I want to prepay my mortgage

Whether you should pay off your mortgage or not sounds like a simple problem with an easy answer... but it's not.

Mortgage rates fluctuate from day to day, depending on a number of factors related to the economy and to choices made by investors. While some mortgage money comes from deposits held by banks and credit unions, most of the funds for borrowers come from investors in capital markets.

Mortgage rates are influenced by a variety of factors, rather than moving in lockstep with any one economic indicator. The stock market rises and falls for a wide variety of reasons, including global, economic and political issues, but as a broad rule of thumb, a rising stock market indicates optimism among investors about the economy.