@cwordman One thing people often miss in the invest vs pay off mortgage fast equation is inflation. Assuming you get cost of living raises at work at a minimum, this means over time, the real cost of your mortgage payments goes down over time, every time you get a raise that matches inflation. If you had a $2000 payment 25 years ago, it would’ve shrank to be equivalent to $1200 today, according to the Bank of Canada inflation calculator on their website.
Another factor is how large the mortgage is, relative to your portfolio, and % of your household income. If it’s a tiny mortgage and tiny payment, why rush to pay it off?
Lastly, you have to think about expected returns on your property. Did you buy something that should appreciate well like a detached house in a good area? Or did you buy something that may not appreciate as well? This impacts the opportunity cost of investing, because rather than shoveling your money into an ETF paying 7%, maybe you are shoveling it into a home that may merely keep its value over time.
There is no right answer to this question, everybody makes different decisions for different reasons. Most people I know pay off their mortgage as soon as they can cause they simply don’t want the payments. If that’s what you focus on, you will want to pay it off fast. If you focus on building your net worth at the maximum possible rate, and check it at least monthly, you may arrive at a different approach.