The Mathematics of Arbitrage
The decision between prepaying a debt and investing boils down to an interest rate arbitrage. If your home loan costs you 9% post-tax, and your mutual fund yields 12% post-tax, you are losing a 3% spread by prepaying the loan.
Emotional vs Logical: Being debt-free provides immense psychological peace. However, mathematically, a home loan is the cheapest debt available. Maintaining a long-term home loan while aggressively investing your excess cash in equity is how the wealthy build multi-generational net worth.