I consider paying a bit extra on my mortgage every month as diversification. Some savings go in stocks, some in bonds, etc, and some to pay down the mortgage. Now that the money market rate is so high, I should probably just put that bit extra into the savings, but after taxes it is just not a large enough amount to worry about.
When my condo mortgage was near finished I inherited some money, so I used that to pay off the mortgage. It certainly would have done better in the stock market, but if I could guarantee stock returns I wouldn’t need a mortgage in the first place. The mortgage was higher than the 0% interest money markets paid at the time, so I think paying it off was the correct and safe move (rather than the correct and risky move).
We paid off our mortgage last month. We still had about 6 years to go at 4.999%. My husband retired this year and I’m not sure when I’m going to. We haven’t been able to use the mortgage interest as a deduction for years since the IRS made changes to the standard deduction. It feels good to not have the mortgage hanging over our heads anymore and to know that we own our home free and clear. You never know what’s around the bend.
As for property taxes, every year we get a tax statement from the county. On the bottom there are 2 stubs with the amount of half of the taxes on each. One is due in May, the other in October. It’s noted on the statement that it is paid by escrow and no action is needed. I called the county to find out if we needed to make the May payment this year. Good thing I did, because we did have to make that payment. I had the statement with my other tax paperwork and followed the directions on it. I set up both payments online so I wouldn’t forget come October. The mortgage company sent us a check in the amount of the leftover escrow.
When I bought my house I had enough money left over from the sale of my previous house that I was able to put down a sizable deposit and ended up with only a $50,000.00 mortgage. The first thing I did after the closing was arrange to be able to pay my property tax and insurance myself instead of having to set up an escrow account with the bank. Then I set up a savings account and started putting enough into it every month to cover my property taxes. I get an annual property tax bill from the county, and when it’s due I transfer enough to cover it into my checking account. I write out a check and mail it in.
Oh, and had I also arranged autopay for my mortgage payments, with a little extra each month. When I refinanced I kept paying the same amount as before, so I ended up paying off a 15-year mortgage in about ten years.