conversation: User (okccj): "I have $140k in savings. I owe $120k on my house and owe $23k on my truck. Mortgage is 4.25% truck is 1.75%. These are the only two options I'm interested in. Please no, "Neither, you should invest in blah blah blah".\n\nAdditional info: House payment is $675 (less the property tax and insurance) and the truck payment is $325.  Income is $105k, 34 years old. Job seems as secure as any, I guess. I have a simple IRA through my work and an IRA which I max. The only debts I have are the house and the truck.\n\nThanks in advance. "
  Self: "Pay off the house, however as soon as you do establish a home equity line of credit.\n\nThat way if something major happens like a job loss you have a line of credit you could potentially draw down. While the interest rate  on a HELOC is likely to be higher(and usually variable)  compared to your 4.25% mortgage rate the hope is you would never use it; plus if you did need to use it ideally you would only be withdrawing and thus paying interest on the portion of would need. Borrowing 10k-20k-30k at ~6% interest is still far better than paying 4.25% interest on 120k that you are currently.\n\nYou could end up in a situation with $20k in savings, a fully paid off house with a 80k HELOC setup for a ~10 years draw down at a prime + 1.5-2% variable interest rate for additional emergency funds, and 23k owed on your truck at 1.75%."
  secondnameIA (secondnameIA): "I have about 200k in invested assets and 120k on my mortgage.  Your thinking on this is I should sell all my assets to pay off my mortgage?  The monthly payment is very manageable and the assets probably mean more in the long run than what little I will end up paying in interest.  You're suggesting to the OP to take cash for the option of taking on more debt.  "
  