Personal Finance and Investing
In reply to the discussion: I'm wondering...would it be better paying off my mortgage (80K) or keep the money in market investments? [View all]Wonder Why
(4,769 posts)the interest you pay on the mortgage. Then use some of the gains from the money Market to make additional payments. If the Money Market moves to less than the mortgage interest, sell it and pay off the mortgage.
Let's say your mortgage is 3% interest and your MM pays 5%. Three percent goes towards additional payments and the rest reinvested in the MM or used to buy more equities.
You more quickly pay down your mortgage and, at the same time, get more money in income.
If you can't make as much as the mortgage interest at some time because interest rates drip, then the money is there to pay off the mortgage as that "earns" you more than holding on to the MM.
Annually, review how much you owe to pay off the mortgage and transfer the excess from your MM to other securities.
NOTE: Unlike CDs and other interest bearing accounts, MMs are like equities in that the "interest" is considered "dividends" and dividends held over 1 year are taxed at only half their amount so make sure that any withdrawals are set to be FILO (first in last out) so that the payouts are coming from the fully taxable shares and not the ones taxed at half the amount. Many investment companies set payouts to be FIFO so the older ones are sold and taxed less but in your case, you are always taking money out monthly so FILO is best.