Student loan payouff with Home Equity Loan etc.

[Drew Slew]

There has been a few threads on this topics, just wanted to gauge anyone's suggestions who had similar situation, or is an investor understanding HELOC/home equity.

- i have a 30k student loan at 6.25% interest, monthly around $500 payment.

- i have a 115k mortgage that i put 30k down in a 145k home, by now its 35k paid off total. interest is around 3.5%, 30yr fixed. This is a first mortgage, bought place last June, 2016. (not 1 year of full ownership yet, but prolly have 25% of home value by now)

- good credit, not much CC debt and no other debt, around 25k savings cash.

Options: 

- either pay down the student loan with a home equity loan around 3-4% if possible, take out 50k home equity loan, 30k for student loan and 20k id throw to my 25k cash and buy another rental

- leave everything as is and just take out 20k home equity loan to boost up cash and get another property around 200k for a rental investment

ANY IDEAS appreciated, and even happy to connect to tax CPA-s in New Jersey area.

[Ro Maga]

I wouldn't increase my RE debt to pay off student loans.  Yes, the interest is a little higher, but how many years are talking about here -- ~10 of student debt in exchange for 30 years of student debt rolled into your home?  

There are also some advantages to keeping your student loans as they are.  If you were to become permanently disabled, they'd be forgiven; but that's not the case of your 2nd mortgage.  If you were to lose your job, you can defer student loan payments; can you imagine calling your bank asking for a mortgage deferment???

If you're student loans are getting in the way of your goals, I'd either double up on payments and try to get out of them as soon as humanly possible, or invest on a property that cashflowed in a way that would allow me to pay them them sooner.  There is no easy way out, and a second mortgage to pay student debt is FAR from a smart move in my opinion.