Should I make paying off my mortgage my debt priority?

Should I make paying off my mortgage my debt priority?

No. Certainly not when you've just taken out a mortgage. Generally speaking, your mortgage loan is going to be one of your lowest rate loans. So what you really want to do is go after the higher rate loans first. Paying off a mortgage is not really a priority early on. Also, because it's not going to lower your mortgage payment, you can probably take the money that you would have paid on the mortgage and use it better elsewhere. Funding your retirement account, for example. You can probably get a better return on it than you can by just simply paying off the mortgage. There are lots of reasons not to pay off your mortgage early on. Again, you have too much money tied up in your house. When it does make sense to pay off your mortgage is when you're toward the end of the loan. You're getting ready for retirement, for example, and you really only have a little bit left on your loan. Again, you just want that satisfaction of not having that mortgage monkey on your back. You just want it paid off and done with. But that would be later in the term of the loan.