Start with which kind of mortgage insurance you have, because the answer flips with the loan type. - Conventional PMI is cancellable. Under the federal Homeowners Protection Act, you can request removal once your balance reaches 80% of the home's original value (the lesser of your purchase price and the appraisal when you bought), and PMI terminates automatically at 78% of that original value as long as you are current on payments. Extra principal genuinely moves that date up, so prepaying can pay off. Confirm the specifics with your servicer. - FHA mortgage insurance with less than 10% down stays for the life of the loan under current FHA rules, no matter how fast you pay the balance down. The only way off is refinancing out of FHA. Extra principal still shortens the loan, but it will not cancel the MIP. Next, weigh what the insurance actually costs you. Conventional PMI is priced heavily off credit score, so two borrowers with identical down payments can pay very different premiums; pull your own quote before deciding. If your premium is small, investing the extra cash may beat prepaying. If it is large and you are on a cancellable conventional loan, driving the balance to 80% faster is attractive. One caution from experience: plenty of people intend to make extra principal payments and then don't once the regular bill shows up. If accelerating is the plan, set up automatic recurring extra principal through your servicer so it happens without a monthly decision. And you are never obligated to reach 20% down just because that is the conventional wisdom. Putting less down and prepaying is a legitimate path if the numbers fit.