Which is better... pay off mortgage in 5 years or take that money and invest?

If we take a low fixed interest rate plus the tax write off for home mortgages the 'apparent' interest rate on a home loan can be exceedingly low.

There's no rocket science here. If the interst rate of your investing can beat the effective rate of your home loan you should invest.

On the other hand, money sitting in a savings account @ 2% would be better put to reduce a home loan effectively @ 4%.

The time period is irrelevent. Intererest is the time value of money. Unless you have a bad/high interest rate, you do not really 'save' money by paying off a loan early because less money today IS more money in the future.

Pay off your Mortgage because your home is a big investment.
My parents bought there home 20 years ago for 175,00. Now it is worth over 500,000. In the end, its a big pay out.

ask yourself that question this way--would you take out a home loan in order to invest the money in the stock market? hopefully, your answer to that is no! pay off the mortage first.

Pay off the mortgage so that you can invest your future money into other things that you may not understand now.

Right now paying off a mortgage is akin to throwing your money in a black hole in the ground. IF this market last 2 more years you could pay off a home that will not be worth the amount you plunked down to pay it off.

I'd at least wait to see where things are going.

Put your money where it is making money and hold on to it for minimum 18 months.

Just my opinion.

pay off mortgage. a house is the best investment you will ever make, and no matter what happens in the future your house will always be yours.

If you have a 30 year mortgage and you're more than 15 years into it, you paid 70% of the interest. I wouldn't play the stock market although there will people to tell you to buy while the prices are low. I would put it in a high yield fund thru your bank where it's insured by FDIC

in todays stock market - you'd probably be better off paying off the mortgage

Paying off debt is an investment. It gives you peace of mind also.

Definitely pay off mortgage.