At the end of 2015 I refinanced a 30 year (4.125%) mortgage to a 15 year (3.625%) thinking I wanted my monthly mortgage payment to do more work for me in terms of paying down my mortgage faster. I purchased the house in January 2015. The house appraised for 190k in December 2015 and I think it would be the same to be conservative.
My thoughts have shifted about having a 15 year mortgage because my fiance (getting married in August) will be finishing nursing school in December and will have $67,000 in school debt. I'm trying to understand if it would end up being wiser financially to refinance to a 30 year mortgage and use that additional monthly money we would not be spending on a 15 year and put that (approximately $415) towards the school loans vs paying down the mortgage faster with a 15 year loan. Below are the details on my current mortgage, potential new mortgage, and school loan totals with interest rates:
Current Mortgage:
Remaining balance $165,010
15 year (14 years, 4 months remaining)
3.625%
Total monthly payment with PMI: $1584
If I refinance:
New balance $170,000
30 year
3.5%
Approximate monthly payment with PMI: $1160
School Loans:
3.13% $15,460.03
3.40% $15,278.00
3.86% $9,993.00
4.29% $15,595.00
4.66% $10,887.00
Total $67,213.03
We don't plan on moving anywhere in the next 3-5 years as far as we know if that's helpful. After all of our recurring bills and variable expenses (childcare, blow money, kids activities, etc) every month we have about $300 left over to do what we want with (save, invest, pay off debt, etc). The additional money would leave us with about $715 per month. We'd love to pay off the house by the time our youngest (3 years old) finishes high school if at all possible. We know that we can make extra payments to the house after paying off the school loans too if we go back to a 30 year mortgage.
So what do you think, should we do it? Or, is it better to stay the course? Let me know if there's any additional info I should add. Thanks!