Mortgage-free and silent: Why are Canadians not celebrating this big financial milestone? | Canada Voices

Asif Khan has spent the past two decades helping people find a home.

Over the years, the owner of Remax Prime Properties in Unionville, Ont., has kept in touch with clients. Some even let him know when they finally pay off the mortgage on the house he helped them buy.

A few celebrated in style, he said. One client went on a cruise. Another bought a Ferrari. “He told me it was his dream car and that after making payments for 20 years, he could finally indulge in something he’d always wanted,” Mr. Khan said.

Today, though, many homeowners keep quiet about becoming mortgage-free. “They are proud of it, but it’s not something they want to talk about,” he said.

Why the shift? We celebrate births, graduations, weddings, promotions and retirement. Yet paying off a mortgage – the biggest financial commitment most Canadians will ever make – is something we keep to ourselves.

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It wasn’t always so. About 50 years ago, a time when more working-class families could afford homes, paying off a mortgage was seen as a big achievement. Some people held mortgage-burning parties where homeowners torched their mortgage papers.

These were common enough to become sitcom tropes: a 1970s All in the Family episode revolved around Archie and Edith Bunker’s mortgage-burning party, and on M*A*S*H, Col. Sherman Potter burned his papers in front of fellow medics.

Sean Cooper grew up hearing about these parties from his parents. So when he paid off the mortgage on his Toronto home in 2015 – just three years after buying it – he held a party and burned his own mortgage document.

The celebration “was as much for my friends and family … as it was for me,” said Mr. Cooper, who scrimped and saved to make extra payments. “They kept me motivated and didn’t make me second-guess myself.”

Now a mortgage broker and author of Burn Your Mortgage, he enjoys telling people he’s mortgage-free. But he understands why others keep that quiet.

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One reason is privacy: Canadians are generally hesitant to discuss finances. But economics plays a role, too. The path of home ownership is more complex than it was in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, when “you could afford a nice home and pay it off 20 years later,” Mr. Cooper said.

Home prices have risen faster than wages in recent decades, and some first-time buyers now rely on 30-year amortizations. In the United States, President Donald Trump recently floated the idea of 50-year mortgages.

For some, the thought of paying off a mortgage can feel remote. More older Canadians, for example, carry mortgage debt than in the past. In 2023, 14.3 per cent of families with a primary income earner over 65 still had a mortgage on their home, compared with just 6.6 per cent in 1999, according to Statistics Canada.

Easy access to credit has also changed attitudes. When Archie Bunker burned his mortgage on TV, he likely didn’t have a credit card, let alone a home equity line of credit. Today, many homeowners use both. Even if they’ve paid off their house, they may still owe money elsewhere.

As a result, “we’ve become a lot more comfortable with debt,” Mr. Cooper said, and being mortgage-free isn’t necessarily a priority any more.

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Mr. Khan has seen that shift firsthand. In the early 2000s, he ran seminars with local banks on paying off a mortgage faster. Thirty to 40 people would show up. Today, he said, “I don’t think I would be able to get five people in a room to do that.”

Even reaching the mortgage-free milestone now can feel underwhelming. Other financial goals, such as saving for retirement, still loom large, said Kornel Szrejber, a personal finance expert and host of the Build Wealth Canada podcast. This is especially true for the growing number of Canadians without employer pensions.

Mr. Szrejber and his wife paid off their Kitchener, Ont., mortgage in six years, in 2013, by living on one income and putting the other toward the house. But he warns that most people shouldn’t focus exclusively on mortgage repayment at the expense of retirement savings. Otherwise, they may end up needing a reverse mortgage later, undermining the point of becoming mortgage-free.

Still, he views paying off a mortgage as a meaningful moment. He keeps a hard copy of his mortgage discharge papers. “It’s like a trophy,” he said. “It took a lot of work on our part to pay it off and it set a strong financial foundation for us.”

So how should you celebrate paying off your mortgage? And should you tell others?

Elizabeth Dunn, professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia and co-author of Happy Money: The Science of Happier Spending, recently paid off her own mortgage. She said research shows that sharing positive life events boosts emotional well-being.

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But choose your audience carefully. Friends still burdened with large mortgages or struggling to buy a home may not be so happy for you. They may feel you’re bragging or quietly judge your supposed wealth, she said.

“It can create a lot of feelings of jealousy.” In cities such as Toronto or Vancouver, being mortgage-free can imply millionaire status, even if only on paper.

If you keep the news private, Prof. Dunn suggests still commemorating the event. People often get more satisfaction from progress toward a goal than reaching it, she said, so the last payment can feel anticlimactic.

“Doing something that marks the goal and draws your attention to reaching it can be especially important.” She recommends celebrating the milestone as a shared family achievement.

That’s exactly how Dan Wong approached it. Five years ago, he and his wife paid off the 20-year mortgage on their two-storey home in Oakville, Ont. They celebrated with their two kids by going out for a steak dinner.

But it was a low-key affair. Mr. Wong said he didn’t make a point of telling others he no longer had mortgage payments. “I told my parents, but that was it.”

Becoming mortgage-free can also open new opportunities. Prof. Dunn suggests taking a broader view: How can the additional money increase your enjoyment of life? Perhaps you’ve long wanted to travel more, work less or shift to a career you love, even if it pays less.

After diligently making payments for years, she said, “now is a good time to consider how you can use your newfound financial freedom in a way that makes you happy.”