could result in about $4 million in retirement savings. With the value of Tony’s paid-off home, he could potentially have a net worth of close to $6 million by then, plus his pension and Social Security. <\/p>\n So, perhaps the bigger lesson from Tony’s experience is that financial freedom doesn’t arrive all at once just because one big bill disappears. <\/p>\n “It’s not a race where there’s a million people running,” Kamel said. “It’s just Tony’s race.” <\/p>\n Image: Shutterstock <\/p>\n Read Next: The Next AI Winner Might Not Be A Chip Company. It Could Be The Companies Powering The Data Centers.<\/a> <\/p>\n Building Wealth Across More Than Just The Market <\/p>\n Building a resilient portfolio means thinking beyond a single asset or market trend. Economic cycles shift, sectors rise and fall, and no one investment performs well in every environment. That’s why many investors look to diversify with platforms that provide access to real estate, fixed-income opportunities, precious metals, and even self-directed retirement accounts. By spreading exposure across multiple asset classes, it becomes easier to manage risk, capture steady returns, and create long-term wealth that isn’t tied to the fortunes of just one company or industry. <\/p>\n EquityMultiple <\/p>\n For accredited investors looking beyond stocks and bonds, EquityMultiple provides access to vetted commercial real estate deals starting at $5,000<\/a>,<\/a> with only ~5% of opportunities passing their due diligence process. <\/p>\n Arrived <\/p>\n Backed by Jeff Bezos, Arrived Homes makes real estate investing accessible with a low barrier to entry. Investors can <\/a>buy fractional shares of single-family rentals and vacation homes starting with as little as $100<\/a>. This allows everyday investors to diversify into real estate, collect rental income, and build long-term wealth without needing to manage properties directly. <\/p>\n Skybound Entertainment <\/p>\n Entertainment franchises can become valuable long-term assets when they successfully expand across multiple platforms. <\/a>Skybound Entertainment, the company behind The Walking Dead and Invincible, develops original intellectual property that spans comics, television, film, video games, merchandise, and licensing<\/a>. With more than 250 IPs in its portfolio and a strategy focused on retaining franchise rights while scaling successful stories across media, Skybound offers investors exposure to the growing entertainment and creator economy through a private company rather than traditional public market investments. <\/p>\n American PowerGen <\/p>\n As artificial intelligence drives a surge in electricity demand, reliable power generation is becoming a critical part of the technology ecosystem. <\/a>American PowerGen is developing natural gas-fired power plants in Texas, a fast-growing market fueled by AI data centers, manufacturing expansion, and population growth.<\/a> By advancing projects through permitting, fuel supply, and grid interconnection, the company is positioning itself to help meet rising energy needs while offering investors exposure to the infrastructure supporting the next wave of AI and industrial growth. <\/p>\n Bito <\/p>\n As AI coding tools take on more of the work traditionally done by developers, companies are facing new challenges around code quality, context and the rising cost of AI-powered development. <\/a>Bito is building software designed to help AI coding agents better understand complex codebases while helping companies control AI development costs.<\/a> Founded by former PubMatic executives, Bito has raised more than $10 million from institutional and individual investors and is now raising additional capital through a Wefunder offering, giving investors an opportunity to invest in a company targeting an emerging need within the rapidly expanding AI software market. <\/p>\n DLP Capital <\/p>\n For accredited investors looking beyond stocks and traditional real estate opportunities, DLP Capital provides access to private real estate strategies focused on workforce housing<\/a> \u2014 homes for essential workers such as teachers, nurses, firefighters, and police officers. With more than $5.5 billion in assets under management and a community of 4,000+ accredited investors, DLP Capital gives investors access to real estate strategies designed around the growing need for housing that working Americans can actually afford. <\/p>\n FarmTogether <\/p>\n Farmland has historically held its value through market volatility and delivered returns uncorrelated to stocks and bonds. For accredited investors, <\/a>FarmTogether offers direct access to high-quality U.S. farmland starting at $15,000<\/a> \u2014 fully managed, with no landlord headaches. <\/p>\n Fundrise <\/p>\n Private real estate and private credit can add income and stability to a stock-heavy portfolio. <\/a>Fundrise offers access to diversified private real estate<\/a> and credit strategies through an easy-to-use platform, with professionally managed portfolios designed to generate passive income and long-term growth. <\/p>\n This article I Did What Dave Ramsey Says And Paid Off My House Early. I Thought Life Would Feel Different, But I Don’t Feel As Free As I Thought I Would<\/a> originally appeared on Benzinga.com<\/a> <\/p>\n \u00a9 2026 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Benzinga and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below. Paying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":932974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[1778,64,63,99,174,164,186,10346,5476,21130,10347,1603,21131,8792,184,185,5482,1003,1793,5473,10348,10349,2004,21132,4961,21133],"class_list":["post-932973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-401k","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-business-news","tag-economy","tag-finance","tag-financial-information","tag-investing","tag-investment-tools","tag-investor","tag-market-news","tag-mortgage","tag-mutual-funds","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-quote","tag-real-estate","tag-retirement","tag-stock","tag-stock-research","tag-stock-valuation","tag-stocks","tag-suze-orman","tag-tax","tag-track-portfolio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=932973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/932974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=932973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=932973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=932973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}