Can Suze Orman’s Most Outdated Piece of Advice Still Work in 2026?
Written by
Nicholas Morine
Edited by
Cory Dudak
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Suze Orman has carved out a name for herself in the personal finance space, delivering timely and timeless advice on fiscal matters over a long career. Given that she’s been a known quantity in the business and finance world for decades, it stands to reason that not all of her advice has stood the test of time — in particular, her thoughts on paying off one’s mortgage aggressively, often at the expense of savings or other investment opportunities.
In a 2016 Facebook post, Orman originally made the case for adding an additional mortgage payment to the monthly budget.
“One of the best ways to pay off your mortgage early is to make just one extra mortgage payment a year,” Orman wrote at the time. “If you are currently paying 6% on your mortgage, one extra mortgage payment a year can change a 30-year mortgage into a 24.7-year mortgage.”
Keep reading for why isn’t exactly considered a timeless piece of mortgage advice in 2026.
Orman’s Advice on Mortgage Payments Might Not Make Sense in 2026
There are several reasons why Orman might have advanced that claim nearly a decade ago — interest rates were significantly higher at the time, punishing those who did not make aggressive payments on the mortgage principal; and the advice seems solid on a logical basis.
On the other hand, there are several reasons why this line of thinking doesn’t hold up as well in today’s economy. For starters, those who secured a lengthy fixed-rate mortgage term prior to mid-2022 could be resting at 4.5%, or as low as 2.7% in Dec. 2020. If that’s the case, there’s an argument that it would be better to put any excess cash into high-yield investments or savings accounts.
As recently as September 2025, Orman advised an individual not to utilize their savings to pay down a low-rate (3.3%, with a low remaining principal) mortgage in favor of other investments.
“It makes no sense for you to give up money that’s probably making 4.5%… to pay off a 3.3% mortgage,” Orman stated.
Can Orman’s ‘Outdated’ Advice on Aggressive Mortgage Payments Still Prove Valuable?
That’s not to say that Orman’s advice has become obsolete in all cases. When interest rates on your mortgage are higher, when you’re holding zero high-interest debt and have established a strong savings reserve, and when you’re more likely to blow excess cash than to invest it wisely — paying down your mortgage more quickly than is required can make sense.
“Accelerating your mortgage payments is something to be considered only if you are in good financial shape. That means: You have an eight-month emergency savings fund. You do not have any credit card debt. You own your car outright, and you are saving for when you will need to purchase another car,” Orman wrote in 2011’s “The Money Class: Learn to Create Your New American Dream” — and that advice may still prove fruitful in certain scenarios 15 years later.
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