Interesting story in Consumer Reports about whether $100 a month was better invested into prepaying your mortgage or investing an S&P 500 mutual fund. The results showed that over the long haul, the S&P (about a 10% annualized gain) was better and that when the stock market outperformed it did so with higher returns than the periods that investing into the mortgage did (6.5% annual gains) at 132 analyzed points between 1986 and 1996.

Their punchline: “Although there are exceptions, chances are you’ll be better off putting extra money into a good mutual fund, not into a prepaying your mortgage.”