On Sun, 12 Nov 2006 08:41:39 -0500, Gogarty
wrote:

They don't call it "leverage" for nothing.
Indeed, we came into a bit of money recently and thought we might pay off the
boat mortgage, which has three years to run. But given the interest rate, the
tax aspects and what else we could do with the money, it just made no sense
to pay it off.

The tax aspects are very important, especially if you are in a high
$$$ bracket and have few other deductions. The deductions can lower
your effective interest rate to somewhere close to the inflation rate,
bringing your net cost of funds to near zero. If you have other
investment opportunities that yield more, it's a no brainer. If
nothing else put the extra cash in the tax sheltered retirement
account of your choice.