Until the market goes down, there are no sure winners or losers.
True, Hydroshock, but if you have a longterm perspective and invest conservatively, it is not difficult to make more than 4.75% (our current mortgage) in the market.
If I had wanted a "sure thing" when we did the re-fi I could have put the cash available to pay off the note entirely into a longterm CD at around 6% or so. Putting the money into that instead of paying off the house, and taking a 4.75% mortgage on the balance owed on the house would leave us ahead by enough to buy a nice car in 10 years.
Don't get me wrong. I am almost as conservative as you about debt. Just not quite.