30yr vs. 15yr mortgage, and the future, thoughts?

[Bungalove]

It depends how you do it. I was able to drop the rate on my 15 year mortgage at 4 years into the loan from 4.25% to 2.75% for a total cost of $800 and one signature sheet of paper. It was a program that was only available to mortgagees who had loans that would never be sold by the credit union. There was no appraisal, no credit check, etc. and no closing costs other than the one-time $800 fee. Truly a deal!

[Listener2307]

Originally Posted by AK76

My wife and I are both 51yo and are in the process of relocating to another state. We plan to make this move and work for 15 - 20 more years and then "retire", if possible, after one more move to where we feel it more to our advantage.

Originally, I was of the mind to get a 15yr mortgage and pay off the loan prior to our retiring in order to be mortgage free in our "golden years" then, recently, I had a thought, an epiphany if you will, and realized that if we are just going to move again and sell the house, why invest in a 15yr mortgage when we can do a 30 yr mortgage, take the difference(roughly $400 per mo) and invest it in something with a "potentially" higher yield?

With homes appreciating at roughly the same rate as inflation over the past 45yrs, would it not be wiser at this point in our lives, to fund something with a greater return in investment? Since we have earned substantial equity in our current home, unrealized at this point to be $125 - 150k, we can easily afford the 20% down on a decent home, put some cash reserve aside and still have $30 - 50k to invest elsewhere for income later on down the road

Does that make as much sense as it seems?

Thoughts?

P.S. I posted this in the personal finance forum as well.

15 year.

You only have to pay for a home once; after that, you carry the money forward to the next home. That's what we did, and got our last home paid for about 5 years before retirement.
Could not be happier.

"Greater return in investment"? Before you go down that avenue, be sure to watch a few episodes of "American Greed". There are people out there waiting for you. And they are not your friend.