Originally, when I had started this blog, it was meant to chronicle the process of accelerating my mortgage payments. I had initially set out to use the revenue that I earn from online income to go toward extra principal payments on my mortgage, which would in turn, decrease the amount of interest that I paid over time. My mortgage acceleration plans have been severely dampened by a combination of things.

Firstly, my wife and I decided to have custom closets installed in our master bedroom, and in doing so, I had to bypass an additional principal payment. This is a decision that we are still happy with because not only were we in need of some organization in our master bedroom closet, but it also will help to increase the value of our home when it comes time to sell.

Secondly, with the declining market, we do not have the same amount of extra cash lying around that we can use to make an additional principal payment. Over the past 3 months, my portfolio value has decreased by half. Thankfully, I’m only 30 years old, so I haven’t pulled any money out of the stock market, and in fact, I’ve recently started to put more money into the stock market, and will probably continue to do this as long as the Dow Jones remains below 10,000 points. If Warren Buffet is doing it, it can’t be a bad idea, right?

With the market the way it is now, I am left with the following question: Should I now put more money into the stock market, or should I return to making additional principal payments? This is a tough question, because the market still seems to be very volatile, even though this past week was mostly in the green, but making additional principal payments guarantees me savings on mortgage interest.

For the remainder of this year, I am going to bypass any additional mortgage acceleration payments and leave a majority of my extra money in high yield savings and money market accounts. If I see a good opportunity in the stock market, I may invest in some high dividend yielding stocks, but for the most part, I am just going to sit on as much cash as I can.