Payoff house or keep money invested?

Man tough call. Get the peace of mind of paying off versus investing. Crummy rate from 5 years ago tbh. 3 years ago you could have re-fi’ed to 2.5. Could have then easily said to not pay it off, if so

Depends on what else you have. If it’s just the brokerage account and it would be wiped out by the payoff, you may just want to stay the course.

Limited info to give advice, but would probably keep the mortgage, get on an auto-pay that chips in some extra principal to turn this in to a 15-year mortgage, and stay invested in the market.

5.5% is border line whether to pay it off or not. Market is likely to out perform but payoff greatly reduces your financial risk. Payoff locks your capital away though and you will suffer opportunity cost for next 25 years.

Worst case, you stay invested then lose your job during a market downturn and your capital is diminished just when you really need it. On other hand, if you stay invested that $ is accessible if ever needed. If your job is very stable I'd lean towards staying invested.

The first home we bought had a 5.5% rate and we rushed to pay it off. Looking back, I regret that decision because we could have done better in market. But we are very disciplined and actually would have invested difference. I was also in a very stable job in military during a time of war with very little risk of job loss so we could have tolerated the market risk.

That’s way too big of a chunk of your investments to take off the table all at once in your mid 30s.

I'm risk averse so I would pay it off. No mortgage debt is no mortgage debt.

I’ve always been curious of this question specifically because of front loaded interest on mortgages. The interest of the entire mortgage is 5.5. Let’s say the OP pays off half the mortgage and keeps the rest to invest. Is this going to cut into more than 5.5 interest since it is front loaded? How does that work for those who know?

You payoff the house "and then what?"

Humans aren't static creatures.
Are you dumping all of that money into the market each month?

Or you looking at another home (lakefront/riverfront/beachfront/mountainview)? Would you need a kiddie condo in the future? Is there a business opportunity?

I'm a fan of paying back debt. But if there is a chance that you could use the money to avoid financing anything at higher rates, then you are best to hold tight on such a big decision.
Your downside risk would be to make the move too soon (payoff but have a need for capital) rather than too late.

quote:

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I owe roughly 150k on my 30 year 5.5% mortgage with 25 years remaining.

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No. It's a small balance in the grand scheme.It's likely not a long term house as well.

It's your primary house. You will likely ever owe ZERO tax on it if you're married depending on future sales price.