(NerdWallet) - Trinity Owen and her husband bought their four-bed, three-bath home in East Concord, New York, in 2019, and they quickly began sending extra money toward their mortgage to pay it off early. Then the couple did some simple math.

They compared what their extra payments on the mortgage would save them in interest, versus what that same amount invested in the stock market could grow to in 25 years at the average annual market return rate.

“The difference shocked us,” says Owen, who is a digital marketer. “We no longer pay a dime more on our mortgage, even though we could pay it off from our investments more than twice over.”

The Owens discovered something that financial planners already know: Sometimes it doesn’t pay to pay off a mortgage early.

The surprising advice: Keep t

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