re: What to do with $250K

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It's even a better feeling to have more net worth.

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I'm normally a proponent of holding a lowinterest mortgage, and investing money which would otherwise be tied up in a house. Makes sense now, and certainly makes sense if/when inflation kicks in.

The OP's situation is a bit different though. He's 65 and risk averse. He'll sell his land and net about $215K. If he keeps the mortgage and invests the $215, he'd want to use a safe income-producing vehicle at let's say 5%-6% ROI?

After mortgage-interest tax-deduction, his home loan note would run an approx 3% cost against his ROI. So net return would be 2%-3% on the $215K, or ~$3.5K-$5.5K/yr after taxes.

If he pays off the home, he'll still have a $25K cash residual. i.e. 5yrs of guaranteed money equal to or exceeding probable investment returns. Considering a safe income-producing vehicle is still not risk-free, paying off the mortgage probably makes the most sense in this instance. If the fellow was 35yrs old, it wouldn't be such a good decision.