Is this thread real life? Nobody with any common sense would do this. You lose so much money if you pull it out of your 401K over the next 7 years.

Let's hope nothing every happens with your pension.

Absolutely. Houses often aren't the glorious investments they're usually made out to be.

You can start drawing 59 and a half penalty free. I would wait until then and look at paying enough of the mortage to at least get the PMI off. Thats wasted money. No one should ever pay PMI with the exception of there first mortgage.

If you decision is already made I would just make payments with the balance. If you draw a large amount out at one I assume it could put you at a higher tax rate for that year.

A mortgage, period, at age 60 is a scary thought. I know tons of people do it, but when do folks plan on paying off their debt?

You are going to need that 401K to pay the HOA dues.

Nope. Don't do it. House payments should be gone by retirement.

........and your lawyer when you park your pickup on jack stands .

Only if you can't afford it. Let's say you are 60 and you are drawing 6k-7k a month in retirement and you have no outstanding debt. You decide to buy a vacation home with a morgatge payment of under 1,000 a month or so insurance and all what would be wrong with that. It is only if you can't afford it when it becomes a problem.

When I moved here and bought a house at 57, I took out a 30 year mortgage. I did have a large down payment from the sale of my Texas home. My house payment (including escrow) is $700 a month. Can't rent an apartment for that amount.

I'm not ever going to "draw" anything. I have to view these type decisions through the lens of what I have in the bank, and will have saved over decades. Pensions are dead for people my age.

I guess if you have an ironclad pension, you can do whatever you want, and you'll be fine.

I do. I also do not plan to save everything I can, to leave it to my children. My FIL has worked hard his entire life and spends less than what is coming in from investments every year, and is too feeble to enjoy it now. I am sure we will be getting enough from him, to live comfortably, without needing any of his $$$. I want to LIVE and enjoy retirement and living on the bay is a life long dream. If something happens to me first, my wife gets 75% of my pension. I paid 11% into my pension my entire career, for one of the best pensions in the State.

I would just borrow for the house. Later on down the line after you see how things go in retirement you can always pay it off early. I like the rest of your plan. There's nothing wrong with having a mortgage at retirement as long as you can pay for it and it sounds like you can. If you die before it's paid off it gets sold and with waterfront property it is hard to lose money.

Dear Lord, I'm glad I ain't looking at a 30 year mortgage and I'm just 50.

Yeah, when people get to 50 they should be in their final years of mortgage payoff, not starting a new one.

That is something that hurt a lot of people in their 50s to 70s the last Great Recession - they went crazy in the bubbling real estate market,
bought newer bigger more expensive houses or bought new second vacation houses.....and then the bubble popped. And financially wiped out millions of people
who were at an age where they should be at or near a mortgage free and debt free time of life - not losing their life savings.

You don't want to be using your retirement funds to pay mortgage debt.

Your supposed to be using it to take it a little easy, see the world, travel, go do some international mission work, stock up on more ammo - and get prepped for any civil war and end of the world scenarios.

Your pension sounds similar to the FRS which I retired from. I took their option 3. If something happens to me, my wife will get 100% of my pension. The only draw back was I took a hit when I retired due to her being three years younger than me. I get a yearly cola raise every year and I get the health insurance subsidy from the State. I bring home more now than when I was working minus my health insurance.