During Pandemic, Millionaire Regrets Not Having More Money

Here’s the latest from The Onion. They often go over the top with the satire, but they almost always crack me up.

February 11, 2021
Millionaire who bought a home at 26 regrets paying off his mortgage early: 'This is the biggest downside no one tells you'

After being mortgage-free, my and wife and I lived comfortably off the severance checks that we negotiated when we quit our six-figure jobs in finance (by that time, we had amassed a net worth of $3 million), and the $150,000 in annual passive income — mostly from real estate, dividend stocks and bonds.

But my entire attitude slowly changed once I sent that final mortgage check. I stopped aggressively looking for new freelance consulting work. I went from taking on three contracts per month to just one. So instead of working 60 hours, I was only working 20 hours. At around $10,000 per contract, I was losing out on $20,000 of monthly income.

Oops. My bad. It's not The Onion. It's CNBC.