If you look at the chart of a typical mortgage, you see that when you get to the last half of the life of the loan, the amount of money going toward principle really picks up speed. You spend the first half of the loan paying more in interest than what goes toward the principle.
Understanding this, it then figures that you should try to get to that halfway point as quickly as possible. Even if you don't want to follow through and just pay off your house, you should put extra money into it until you tip the scale. When more of your regular payment is going to principle than interest, you could go back to the regular payments and you will have saved more than a decade of time and tens of thousands of dollars.
That's what the chart suggests but that's not what usually happens.
Most people either move or refinance every 5 years. They spend all their time in the very worst period of their loan. In those same 5 years, they could completely change their life financially. Instead, they dig themselves into deeper debt, raising the total amount they owe and the amount of their monthly payments.
People get caught in a trap of their own making. They refinance to lower their monthly payments and then they charge things up to the point where they owe more each month than before. Most people could get out of financial trouble without refinancing. Refinancing might be a possible answer for some but once they refi, they need to not charge anymore and pay the mortgage down.
At least to the halfway point.