I'm wondering...would it be better paying off my mortgage (80K) or keep the money in market investments?

[lastlib]

37. How do you feel about buying dead horses?

If you're for it, if you like to buy dead horses, then by all means, sock the money away in the money market account, and keep buying dead horses (i.e., paying mortgage interest.) OTOH, if you don't like to buy dead horses, pay down the mortgage. It has never made sense to me why anybody would NOT pay down a debt, for which they are paying interest for which they have nothing to show (there's them dead horses again!), when they have the money to do it.

Last year, I bought a new car, and got a six-year loan at 8.6% interest. If I had paid it on the schedule, it would cost me $12,000 in interest/dead horses. I paid it off in 9 months, and SAVED $10,000, which stayed in MY pocket, as opposed to being a blip in the bank's earnings. It looks a heckuva lot better in MY pocket. I think you'll reach the same conclusion if you take the "live-horse" approach, and pay it off.