On a biweekly schedule, you'll have two calendar months in which you end up making three payments. For the rest of the time, you'll make only two payments per month. As you can see, you would trim about five years from a 30-year loan term and also save $53,000 in interest by switching to biweekly payments.
One of the most effective ways to pay off your mortgage faster is to refinance it into a 15-year loan. A new loan with a lower interest rate will help you to pay off your existing mortgage more quickly. It will also allow you to increase your payments so you can pay off your 30-year-old mortgage in 10 years.
Options to pay off your mortgage faster include:
Pay extra each month. Bi-weekly payments instead of monthly payments. Making one additional monthly payment each year. Refinance with a shorter-term mortgage.
Tens of thousands of dollars can be saved by making bi-weekly mortgage payments and enables the homeowner to pay off the mortgage almost eight years early with a savings of 23% of 30% of total interest costs. With the bi-weekly mortgage plan each year, one additional mortgage payment is made.
If done right, making biweekly mortgage payments leads to less interest paid over the life of your loan, saving you money and whittling your balance down sooner. However, you must confirm that the extra payments are being applied to the principal and that you're not subject to prepayment penalties.
Typically, saving 20% of your take-home pay is recommended. But if you have a higher income and find you can get by spending 70% of your income or less per month, you can consider saving more. This can set you up nicely for major life purchases or even an early retirement.
The 2% rule states that you should aim for a 2% lower interest rate in order to ensure that the savings generated by your new loan will offset the cost refinancing, provided you've lived in your home for two years and plan to stay for at least two more.
Paying a little extra towards your mortgage can go a long way. Making your normal monthly payments will pay down, or amortize, your loan. However, if it fits within your budget, paying extra toward your principal can be a great way to lessen the time it takes to repay your loans and the amount of interest you'll pay.
Dave Ramsey, the renowned financial guru, has long been a proponent of financial discipline and savvy money management. This can include paying off your mortgage early, but only under specific financial circumstances.
Early Mortgage Payoff Examples
If you had a $400,000 loan amount set at 4% on a 30-year fixed, paying an extra $100 per month would save you nearly $30,000 and you'd pay off your loan two years and eight months early.
Make One Extra Payment Per Year: One way of paying off your mortgage earlier than the term of your mortgage is to make 13 payments per year instead of 12. You can add in the extra payment whenever you want throughout the year and continue to make those regular monthly payments as well.
Making extra payments of $500/month could save you $60,798 in interest over the life of the loan. You could own your house 13 years sooner than under your current payment. These calculations are tools for learning more about the mortgage process and are for educational/estimation purposes only.
No, making biweekly or twice-monthly payments will not change your loan's interest rate. But by making more frequent payments, you can reduce how quickly interest accrues, which helps you lower the total interest paid over the life of the loan.
Some people get a 30-year mortgage, thinking they'll pay it off in 15 years. If you did that, you'd save yourself 15 years of interest payments. But doing that is really no different than choosing a 15-year mortgage in the first place. Besides that, choosing to make those extra payments would be up to you.
Since you pay 52 weekly payments, by the end of a year you have paid the equivalent of one extra monthly payment. This additional amount accelerates your loan payoff by going directly against your loan's principal. The effect can save you thousands in interest and take years off of your mortgage.
By making 2 additional principal payments each year, you'll pay off your loan significantly faster: Without extra payments: 30 years. With 2 extra payments per year: About 24 years and 7 months.
Mortgage rates increase in increments of 0.125%, and although one percent may seem like an insignificant amount, a quick glance at the numbers would tell you otherwise. As a rough rule of thumb, every 1% increase in your interest rate lowers your purchase price you can afford for the same payment by about 10%.
Timing Requirements – The “3/7/3 Rule”
The initial Truth in Lending Statement must be delivered to the consumer within 3 business days of the receipt of the loan application by the lender. The TILA statement is presumed to be delivered to the consumer 3 business days after it is mailed.
A biweekly mortgage means that the borrower is paying every two weeks, or 26 half payments. The result is effectively 13 full payments over a 12-month period, accelerating the payoff of the loan.
The 28% mortgage rule states that you should spend 28% or less of your monthly gross income on your mortgage payment (including principal, interest, taxes and insurance). To gauge how much you can afford using this rule, multiply your monthly gross income by 28%.
To save $10,000 in six months, you'll need to save $1,666.67 per month. This breaks down to $416.75 weekly or $833.50 biweekly (assuming there are four weeks in each month that you're working toward your savings goal).
Those will become part of your budget. The 50-30-20 rule recommends putting 50% of your money toward needs, 30% toward wants, and 20% toward savings. The savings category also includes money you will need to realize your future goals. Let's take a closer look at each category.
There are guidelines to help you set one if you're looking for a single number to be your retirement nest egg goal. Some advisors recommend saving 12 times your annual salary. 12 A 66-year-old $100,000-per-year earner would need $1.2 million at retirement under this rule.