Pay down mortgage or invest?

[Acesover8s]

Hi,

Thanks to the advice of the posters on this forum and internet poker players world wide I just bought my first home, and now am in debt for the first time in years.

My initial plan was to pay down the mortgage as quickly as possible, as I have no prepayment penalty, and I assume that after the US government finally has their way I will never make this sort of money again, whenever that may happen.

But, alternately I was thinking that investing the money, say in a series of index funds would be a better idea, since I don't have to even beat my mortgage rate to profit from this due to the tax credits.

Am I on the right train of thought here? Or would it be better to just get myself debt free as soon as possible? Is there a better option for a clueless investor than index funds? What rate of return should I look for before it goes from close decision to invest?

Thanks in advance,

aces