Our mortgage rate was only 2.75%. We still dont regret paying it off.

A year ago this month, my husband and I became mortgage-free.

We took out our last mortgage in September 2016, refinancing a 30-year loan into a 15-year term. We paid it off in seven years.

Shredding the debt has been exhilarating. The first of the month no longer elicits deep sighs when the loan payment automatically flies out of our household checking account.

The feeling is probably not unlike a bird being freed from a cage. Confinement, after all, is said to make them susceptible to temper tantrums and mood swings.

Carrying debt has always made me feel constrained and cranky.

I had longed for the stillness that comes from knowing my home was really mine.

The decision to pay off our mortgage well ahead of the scheduled payoff was precipitated by my husband’s retirement. He had intended to work a little longer, but an untenable situation at work necessitated his early departure.

But we were ready, having done preretirement planning for the last 10 years. We had been making extra principal payments and finally decided to take money from two retirement accounts I had from a previous employer to finally get that debt off our books.

The choice didn’t come without some second-guessing — initially.

Our interest rate was 2.75 percent. That’s cheap money compared with current mortgage rates, which have been hovering between 6 and 7 percent. To some it makes no sense to dump debt at such a low rate; many readers contend we would have been better off investing all those extra house payments. But even a low rate adds up to thousands of dollars in interest payments each year.

My husband and I crunched our numbers and felt paying off the mortgage with one of us in retirement was the right move.

A year later, we have no regrets. Here’s the upside of not having a mortgage.

Less stress

Our mortgage took up about 20 percent of our net monthly expenses. By getting rid of it, we eliminated the biggest expense in our budget.

Of course, we still have to pay property taxes, but it’s a fraction of the money we were shelling out in principal and interest payments every month.

When our insurance premium increased, as it has for so many homeowners, we weren’t happy, but it didn’t cause us to fret.

Market swings downward aren’t as rattling because our housing expenses are lower.

More folks are taking a mortgage into retirement. But carrying that debt may delay your ability to retire and reduce your ability to spend the way you want, according to a University of Michigan Retirement and Disability Research Center working paper.

Researchers found that the share of homeowners entering retirement with mortgages increased from 37.9 percent for people turning 65 in the period from 1989 to 1995 to 50.8 percent for those turning 65 in the period from 2013 to 2018.

For some households, mortgage-financed housing wealth can be a liability in old age, the researchers concluded.

Cash flow is better

When you have cash coming in that’s not obligated for bills or debt, you have more flexibility to fund your wants and needs.

Our 20-year-old home is showing its age. We needed a new roof. We have extra funds for home improvements without incurring debt or dipping into our retirement savings.

We also can build up our cash reserves and boost our investing knowing that eventually we may face a future with significant health-care costs.

I would caution that you shouldn’t empty out or significantly deplete your savings to pay off your mortgage. You don’t want to end up house-rich and cash-poor, meaning all your money is locked into the equity in your home. Equity, I might add, that you can only tap by borrowing other people’s money or by selling your home.

Ability to delay claiming Social Security

If you claim early, at 62 rather than waiting until your full retirement age (which falls between 66 and 67 depending on your birth year), your monthly benefit may be reduced by as much as 30 percent. Every year you delay benefits beyond your full retirement age, your monthly payment will increase by 8 percent. It maxes out at 70.

The decision of when to collect Social Security is often hotly debated. It’s such a personal choice and should be based on your own circumstances.

My husband is eligible to start now, but we decided he should wait.

If your budget allows, holding out a little longer increases your monthly payment at a time when you may need to cover such expenses as long-term care, which is not covered by Medicare. Waiting also adds a little extra cushion in the event we find ourselves unable to work to earn extra income.

No rush to tap retirement funds

The recent surge in the stock market has boosted our retirement funds. On May 17, for the first time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed slightly above 40,000. This month, the S&P 500 index has been hitting some record highs.

Because my husband doesn’t need to tap his Thrift Saving Plan, which is the federal government’s version of a 401(k) plan, all of his retirement savings have continued to grow, benefiting from the market surges.

The C fund alone, which is a diversified portfolio of stocks of the largest U.S. companies, ended last year up a little over 26 percent.

Psychological payoff of being debt-free

A lot of folks want to second-guess our decision, pointing out how much more we might make in the stock market had we not paid off our mortgage.

Investing means taking on risk. We opted for the guaranteed return of an early mortgage payoff.

But there is another very tangible benefit to being mortgage-free — peace of mind.

Maya Angelou said it best in her poem, “Caged Bird.”

“The caged bird sings

with a fearful trill

of things unknown.”

But, oh, the freedom you have outside the cage. As Angelou writes:

“A free bird leaps

on the back of the wind

and floats downstream

till the current ends

and dips his wing

in the orange sun rays

and dares to claim the sky.”

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