Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open.

Sanity check on choosing the term for a mortgage refinance
So I will attempt to answer the other half of the question since people have given good feedback on the mortgage costs of your various options. Assumptions:   It is certain that I am off on some (or all) of these assumptions, but they are still useful for drawing a comparison.   If you were to make your mortgage payment, then contribute whatever you have left over to savings, this is where you would be at the end of 30 years. Wait, so the 30 year mortgage has me contributing $40k less to savings over the life of the loan, but comes out with a $20k higher balance?  Yes, because of the way compounding interest works getting more money in there faster plays in your favor, but only as long as your savings venue is earning at a higher rate than the cost of the debt your are contrasting it with. If we were to drop the yield on your savings to 3%, then the 30yr would net you $264593, while the 15yr ends up with $283309 in the bank.  Similarly, if we were to increase the savings yield to 10% (not unheard of for a strong mutual fund), the 30yr nets $993418, while the 15yr comes out at $684448.  Yes in all cases, you pay more to the bank on a 30yr mortgage, but as long as you have a decent investment portfolio, and are making the associated contributions, your end savings come out ahead over the time period.  Which sounds like it is the more important item in your overall picture. However, just to reiterate, the key to making this work is that you have an investment portfolio that out performs the interest on the loan.  Rule of thumb is if the debt is costing you more than the investment will reliably earn, pay the debt off first.  In reality, you need your investments to out perform the interest on your debt + inflation to stay ahead overall.  Personally, I would be looking for at least an 8% annual return on your investments, and go with the 30 year option. DISCLAIMER: All investments involve risk and there is no guarantee of making any given earnings target.