<prompt> Human: I have about 45k left in my mortgage at 2.975. I just sold some stock and currently have a total of about 80k cash spread across my checkingsaving accounts and CDs. I can pay off my mortgage and have 35k left over for my emergency fund.The mortgage is currently a large part of my monthly expenses 2300. For the past several years, Ive been putting most of my leftover money into paying off the mortgage so I dont really know what to do after I pay it off. I have no debts besides the mortgage pay off my credit cards in full every month I already max out my pre-tax 401kI can contribute more to the after-tax 401k, but Im not sure if I want to lock up my money for that long. I heard that I can expect returns of about 7 if I invest long-term, but I dont know much about investing and have low tolerance for risks. Is investing in index funds the way to go? Is it time to get a financial advisor? Im not even sure what my financial goal is anymore. According to Mint, my expenses this year have been hovering around 4-5k a month. Without the 2300 housing expense, and at my current salary and spending rate, I would have 100k left over every year. Is it time to enjoy life and spend more money?  <response>: Personally, I wouldnt worry about maximizing percentages like that and leveraging a few percent on 40k will get you what, maybe a grand total. I would pay that in a second just to know that my house was mine.It also means your emergency fund is much better and if something goes really wrong at some point, you dont have a mortgage to pay either. Maybe start some savings into regular investment accounts to start getting dividends and keep that up so you can live even better, but yeah...sounds like you can stop flying coach just fine at this point. 