You’ve probably heard him say it a thousand times on the radio. The grass feels different under your feet when you own the dirt.
Honestly, it sounds kinda poetic for a guy who spent years yelling at people about beans and rice. But the reality of trying to pay off mortgage Dave Ramsey style is less about poetry and more about a brutal, intentional grind. It’s the "last mile" of the financial marathon.
Most people get stuck in the middle. They have the 3% interest rate. They see the S&P 500 doing 10%. They do the math on a napkin and decide that paying off the house is "stupid."
Dave doesn't care about your napkin math.
The Math vs. The Peace of Mind
Here is the thing: if we were all robots, none of us would have credit card debt in the first place. We’d just arbitrage interest rates all day. But humans are emotional, messy, and prone to "lifestyle creep."
When you follow the plan to pay off mortgage Dave Ramsey recommends, you aren't just looking at an interest rate. You’re looking at risk.
If you lose your job in 2026 and your house is paid off, you can live on a very small amount of money. If you have a $3,000 mortgage payment and $500,000 in a brokerage account that just dropped 20% because the market took a dive? You're sweating.
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Where the Mortgage Fits in the Baby Steps
You can’t just jump into the mortgage payoff. That’s how people end up "house rich and cash poor."
- Baby Step 1: $1,000 starter emergency fund.
- Baby Step 2: Pay off all debt except the house (the Debt Snowball).
- Baby Step 3: 3–6 months of expenses in a full emergency fund.
- Baby Step 4: Invest 15% of your household income for retirement.
- Baby Step 5: Save for the kids' college.
- Baby Step 6: Pay off the house early.
Notice that Baby Step 6 happens at the same time as 4 and 5. You don't stop investing for retirement to pay off the house. That’s a common mistake. You do the 15% first. Then, any "extra" margin—the money from the raise, the side hustle, or the canceled Netflix subscriptions—goes into the principal of the loan.
The 15-Year Rule Everyone Hates
Dave is famous for saying you should never take out a 30-year mortgage. He wants you on a 15-year fixed-rate where the payment is no more than 25% of your take-home pay.
In today's housing market, that’s incredibly hard.
In many cities, a "starter home" is $500,000. If you try to fit that into a 15-year payment at 6.5% interest, you might need a household income of $150,000 just to qualify.
Critics like the Money Guy Show or various Reddit financial gurus argue this is "context-blind." They aren't totally wrong. If you locked in a 2.75% rate back in 2021, the mathematical "opportunity cost" of paying that off early instead of putting money into a High-Yield Savings Account (HYSA) at 4.5% is real. You are technically "losing" money by being responsible.
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But Ramsey’s counter-argument is simple: You don't keep a snake as a pet just because it’s small. Debt is a snake. It can bite you.
Real Tactics for Baby Step 6
So, how do you actually do it without losing your mind? It’s basically about finding "hidden" money in your life.
- The 13th Payment: If you pay half your mortgage every two weeks (bi-weekly), you end up making 26 half-payments. That equals 13 full payments a year. On a $300,000 loan at 6%, that alone can shave 5 or 6 years off the life of the loan.
- The "Found" Money: Tax refunds. Work bonuses. Selling the old treadmill on Facebook Marketplace. It all goes to the principal.
- Refinancing (Maybe): Only refinance if you can lower the rate and shorten the term. Don't do a "cash-out" refinance. That’s just moving the goalposts backward.
I know a couple in Nashville who followed this. They were "normal." He worked in HVAC, she was a teacher. They lived in a modest ranch house. Every time he got a Saturday overtime shift, that money went straight to the mortgage portal. They paid off a 30-year mortgage in 9 years.
When they made the last payment, they didn't have a giant party. They just went out for a nice steak dinner. But he told me that for the first time in his life, he felt like he actually owned the roof over his head. Nobody could take it.
The "Tax Deduction" Myth
"But what about the mortgage interest deduction?"
This is the big "gotcha" people try to use. Honestly, it’s usually bad math.
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If you pay the bank $10,000 in interest to save $2,500 on your taxes, you are still out $7,500. You wouldn't give me $100 just because I promised to give you $25 back, right? Plus, with the standard deduction being as high as it is now, most people don't even itemize enough for the mortgage interest to matter.
What to Do If You're Starting Today
If you want to pay off mortgage Dave Ramsey style in 2026, stop looking at the spreadsheets for a second. Look at your life.
If you are in Baby Step 6, you’ve already won the biggest battles. You have no credit cards. No car payments. You have a pile of cash in the bank for emergencies.
The Next Steps:
- Check your amortization schedule. Look at how much of your current payment is actually hitting the principal. It’s depressing at first, but it’s the fuel you need to start.
- Set a "Paid For" date. Don't just "pay extra." Pick a year. 2031? 2034? Work backward to see what the monthly "extra" needs to be.
- Verify your lender's rules. Make sure your extra payments are being applied to the principal, not the next month's interest. Some banks are sneaky about this.
- Stay the course on Step 4. Never, ever stop that 15% retirement contribution. The house is the icing, but the retirement fund is the cake.
Living "like no one else" is exhausting. It means saying no to the $80,000 SUV and the $1,000 iPhone upgrades. But the goal isn't to be the richest person in the cemetery. The goal is to have a level of freedom where you can "live and give" without looking over your shoulder at a bank.
Once that mortgage is gone, your biggest expense vanishes. That's when you really start to win.