$100,000 @ 6.5%

I don't know what to do. I'm not ready to go back into the stock market, and the interest rates are so low, it's not worthwhile buying safe, short-term CDs.

I have a 6.5% mortgage which I plan to have paid off in about 6 1/2 years. There's this voice inside my head telling me to pay it off faster. If I pay an additional $100,000 on my house this year, I could manage to have the loan paid off in just 4 years.

I don't plan to live in this house forever, and if I do stay long enough to pay it off - which, in this climate, I do - I'll have to pay that amount anyway. And won't I have to pay an additional $26,000 in interest along with it? Of course I would write off about $6500 in taxes, but the loan is still costing me thousands.

The icing on the cake is that I will be only 44 years old, and own a paid-off house - at least for a little while. Ten years ago I would never have imagined having a house in San Francisco paid off by 44. I know it sounds funny, but I don't really need that $100,000 right now. I have enough additional rainy-day savings. It feels like the right thing to do.