I am also in my early 50's, and I would recommend NOT paying it down slowly month by month. See my comment on that topic above in this thread on March 14'th. I also still have a mortgage, a 15-year at 4% that has about 12 years left on it.
Financially ... if you run the numbers, depending on interest rates (and they are still historically low), it is probably most advantageous to take the largest , longest fixed-rate term loan possible and keep it till the end. And it makes sense - if you take a 30-year $417k loan at 4.5%, and put that $417k into the S&P500 for 30 years at 8.5%, you're going to come out ahead. If you ask people in other countries, they will tell you that a fixed-rate, long-term mortgage is a gift "from the gods", or from the government as the case may be.
But not everything, not every decision, is financial ... some are emotional, and for some, the feeling of being debt free in retirement (or before retirement) is worth a lot.
Thanks, mark_saver. I do understand that,
long term, the math definitely points to investing rather than paying the mortgage early. I'm just not sure that, because of my age and my (hopefully) retirement in the next 6 - 8 years, I have a "long term" still in the cards. I was also unsure whether 4.375% would be considered "low" by others who posted earlier.
I did see your post from March 14, and I took it to heart. You made a very good point, that I had not previously considered.
Right now, I am leaning toward paying aggressively for the remainder of this year, in order to get the balance below $200K. Purely for psychological well-being. Once I accomplish that, I like the idea of putting the hypothetical extra mortgage payments in a tax-deferred account and watching it grow. (I have never been able to max out my 401K, so there is plenty of room there. Beginning in 2015, I could stash an extra $1000 per month, tax-deferred.) Plus, the deduction of the mortgage interest is significant for me.
I guess I'm still not really comfortable with the idea of having a big mortgage when I retire, but if I max out my 401K for the next 5 years, that chunk of money ought to make me feel better.
Sorry if this was sort of rambly--I'm just trying to think it through and weigh all the variables.