I completely agree that in a perfect world people should not have a mortgage going into retirement. Planning ahead is a sign of maturity and constraint. Unfortunately, many people don’t have the foresight and then the second-best option is to organize your finances in a way that the debt is predictable and manageable. Only after one has properly organized their finances to be sure that debt risk is as low as possible should they venture forth into retirement. Zero debt is a great strategy, but “financial risk” is the primary issue, not the “debt” itself.