"it takes a long time[a lifetime for most] to pay off the mortgage....."
My parents had a single, very ordinary income. My dad worked in a factory. They had 3 of us kids. Mum paid off the mortgage, in full, after 12 years. How do I know? She kept her little house payments record book as she was proud of rising to that challenge so very efficiently. Me? I lived at home while I paid off my first house, renting it for approx. 3 years. I had it paid off by 2 years, 4 months. Hard, hard work. But once you have achieved that, life is then an easy cruise. Of course, interest rates were far higher then than now, making the feat even greater. No such thing as an account one could use to pay down the house loan and borrow for household expenditures (sorry, don't know the name of this account as they were not available for either my mother or myself). Well worth the few years of sacrifice for anybody, imho.
