Okay, I ran those numbers. Please keep in mind, I had to make some significant assumptions based on the data provided. The big one being no debt other than the mentioned mortgage. If there was other debt, it would significantly alter the numbers. You can roll other debt into the program and quickly get rid of it too, because of the effect of the increased discretionary income realized by rolling a car loan (for example) into a HELOC. Also, I had to assume that the MMA is initiated at the start date of the mortgage, since no remaining term was provided. These numbers also do not take into account any raises or financial hardships, windfalls (tax refunds, profit sharing, etc) or unexpected expenses, or any tax benefit provided by the fact that the little bit of interest you pay on the HELOC may be tax deductible. Based on the data you provided and the assumptions above (and requiring no increase to your spending and no out-of-pocket expense) utilizing the MMA program would:

- Decrease your scheduled interest by $181,805.80. This would be the equivalent of re-financing into a 30-year mortgage at 1.728% fixed.

- Pay off your mortgage in 8.7 years, saving you 21.3 years (256 months) of mortgage payments.

- Allow you to invest the $1199.10 per month that you'd no longer be paying to the bank for those 256 months and, assuming an 8% return, accumulate $1,477,610.53 by the time you would have simply been mortgage-free if you had not used the MMA.

- Allow you to see the cumulative impact of today's financial decisions by showing you what effect on the above numbers would be realized by buying that boat you want, for example . . . thus providing you with a powerful budgeting tool.

Now, some people think they don't want to pay off their mortgage . . . they're willing to pay $3 in interest to take home another $1 in income. If you're of that mindset, buy a vacation property or another property . . . then another, then another, etc. Even without the MMA, you're going to gradually lose that tax deduction as the house pays off through the years, anyway. I'd also like to revisit the 'financial hardships' I mentioned above, since most of us probably rely upon an airline for our primary source of income. So, the hypothetical client we've run these numbers for gets downgraded or furloughed after only a few years on the MMA program . . . after three years, they'd have almost $50,000 more equity in their house than if they'd simply made their mortgage payments. That's like airspeed and altitude when something goes wrong in an airplane . . . priceless. Please PM or post if you'd like more info.