<human>: BACKGROUND: I worked with a nationally recognized company and after reviewing options and looking at my health at the time (24 years old then, I was about to receive custody of my 14 year old brother, in good health, no medical issues and relatively healthy family history) I chose a 20 year whole life plan, since the payments were reasonable and I got a discount in my car insurance as well. Seemed smart at the time.
  
Now, more life stuff is happening. The brother I raised is graduating high school and starting college, I'm starting a PhD program (my current job is paying for it), about to get married. We are paying off a mortgage and will soon start a family. I'm 4 months away from paying off my car, student loans are reasonable (<$60,000, about to accelerate payments after paying off the car) and not to increase with the doctoral program. Health is still good.
  
I just feel like I'm throwing my money away staying in this policy any longer, and could be better off switching to term and putting more into a Roth IRA, but I'm clueless. My plan amount (granted I'll be 44 when payments are done if I stay in it and the plan amount is $140,000) and seems smart to hold on to. 
  
When I'm done paying off the car, I figure I could take that money ($300), put half of that into paying off more loans and half into the Roth I'm looking to start, keep my WLI, and 20 years from now I'll be 48, mostly debt free outside of the 9 years of the mortgage left, 20 years into the Roth (I could pay into more once the PhD nets me more after 5 years). All of this sounds nice, but I know I'm being a naive in these assumptions.

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<bot>: starting year 3 of 20 in my WLI policy, figure my money could be better spent elsewhere with my financial situation. Any help would be greatly appreciated.