It is never "stupid" to pay down debt, but it's pretty tough to make a case for paying down a 15 year, 3.25 percent fixed rate mortgage. Ultimately, it's whatever you are comfortable doing, not what a bunch of old pharts say is the "right" thing to do.
If your mortgage company gives you a monthly statement, look at your statement and see how much you paid in principal. That's how much additional you'll have to pay to knock one month of the mortgage. If you had 27.5 years to pay on a 30 year mortgage, you'd find it to be a fairly small number. But since you have only 12.5 years to pay, it's going to be a pretty hefty number. And the more you pay down the principal, the bigger that number becomes.
So do a quick calculation in your head: How much sooner do you really want to pay off the mortgage? If you want to cut the time in half, you'll have to pay at least as much extra as you're currently paying in principal. In fact, you'll probably need to do that just to pay it off 5 years sooner.
If you have a book of amortization tables, or a spreadsheet program, you can calculate your extra payment exactly based on your current balance, interest rate, and a loan term that will pay it off by your target date.
For what it's worth, I've paid down my 15 year mortgage so it gets paid off a few years early. But what makes sense for me doesn't necessarily make sense for you. I'm an old phart who wants his mortgage paid off when he turns 60. I have a higher interest rate on my mortgage than you have. And I could easily afford to pay down the balance.
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Today's Featured Article - Grain Threshing in the Early 40's - by Jerry D. Coleman. How many of you can sit there and say that you have plowed with a mule? Well I would say not many, but maybe a few. This story is about the day my Grandfather Brown (true name) decided along with my parents to purchase a new Ford tractor. It wasn't really new except to us. The year was about 1967 and my father found a good used Ford 601 tractor to use on the farm instead of "Bob", our old mule. Now my grandfather had had this mule since the mid 40's and he was getting some age on him. S
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