Paying off my mortgage early didn''t seem smart until I started writing about people who had done it, and now it''s my top priority Summary List Placement When I signed the papers for my mortgage last year, I had no doubts about keeping that loan for 30 years. Unlike other loans I''ve had in the past, I didn''t feel a big rush to pay this one off. I''d gotten a low mortgage rate during the COVID-19 pandemic. I didn''t mind paying for this place for the next 30 years, though I wasn''t sure I''d live there that long. After covering personal finance for several years now, I''ve read plenty of hot takes on whether to pay off your mortgage early or invest . Many people feel that investing extra cash is a better use of money. And I''d always agreed with that camp. That was, until I started writing about people who''d paid them off. Now, it''s become a priority for me. This spring, I made my first extra principal payment with a $1,500 check I got from overpaying on my escrow account. !function () {function e() {var s = "myFinance-widget-ad-script";if (!document.getElementById(s)) {var e = document.createElement("script"), n = document.getElementById("myFinance-widget-script"), a = t "widget|myFinance.js";e.id = s, e.type = "text|javascript", e.async = !0, e.src = a, n.parentNode.insertBefore(e, n);}var c = "myFinance-widget-css";if (!document.getElementById(c)) {var d = document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0], i = document.createElement("link");i.id = c, i.rel = "stylesheet", i.type = "text|css", i.href = t "widget|myFinance.css", i.media = "all", d.appendChild(i)}}var t = "https:||static.myfinance.com|";document.attachEvent ? document.attachEvent("onreadystatechange", function () {"complete" === document.readyState e()}) : document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", e, !1)}(); I hate paying interest, and I''d be happy to sacrifice investment returns to save on it I''ve paid countless amounts of interest on my federal student loans.