Should I put my money in mortgage?

Sure, when the stock market is at high point, it is easy to assume it will just keep on getting better and scoff at the idea using money to pay off a mortgage. Taken to the extreme, some people might say get in on stocks right now and don't worry about paying off credit card debt first. That would be like preferring a risky 10% or so return to a guaranteed higher return.

No offense, John, but isn't that somewhat irrelevant? Look back at a chart of the S&P from 1990 to 2000, Except for a few minor blips, it basically was at an all time high right through that decade. Of course the crash was nothing to brag about, but if you market timed, and got out in 95, thinking it's been too high too long, you'd have missed a

Sheesh! It's all in "the spin" ain't it? Spin it as "Oh My! 40 % of folks are losers" and it's "look out ... don't make that mistake".

Spin it for what the facts really mean, and it's a completely different story.

Using the facts of that very cited article ... 60% of the folks who pay down the mortgage are *not* "making a mistake" and are better off. That's a 20% edge for "the house" (pun intended). Vegas has made many-a-billionaire on a far slimmer edge in favor of "the house". I'll take those odds any day.

The fact is ... you've got to run your own numbers. The above spin on the 60/40 just goes to show you how truly innumerate the AverageJoeAmerican really is. Run your own numbers, don't trust what some article is saying, don't trust what you hear in some newsgroup, and, more specifically, don't even trust what I'm telling you here and now.

Do the math yourself, and learn something along the way.