your house, buy somethin forash almost all cash, you sort of avoid that mortge paymt,which is very niceoonto retiren withou that deb hanging over you. if you don't he much equity, you stil maye ab to geenough out where you ca put down a dn payment. u still ha maybe a mortgag buthe payment is much smaer an you would hav your regular ou. ase om that, ifouon't want to go that route,nd if u have enough money in savings, asid from what you need forergenc you may mortgeo at least is not going to last as lg i retirement. >> so you ecommend paying do as much of your mtgage as you can, even though perhaps your -- you know, you've got ose interest rates. it is more economical -- is it smaer idea to pay down the mogageven with rates where they are? >> well, the thing is when you pay down yr mortgage, you're essentlly locking in, assuming it's a fix-rate mortgage, a fixed rate of rern, and it's very sece because you know what that rate of return will be. the mortgage is fixed. a lot of times that's much better you'll get on a safe investment today whe inrest rates are 1% or less than 1%. it all depen