My husband and I are 43. Our last child has left the nest. We own 3 homes, our net equity is roughly $300,000. We have this wild idea... what if we sold all three properties and downsized (which we plan on doing anyways) and own our property free & clear? Since we are so young, we could save roughly $4000 per month towards retirement. Even if we only averaged $3000 per month, we could save roughly $700000 before retirement in principal alone. It could be split up in different investments - some high risk some low. Thoughts? I know the conventional wisdom is to not pay off the mortgage due to the after tax issue, but it sure seems like a good idea to be mtg free and be able to put all that money away each month.