Interactive tool
You have extra money each month and two good options: send it to the loan or put it in the market. One is a sure thing at your mortgage rate. The other has a higher expected return and no guarantee. Run the numbers first, then weigh what the numbers can't hold.
Built by Jesse Plunkett, CEPA, CRPC · Last reviewed July 11, 2026 · Verify on 
What you still owe today, not the original loan.
The rate on your current loan.
The comparison runs to the end of this term either way.
Money beyond your required payment that could go either way.
Set this equal to your mortgage rate and the two routes end in a tie. That's the whole tradeoff in one slider.
Wealth beyond the house: investments minus remaining loan
Total interest paid over the life of the loan
How the comparison is built: the payoff route sends your extra to the loan, then invests the entire freed-up payment once the loan is gone. The invest route pays the regular schedule and invests the extra from day one. Both routes end the original term mortgage-free, so the ending balances compare cleanly.
This is an educational illustration based on the assumptions you enter, not advice or a recommendation to prepay a loan or to invest. The investment return is assumed and constant, which no portfolio can promise, while the interest savings from prepaying are set by your loan terms. The comparison leaves out taxes on investment gains, any mortgage interest deduction, PMI, refinancing, and prepayment penalties, each of which can move the answer. Talk with your advisor and tax professional before committing either way. Everything is calculated in your browser. Nothing you enter is sent or stored unless you choose to send a question.
On a spreadsheet, this decision reduces to one comparison: your mortgage rate against your expected return. In a household, a few other things belong on the table.
Every extra dollar of principal you pay earns exactly your mortgage rate, with certainty, because interest you never owe is a return nobody can take back. The investment return on the other side of the chart is an assumption. Markets have rewarded patient investors over long stretches, but no particular stretch comes with a promise, and the chart's smooth line hides years that won't feel smooth at all. A 7% expected return beating a 6% certain one is not the same as 7% simply being bigger than 6%.
Extra principal payments improve your balance sheet, but they don't improve your options until the loan is fully gone. If your income drops two years from now, the bank still expects the same monthly payment, and the equity you built is reachable mainly by selling or borrowing against the house. Dollars in an investment account can be sold in a week. Whichever route you lean toward, it comes after the emergency fund is solid, not instead of it.
Before either choice, unmatched employer retirement contributions and any high-interest debt deserve the money. A match is an immediate return no mortgage math competes with, and credit card interest outruns both sides of this chart. This page assumes those boxes are already checked.
The investment side of the chart is shown before taxes, and depending on the account, some of that growth belongs to the IRS. The mortgage side has a tax angle too: interest is only deductible if you itemize, and most households today take the standard deduction instead, which makes the effective cost of the loan simply its stated rate. Where the extra dollars would be invested, and in which account type, can tilt this comparison more than people expect.
A paid-off house does more than end a bill. It lowers the amount you must pull from savings every month, which lowers the withdrawal rate your portfolio has to sustain, which makes your plan sturdier in bad markets. For people within sight of retirement, that link between the mortgage and the withdrawal plan is often the deciding factor. See how your monthly draw changes what your savings can handle with the retirement withdrawal tool.
The invest route only wins if the money is invested every month, for years, including the months when markets are down and the news is grim. Extra mortgage payments are easier to automate emotionally: the balance falls, the finish line moves closer, done. If there's a chance the "invest the difference" dollars drift into spending instead, the guaranteed route becomes the better plan for reasons no chart shows.
Some people feel a paid-off house as a deep exhale: no payment, no landlord, no lender. Others feel fine holding a cheap mortgage and like watching their accounts grow faster. Both are reasonable. Money exists to support the life you want, and the version of this decision that lets you stop thinking about it has a value the axes above can't measure. Read more about how money decisions and contentment fit together on the Money & Happiness page.
Questions about how this fits your situation? That's exactly what a first call is for.
Ask it here and I'll reply personally. Sending a question doesn't add you to any email list.
The right answer depends on your taxes, your timeline, and how you handle risk, not just the rates. A short call is enough to see which route fits the rest of your plan.
Mathematically, compare your mortgage rate to what you'd expect after taxes from investing: the higher number wins. But the mortgage return is guaranteed and the market return isn't, and liquidity, taxes, and temperament all pull on the answer. The calculator above shows the math; the section below it covers the rest.
Effectively, yes. Every extra dollar of principal saves you future interest at exactly your loan's rate, and that saving doesn't depend on markets, headlines, or luck. The catch is that the return arrives as interest you never pay rather than cash you can spend, and it's locked in the house until the loan is gone or the house is sold.
Many people benefit from entering retirement without a payment, because a smaller monthly need means smaller withdrawals and a plan that better survives bad markets. But draining investment accounts to do it, or giving up cheap debt while holding expensive stress elsewhere, can backfire. It's a cash-flow and tax decision, not a rule.
No. Interest is only deductible if you itemize, and most households take the standard deduction, so for most borrowers the loan's stated rate is its true cost. If you do itemize, the deduction lowers your effective mortgage rate and tilts the comparison somewhat toward investing. Your tax professional can pin down your number.
Almost always. Everything is handled virtually, so where you live is rarely a barrier. The only exception is a handful of states where I'm not registered yet, and if that's you, I'll tell you on our first call.
Yes. It's free to link to and free to embed on your own site using the code in the "Cite or embed" section below. Please keep the attribution and disclosure lines in place.
Writers, teachers, and other advisors are welcome to reference this tool or place it on their own page. Both options below keep the calculator with its assumptions, its disclosures, and a link back here, which is what makes it useful to a reader who lands on it somewhere else.
Plunkett, Jesse. “Mortgage Payoff vs. Invest Calculator.” True Stewards Advisory, https://truestewards.com/mortgage-payoff-vs-invest. Accessed [date].
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