I'm typically one of the regulars on the forums who advises investing first, pre-paying the mortgage second (if at all). I find that my view is slowly changing. I think it is partly due to my mortgage balance shrinking and partly due to my getting ever closer to retirement. I've still got about 17 years before my goal of retiring at 62, but that is close enough that some planning needs to be done.

Last year, I started adding $100/month to the mortgage payment for extra principal. That was done after we made the last payment for our daughter's braces. That payment was $150/month. I figured we were living fine without that money for 18 months. We could keep living fine without it, so I put most of it toward the mortgage. Our regular payment (principal and interest) is just under $700, so that means almost 2 extra payments per year. Also, a couple of times when some other extra money came in, I added more to that month's payment.

There is a medical survey program that I do. It is an ongoing study and I do data entry almost daily. Unlike the other survey programs I do, this one doesn't pay each time I do it or even monthly but just one payment per year of $1,000. I've decided that when that payment comes in (I'm not exactly sure when my year is up) I will send that $1,000 all to the mortgage. It is totally found money and isn't needed in any other area of our budget or savings plan.

I have not sat down and run numbers to see when we could be mortgage free but I see no reason why we can't knock off at least 3 years. That would have us paid off when I'm about 60, though I know that as the balance gets smaller, I'll want to just write one big check and get rid of it, so we'll probably be done before that. That would give us a solid 2-3 years (or more) to sock away cash in anticipation of retirement.