Debt Strategy Myth: Pay extra on your mortgage

There's once piece of financial advices that always causes me to wonder, "huh?" So many personal finance advice experts always say that you should pay extra or even double on your monthly mortgage payment with the intent of paying it down faster.

I never understand this advice for two reasons. First, if you are struggling with debt, your mortgage is likely to be the lowest interest loan that you have. Your efforts would be better allocated toward eliminating high-interest debt. And second, the interest that you pay on your mortgage loan is tax-deductible. The interest on credit cards and car loans are not tax-deductible.

Ron LoSasso, mortgage consultant at Coors Credit Union, put it like this: "I am not a fan of prepaying the home loan as once that is made the only way to get that money back is to refinance the loan, obtain a home equity line of credit or sell the house."

This is an excellent point. On average most people sell their house 7-10 years. The time spent in a house increases as we get older, but generally speaking we like to move around. There are probably dozens of better ways to use that cash.

Maybe this debt strategy myth of that paying more on your mortgage is a might make sense for somebody, but in my opinion this MYTH is BUSTED.