My neighbor convinced me that paying off the mortgage early is a mistake

I've always been dead set on dumping extra cash into the house payment every month. Figured no debt was the only way to go. Then my neighbor, who's a retired CPA, sat me down last Saturday and showed me the math with his own numbers. He said if I keep putting that $500 extra toward the mortgage, I'm losing out on roughly $40,000 in compound growth over 15 years, assuming a basic index fund returns 7%. I still hate owing money, but he made a solid point about liquidity too. We ended up arguing for an hour, and honestly I'm still not sold, just less sure. Has anyone else flipped their stance on this once they saw the actual spread?

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logan5251mo ago

My buddy Mike paid off his house in 2021 and then lost his job six months later. He had zero savings because every extra dollar went to the mortgage, and he had to take out a home equity loan to cover bills. He tells me now he wishes he'd kept that money in the market instead.

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