I had to look up what the steps that far in front are before responding. The way the economy’s going, I’m promoting “paying off the house” to step 4 instead of step 7.
The problem with moving the payoff of the house up and skip investing, then you miss the opportunity to invest at the lows. In addition, you would risk having a paid off house but no other wealth.
The reality is that you would be surprised by the speed that while doing invsting, and putting all extra cash against a mortgage, that the house is paid off. Without any “extra” inflow for me, mine should be paid off in 5 years or less. At the same time my retirement is being funded.