I'm contemplating paying off my mortgage. I have a friend whose insurance wants to let his kidney fail (again) because when he's in full-throated renal failure they only have to pick up 20% of the tab (medicare eats the rest), rather than paying for the immunoglobulin he's on to try and stave off failure. So he tried to get his hospital to give him printouts of how much it cost the insurance company (hundreds of thousands) and him (tens of thousands) the last time he went through renal failure. They won't give him anything because he's $2100 in arrears on bills. He's $2100 in arrears on bills because he lost his job. He lost his job because his kidneys are failing. I've already given him a thousand dollars. His parents have $250k/year in pensions and a million and a half in laddered CDs. But he's my problem because they think he's "irresponsible" because he eats cheeseburgers. I feel guilty contemplating paying off my mortgage. this is why lottery winners go crazy.