Financial Decisions

My husband and I are bookish. (Big surprising confession, that one.) We don't pay a lot of attention to things like the stock market. However, we have been unable to ignore that our Roth IRA accounts, modest as they are, have no gains (actually some losses, sigh), and almost equal the amount left on our house mortgage. So basically we have a net worth of zero! We hate debt and live well within our means. The only debt we have is our mortgage. (Well, OK, we feel a debt to society to live well and raise our children right and a debt to our parents for life itself and a debt to the Lord for everything. I meant a money debt.) We are considering closing out the Roth IRA accounts (no penalties unless you take out earnings, and we don't have any earnings) and paying off our mortgage.

It's interesting researching the pros and cons of such an action. The major pros seem to be 1) a guaranteed cut in living expenses (especially mortgage interest), and 2) peace of mind. The major cons seem to be 1) loss of mortgage interest tax deduction (not applicable for us because we don't itemize deductions), and 2) no longer having the Roth IRA accounts for retirement later on, when they are likely to have increased in value. This second con requires an optimism about our economy that I do not possess. Any readers out there willing to give me reasons to be optimistic about my retirement account mutual funds before I unload them?