[AlaskaErik]

No home equity loan for me. I took out a 15 year mortgage, refinanced when interest rates dropped and paid the extra $600 we saved each month against the principal. Now we're selling the house and we'll have enough money to pay cash for our retirement home in Arizona. I also planned for my future so I could have a six figure retirement for the rest of my life. Too bad the government can't do the same.

[Alberta's Child]

That's a good approach if your primary objective is to get out of debt quickly.

My approach would be different and probably more effective in some ways, but it requires a lot of discipline with your money. If I had been in your position I would have calculated the monthly payments on both a 15-year and 30-year mortgage, then taken out a 30-year mortgage. I then would have put the difference between the two monthly payments away in a set of diversified investments that are highly liquid. That way I'd be able to build up a nest egg outside the equity in the home that I could use five years later, ten years later, etc. for anything that came up (even making a lump-sum mortgage principal payment at any time).