What is a 30 year mortgage?

I pose this question not to give a literal answer to this simple question but to really examine what a 30 year mortgage is. I am here to state the obvious, and be quite blunt in the process.  Once a 30 year mortgage is created, you are a payment slave to that bill until the day the loan is paid off.  You have just signed your life away and have to find a way through thick or thin to pay on that mortgage or the bank will take back their asset.  Even further, it is not really even yours until it is paid for.

30 years is a long time. Most of us do not like to have the same car for 5-10 years, so a mortgage is a huge commitment.  For some homeowners, by the time the mortgage is paid off, their kids have already moved out.  This is not a short term, pay when I want kind of commitment, but a grown-up kind; pay every month type of commitment.  We have a better chance of going through a divorce or changing jobs before the home is paid off.  So we better start treating it as a big deal.

I, like most, have had to change my thinking in the last few years and re-prioritize what is important in my life.  Debt free sounds pretty good right? This takes a big commitment, it also means not calling me (the loan guy) every 5 years or so to refinance, but looking at all smart options.  Remember, every single time you refinance, unless you go with fewer years, you are starting back at a new 30 year obligation. Personally, I have owned a home for 11 years, but really have only owned for 3 years.  I sold one home and bought another and refinanced a few times along the way.  Yes, $150.00 a month less sounded good at the moment, but now the one thing I cannot get back is time.  I have lost that forever and now need to make up ground.  My point is; take it from the mortgage advisor, the best mortgage rate in town means nothing if it goes against the basis of eventually not having a mortgage payment.  Remember your commitment and be ready to own it… for a long time.