I guess a little of both let me say if I had 100K I would used it as a Downpayment on a home adding the profit from the sale of our current home. We could then find a 300K home in a better neighborhood, with better schools, and more sq footage in our home.

There is nothing wrong with being in a starter home but we are planing on having more kids, I want to we able to have friends over and not feel cramped.

Realestate is an investment as well. If we Kept the home then until we are done raising kids then down sized we are likely to make a decent profit to invest, still have a home paid for. We would still continue to invest for retirment.

Investing that much all at once would be a hard choice when it would make a huge difference in your quality of life.

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Kimberly Proud Mommy to Bethany Rose April 2006 &

Organizer of the Coupon Clippers of Tacoma

Ditto.

We bought in 2001 as well and our fixed rate is 5.25% and we are on track to pay off our mortgage in around 6 years anyway.

I could make more than that in a CD right now...

I voted pay off mortgage, only because if we suddenly had 100k, I'd have no say in the matter...we'd pay off the mortgage. Getting rid of that debt is Brian's biggest concern right now, and I know he'd love to have it paid off sooner rather than later. And while the idea of being mortgage free, after my quickie education of the pros and cons of investing vs. paying off the mortgage, I can honestly say, I'm torn between the two.

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~*~ Angie~*~
Wife to Brian
SAHM to Sarah & Andy 2/11/2000

I would 100% invest. We need the house payment to have some deductions or our taxes would be sky high. Plus the interest we get on the money would hopefully be more than the interest we're paying on the house...esp once you figure in the tax break.

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We would definately invest the money. Our mortgage is only 5% and we can afford the monthly payments easily. If we paid off our house we wouldn't have enough tax deductions.

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DS-16
DD-13
DD-5
DS-3

My Boss is a clever man. He has a large investment in the money market, instead of taking that money out, he uses the interest to actually pay his bond on his house. He has done this several times and Im jelous to admit that through using most of his interest on his investment he now owns seven houses and is paying off the eighth. All of his rental money profits go straight into the investment as well.

So in turn I would invest the money but use most of the returns to pay off my debt.

I would invest the $$ with the thought that if my dh ever lost his job we could use some of it as a last resort emergency fund. Other than that it would be used for our retirement.

I'd invest it into various things, the interest paid out after a few years might be enough to pay off the mortgage!

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"And the state of his bathroom -- I'm not one to gossip, but there are things crusted on his sink that have not simply developed intelligent life but have in all probability by now evolved their own political systems." Cain describes Abel in in SANDMAN #70

I would pay off the mortgage and then use that same amount to invest in each month. I could easily pay into a retirement fund each month as if it was my mortgage payment and would feel less 'burdened' by the payment.

I voted "pay off the mortgage," but I really would do a combination of investing and paying off debt.