Agreed. If you genuinely do put your extra-money aside, and invest it in index-funds, etc, you will probably end up with a higher return than if you pay off yo

Agreed. If you genuinely do put your extra-money aside, and invest it in index-funds, etc, you will probably end up with a higher return than if you pay off your mortgage early. That said most people plan to do this, and never get round to it. I knew I was making a "mistake" when I started putting all my spare money into paying off my mortgage early, in the sense that I could have achieved more money by investing. But it seemed obvious to me that owning my house would let me ride out problems more easily in the future - my bills would suddenly come down to "electricity, food, and little else". As it happens my wife and I decided at reasonably short notice to change countries. Having paid off my mortgage allowed me to rent out the place, without having to worry about getting permission from the bank, or anything similar. I just had to register as a landlord and switch to a more expensive form of insurance. After two years of being abroad selling the place made sense, to avoid complex cross-country taxing issues. But by owning the place outright we had the freedom to try renting for a while, and worry less about income.