<prompt> Human: The thought crossed my mind when I noticed that my wife and I have roughly the same amount in various IRAs and 401K as we have left on our mortgage. The thought being that if we paid it off, we would avoid all the interest over the remainder, not have to pay for living expenses ever again and wed be 100 debt free. However, we would lose a lot of money on taxes I imagine so wed have to save longer plus it seems risky to put all our eggs in one basket. Has anyone heard of anyone trying this? I wanted to open it for discussion.  <response>: Sounds like an incredibly self destructive plan. Hold your retirement funds sacred. 