<prompt> Human: I am about 3.5 years into a 30 year mortgage. I also have a baby on the way and Im not sure how long we will be able to stay in this house. Its small, and really only has enough room for 1 child. I want to stay here as long as possible, since I love the house and it is relatively cheap price was under 100k. I am hoping we can stay for around 8 more years, but after that it may become impractical. Lets say I pumped an additional 25k random number in principal payments over those 8 years. When I sell the house, I will just be getting back that 25k any principal from my normal monthly payments any increase in value of the house since I bought it. If I didnt put that extra 25k in, I could have that sitting in a savings or investment account, providing more liquidity.Im trying to think of a benefit of having that extra money tied up in a mortgage, and Im just not seeing it. If I was staying in this home forever and trying to pay it off, I could see a reason.On a side note, Im the type of person who pays loans off ASAP and doesnt like having any debt. I am mid 20s and my mortgage is the only loan I have. Even with this mental bias, Im not seeing the huge benefit of paying more toward principal on this mortgage. What am I missing?  <response>: Youll save some interest by paying extra to principal over that time. If you pay extra today, a bigger portion of your minimum payment for the next 8 years will go towards equity rather than interest. 