Buying a house with IO mortgage vs traditional 30yr amortizing

Anecdotally, the handful of people I can think of at my office with mortgages have all done IO.

Sure why not. As long as you have the discipline to manage your finances and you won’t end up blowing the rest of the money it’s a fine idea. I know a few people who have taken this route. 

thanks for the info guys. interesting that this seems to be kind of a thing - I've got colleagues doing the same.

think about it from a cost of capital perspective. would you rather have your own free cash flow used to pay down a 4% mortgage, or could you get a higher return elsewhere?

note you can also refi the IO mortgage continuously, something a lot of seniors at my bank do. there’s just much better uses of cash out there than prepaying a low-single digit loan.

yeah I totally agree with that. Actually I guess to be more nuanced, the reason I was asking the question wasn't so much the IO vs amortizing but rather the interest rate risk you get with a 10yr that you won't have on a 30yr. I guess I'd just want to be confident I'd have the means to pay it off in 10yrs if rates went haywire. But I guess in this line of work, that's just as good a bet to make as betting you'll be able to afford your expensive amortizing payments for the next 30yrs. I.e., in each scenario, you're pretty much betting you'll be able to save up enough cash to have the option of getting rid of the debt if it's too expensive.

can you afford to go a few years with unexpectantly low to no bonus? or continue to pay after being laid off. this industry is fickle.