Should you pay off your mortgage before you retire?

Most people would be better off not having mortgages in retirement. Relatively few will get any tax benefit from this debt, and the payments can get more difficult to manage on fixed incomes.

But retiring a mortgage before you retire isn't always possible. Financial planners recommend creating a Plan B to ensure you don't wind up house rich and cash poor.

Mortgage interest is technically tax deductible, but taxpayers must itemize to get the break — and fewer will, now that Congress has nearly doubled the standard deduction. Congress' Joint Committee on Taxation estimates 13.8 million households will benefit from the mortgage interest deduction this year, compared to more than 32 million last year.

Even before tax reform, people approaching retirement often got less benefit from their mortgages over time as payments switched from being mostly interest to being mostly principal.

To cover mortgage payments, retirees frequently have to withdraw more from their retirement funds than they would if the mortgage were paid off. Those withdrawals typically trigger more taxes, while reducing the pool of money that retirees have to live on.

That's why many financial planners recommend their clients pay down mortgages while still working so that they're debt-free when they retire.

But rushing to pay off those mortgages may not be a good idea, either.

Some people have enough money in savings, investments or retirement funds to pay off their loans. But many would have to take a sizeable chunk of those assets, which could leave them short of cash for emergencies or future living expenses.