Hello,
I'm new to the MMM forum, but have been a regular reader for some time now. One of the most common debates that seems to come up on this forum and other financial sites is choosing whether to put additional money into paying down a mortgage balance or investing for the future. Rather than rehashing the high points of each option, I thought I'd see what MMM reader's thoughts are regarding a 3rd option that provides some of the advantages of each strategy. As a caveat, this primarily applies to those of us that have refinanced down to a low interest rate in the last few years (if you're paying >5% the vast majority should pay the mortgage down).
What I'm doing currently is basically setting aside any extra payments I could make on my mortgage into an intermediate-term or total bond fund. This gives a more conservative investment portfolio, but still allows you to take advantage of the prevailing low mortgage interest rates. Once the bond fund balance equals the mortgage balance you could choose to pay off the mortgage or draw down the bond fund to make payments until the mortgage is paid off. The way I see it, this should appeal to those who would like to pay off their mortgage, but know that the investing math makes more sense.