Nagorak:

I would still max out a Roth IRA and make any 401K contributions up to your company match 

 After that I would put the rest toward mortgage in order to aggressively pay it off. 

 think it's easier to make sound decisions when you're not heavily leveraged, which is essentially what carrying a mortgage is.   

Agreed on your first point above.. it is amazing how many people don't save 8%..or even 4%...

Disagree on second, This is basically saying I'll miss the market for 10-15 yrs.. Also, depending on the local, housing cost, you'll never have anything but the house.. Ask CA residents.. Housing costing above 800K, will never own. never have enuff to invest..

Third point, disagree, you'll have more motivation to keep credit card and other expenses under control..  Owning a house and no mortgage, one has more available discresionary (sp)  money to spend..

Of course, this is another one of those subjects that has no right answer.  Granted it was easier to do with loose credit and low rates a few yrs ago...  Back when home rates were 17% (thank you Carter), it would not be practical to do..  Also, as housing values drop it is harder to pick housing loc'ns that will grow in value.