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Originally Posted by Mr.Coffee
No, but hang on I think V has a point here even if you consider dividends reinvested. I think about this all the time and truly struggle with what to do with my excess money.
Paying down the mortgage is a lower ROI but assumes NO risk.
Investing in the market, even though demonstrated over the long run to generate approx. 5 or 8% ROI, still assumes risk. There's no guarantee that the stock market continually goes up and up and up.
Wars, major global depression events, global stagnation... I believe there are threats to the conventional wisdom that investments in the index automatically earn you that 5 or 8%. That decades lasting forever into the future will automatically generate returns. It is possible the index or market dips, even for a prolonged period of time.
Post World War 2 North American markets and economies are not the same thing as today's markets and economies, or the future's.
For the risk weary, paying down the mortgage likely is still a good call.
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This is where it really depends on what your definition of risk is though. To me that means permanently losing the money. So paying the mortgage down saves you an obvious amount of money, that's true. But just like the index could dip for a prolonged period of time, so could a property. So in that case you've paid more into a property that has declined in value. I wouldn't consider that risk free, is all I'm saying.