THERE are several advantages to paying off your mortgage early.

THERE are several advantages to paying off your mortgage early.

Obviously if you pay extra on your mortgage each month you are paying down your principal sooner and will ultimately reduce the amount of interest you have to pay.

If you have a good fixed interest rate, you might not want to leap into paying off your mortgage early. There are certainly worse types of debt to have, and you should always address your debt that has the highest interest rate first.

It offers freedom. Can you imagine the freedom of not having that mortgage payment hanging over your head each month? If you paid it off and eliminated your other debt, you could live debt-free.

It reduces stress. You can probably guess that not having a mortgage payment would mean significantly less stress in your life. You wouldn't have to worry as much about losing your job, for instance.

It makes you liquid. I know I put this in the drawback section, but I believe that paying off your mortgage early gives you plenty of liquidity if you look at it differently.

For instance, if your mortgage payment is R3 500 a month and you pay it off, this means that you now have an extra R3 500 a month in your bank account. You could invest this, or build up a fantastic emergency fund. I'd call that liquid.

l It offers safety. Once you've paid off your mortgage debt, you truly own your home.