It’s the day you’ve been waiting for. Dreaming about, even. And now it’s here. You’ve paid off your mortgage in Toronto, and now you have a great deal more in your personal monthly balance sheet than you did just a couple of months ago. So now, the really big question is: just what exactly do you do with it? The biggest thing to remember is that while you still may extra cash, it doesn’t mean that you need to go on a weekly (or monthly) shopping spree to get rid of it. Here are some better things to do with it:
- Move to a one-income household. If your home has needed to be a two-income household for the past several years so that you could pay all your bills, now might be a good time to switch to a one-income household.
- Save more. Of course, this is usually one of the first things people will tell you to do when you’ve paid off your mortgage, but we thought we’d give one that’s a bit more fun to start off with. Of course, taking your extra money and putting it into savings is also one of the best things you can do when you pay off your mortgage; even if interest rates are so low right now that you won’t make a whole lot of money back, for the time-being.
- Increase your home’s value. Instead of taking out a home equity loan and owing even more on your home, now you can use the extra money that you would be using for your mortgage and put it towards increasing the value of your home.
- Retire early. This one goes along with saving more and moving to one-income household, because with no mortgage, you won’t need as much money as you would when you retire. If you can afford it now that you’ve gotten rid of that huge mortgage payment, retire early and start living the good life!
- Start your own business. Starting a new business can be risky, especially if losing your home is one of the risks you’re taking when doing it because you still have your mortgage on the line. Once that responsibility is lifted, you can afford to take a few more risks – and one of those is starting your own business.
- Treat yourself! No, you probably shouldn’t spend every last cent you have every single month, but you worked really hard to pay off your mortgage, and you have earned the right to treat yourself! So go ahead. Whatever that certain something is that you’ve been wanting for a little while now, go ahead and buy it!
