Originally Posted by MikeSmoke

not necessarily - if you take the money and invest it in CDs or other quality investments paying around 5%, you're not really taking on more risk - you're just earning 5% compounded, on money that would be held by the mortgage company paying you zero. worst comes to worst (and i'm not talking about if you have an interest-only mortgage that comes due every 6 months because then you *could* get screwed if we see a repeat of the 70s - my interest rate is fixed for ten years before it can change), you're slightly ahead of even - you can take the money at any time and hand it to the mortgage company, if you're so inclined.