Dave Says: Mortgage or Save?

These days it pays to be smart about money. That's why it's important to take this wise counsel from financial expert Dave Ramsey.

Dear Dave,

I just became debt-free, and I live in an apartment. I’m also 28 and single, and I make about $75,000 a year. Do you think I should get a mortgage and go back into debt, or save up and pay cash for a house? I’d like to keep the price of a new home around $200,000, and I think I can save about $15,000 a year.

Kevin

Dear Kevin,

Congratulations on becoming debt-free! It feels awesome, doesn’t it?

When it comes to saving, how about rounding that figure up to $20,000 a year? Going that route, you’re only 10 years away from a nice, new paid-for home, and you’re still debt-free. That’s one way to do it.

I don’t borrow money, Kevin. And I don’t tell people to do things I won’t do. The one exception to that is I don’t yell at people for taking out a 15-year, fixed-rate mortgage, where the payments are no more than 25 percent of your monthly take home pay. You could save like crazy for a couple of years and put down a really strong down payment on a home in the price range you’re talking about. Then, you could pay off that house in 15 years max — or even sooner.

I don’t have a big problem with it either way. But wouldn’t it be great to be only 38 years old and still be completely debt-free?

—Dave