After the mortgage.
So...
We are almost done paying off our mortgage, and the question I am pondering now is... what next?
Some ideas I had were:
1) take a break from any large financial commitments for a year or two and just kind of relax, not worry too much just spend the money on travelling, or splurging on something.
2) Buy a property, and rent it out to cover the costs so it would have a neutral effect on our outgoing cash flow.
3) Buy a vacation property, probably around Gulf Islands or in that region of BC - have it ready for retirement.
4) Upgrade to another house, possibly inner city, and then take on another mortgage to make up the difference.
(2) and (3) aren't mutually exclusive of (1). (4) is one that would be questionable. The nice thing about having our house paid off is a relief of owning it and we could lose our jobs and we'd still be alright with minimum wage jobs if it ever came to that. If we upgraded to a better house, we'd be back to that fear of losing our primary residence if we couldn't make payments.
One friend I talked to who has enough money to retire on now, albeit not comfortably, said he felt a certain sense of relief to be able to now have the choice to do what he wanted. he didn't necessarily need to have a high paying job anymore if he didn't want it, he could do what he enjoys.
So I guess I am kind of curious what other people would do in the situation if they've got their primary residence paid for and are now contemplating what to do next.
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