<prompt> Human: So Ive seen multiple posts regarding should I make extra payments to my mortgage or invest instead? The general consensus seems to be to invest if your mortgage APR is just barely beating inflation. However I feel like this will only work if you plan on living in the same house until the mortgage is paid off. If you have a 30-year mortgage at 4, the general advice is to invest in SP index where average returns are between 7 - 10 rather than payoff your mortgage early which would be a guaranteed 4. So what if you only lived in your house for 5 years and then sold it where most of your mortgage payments are front-loaded interest? Isnt the effective interest rate higher than 4? If you end up paying 50k over the first 5 years of the mortgage, but only 10k goes to principle, the effective rate seems much higher. Is it still generally a better idea to invest rather than pay down the principle if you only plan on keeping the house for 5 - 10 years?  <response>: Im probably off-base on this, but I view paying extra on my mortgage kind of like investing in a super-safe investment option, like bonds or something. Its a guaranteed 3 return since I have to pay this money anyhow. 3 isnt great compared to what the market is yielding but it is also no-risk. So I invest some in the market and overpay my mortgage by a bit comes to about 2 extra paymentsyear. I havent really done all the math on it but I know I really like seeing the principal decline substantially each month and the psychological value of having a house paid off is pretty significant.My perspective isnt one of maximizing profits, though, it is more a matter of creating the life that I want to live - no mortgage payment is a big piece of that life. If all goes well Ill get it wrapped up in another 10 years. 