"Wondering if balancing both could speed things up or just complicate life more..."
That's a valid consideration. I've experimented with alternating between extra principal payments and investing surplus cash, and it can indeed be beneficial—provided you're disciplined and clear about your goals. The key is comparing your mortgage interest rate against potential investment returns. If your investments consistently outperform the mortgage rate, splitting funds can accelerate overall wealth-building. However, it does require careful tracking and adds complexity, so it's not for everyone...
Yeah, totally get that. I've tried juggling both before, and honestly, it stressed me out more than anything. Ended up just focusing on extra principal payments—felt simpler and seeing the balance drop faster was pretty motivating. Guess it depends how much complexity you're comfortable with...
"Ended up just focusing on extra principal payments—felt simpler and seeing the balance drop faster was pretty motivating."
Definitely agree with this approach. While juggling multiple strategies can offer some theoretical advantages, simplicity often leads to better long-term consistency. Plus, psychologically, seeing tangible progress can be a huge motivator.
Totally with you on extra principal payments—been doing that myself for a while now. A couple things I've noticed:
- Refinancing helped me drop the interest rate, which made those extra payments even more impactful.
- I set up automatic bi-weekly payments instead of monthly. Doesn't seem like a huge deal, but it adds up to an extra payment each year without feeling it much.
Seeing the balance shrink faster is honestly the best motivation...makes the whole process feel less endless.
Yeah, refinancing definitely helped me too, but did you find the closing costs worth it? Took me a while to break even. Still, seeing the principal finally budge after years of interest-only payments felt pretty great...
