In fact, my HELOC balance has dropped down again and I was considering making another payment to the mortgage, but with holiday travel and gifts I'm going to hold off and do it in the spring.)Payoff date Jan 2024Projected interest savings $203,000The things I keep coming back to are not the interest rates and how I'm saving money over 30 years instead of 5 and all that, but the fact that $10,000 was COSTING me $20,000 in interest to pay in the old way and about $1200 in interest to pay in the new way and that all my income is going toward paying down the HELOC whereas just a portion of it was going toward paying down the mortgage.

Although some people think it's creepy/morbid to get life insurance for your kids at young age...I'm now seeing the benefit of passing on such a gift...though arguably, that same money could have been invested into a rental upon his birth as @Brandon Turner has written and talked about a lot...still...for those people who can't qualify for rental home loans when their kids are young...investing into certain whole life policies beats a savings account in my opinion.