My husband died recently and the life cover he had covered his mortgage, etc.When I received the monies I paid my mortgage off straight away. Most people take their mortgages out over 25yrs. Theres no one in this world that can predict what is going to happen in the future ie; loss of income etc. As a lone parent there is no possible way i could have afforded the repayments on our mortgage alone. I no longer worry about whether i can meet the payments on a monthly basis, and glad i decided to follow this path with the way interest rates etc are climbing in the UK and many people at present having their homes repossessed. But i would swap the security of my home now my own and not the banks....to have my husband back!!!

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if you pay off your mortgage, you will save interest; however, if you need that interest as a deduction on your income tax to save taxes paid, then don't pay it off.

This isn't the no brainer that so many of these posts seem to indicate. While paying off your mortgage seems to make sense you have to take into consideration where you have the rest of your money. If you have nothing in retirement or in a rainy day fund than it definitely wouldn't be in your best interest to use all the money to pay off a mortgage. And if your interest rate is good you might be able to invest the money somewhere else and make more than you would be losing (paying) on the house.

of course you would want to pay off your mortgage instead of you and your friends won the lottery.