Yay! Thank you!! We did stupid stuff with money in the past, now it's time for some fixin'. :)
Paying off $148k in student loan debt shows you already figured that out some time back. Congrats.
Fatherfier is against paying off mortgage earlier and wants to invest the leftovers with Vanguard (after maxing 401Ks, etc). Im leaning towards mortgage repayment (even though the math says otherwise). Thanks for the advice on getting our mortgage repayment date coincide with the FIRE date. As our income grows (yes, you bet we are planning on that!), we will definately do this. Planning to FIRE (at least one of us) in 7-10 years. Whee-ha!
Savings and investing is good.
Paying off a mortgage is good.
So, how do you choose between two things that are good?
One way is to look at things that might go wrong and see (a) what you could do to fix it (if possible) and (b) whether having more investments/savings or a lower debt on the mortgage would help more?
So, for example, one of you gets injured/sick and can't work. Maybe can't watch the kids either so daycare is still needed.
And the other one of you loses your job because you're so focused on your spouse and kids, plus some bad luck with the economy. Maybe jobs in your area become hard to find because of the economic cycle.
Which will help you more?
Cash savings and stock investments? Or owing 25% less on your mortgage than you otherwise would (but still having a mortgage)?
The answer is: cash savings and investments to tide you thru until things get better.
Owing less on your home (until you owe nothing at all and the mortgage is gone) just makes it easier for the bank not to lose money when they foreclose on your home. It does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to help you at all.
So, if you're leaning towards paying extra on the mortgage because it someone feels safer, your feelings are misleading you.
You only get extra safety after the mortgage is completely gone, until then it's actually less safe to pay extra a bit at a time.
If your mortgage interest rate was really high (my first was 9 3/8ths%, a friend's first was 18%), that would be different.