[Rick Lee]

Ok, so paying down the mortgage balance makes sense, but I wouldn't throw the entire $1000 per month at it. You can knock the last seven years (84 payments) off your mortgage by making one extra P&I payment per year (divide normal P&I payment by 12 and add that much to each monthly payment). If you can figure out when you want to have it all paid down, I'm sure there's an amortization program on some website to show you how much extra to pay each month.