[grania]

That doesn't tell the whole story, which I expect is worse. My parent's generation, who are in their 90s now, were the first generation to depend on mortgages. The wisdom then was if a family got a mortgage, it was for 20 years and they paid it off more quickly than that, and hoped to stay in that house until their family grew up. Kids grew up, maybe went to college, and with the mortgage paid and a stable source of income all those years, they could help the kids with college. College was affordable in the 1960s until, yup, the feds got involved.

But folks approaching age 60 now and everyone younger: The house was a piggy bank, constantly remortgaged or accruing new debt with second mortgages. Career-long jobs are rare, so very few families have had a chance to build up savings without debt. All of that is why these numbers are meaningless: What is the real amount of available wealth adding or subtracting for home equity and subtracting all debt? I'd wager than an incredibly small number of folks getting near retirement are in acceptable financial shape by that standard.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

I’m 50 and hoping to retire at age 70 and a half, when I’m supposed to start withdrawing from my 401(k). So I want to pay my mortgage off early, so I’m putting in extra principal payments. The more mortgage I can pay off now, the more I can save later after I own the house free and clear.

(Don’t worry, I am still contributing to my 401(k).)