<prompt> Human: I have a strong plan in my head to one day own my home outright but when I tell others about this, they say Im impractical.Im also in the finance field and my colleagues always fall back to the if you borrow your mortgage at x, and you get a return of y, then its better to carry a mortgage. I understand that I am taking a more conservative approach, but my home is something I dont want to play the riskreward game on.Thanks for any replies.  <response>: I paid off my mortgage 3 years ago. Best decision I ever made. Not having a mortgage is liberating. I took my mortgage payment and have been dumping it in my investmentretirement account. Everyone I know is in debt and one job loss away from financial ruin. Its no way to live...I will always have a home regardless of what happens with the economy and my job situation...that to me is worth a lot more than a couple of percentages points had I invested my home payoff amount. 