Biweekly payments accelerate your mortgage payoff by paying 1/2 of your normal monthly payment every two weeks. By the end of each year, you will have paid the equivalent of 13 monthly payments instead of 12. This simple technique can shave years off your mortgage and save you thousands of dollars in interest.
With a bi-weekly payment schedule, you'll own your home in 13.5 years and save $4,193 on interest compared to making the monthly payment over 15 years.
Options to pay off your mortgage faster include:
Adding a set amount each month to the payment. Making one extra monthly payment each year. Changing the loan from 30 years to 15 years. Making the loan a bi-weekly loan, meaning payments are made every two weeks instead of monthly.
Making additional principal payments will shorten the length of your mortgage term and allow you to build equity faster. Because your balance is being paid down faster, you'll have fewer total payments to make, in-turn leading to more savings.
Paying an extra $1,000 per month would save a homeowner a staggering $320,000 in interest and nearly cut the mortgage term in half. To be more precise, it'd shave nearly 12 and a half years off the loan term. The result is a home that is free and clear much faster, and tremendous savings that can rarely be beat.
Let's say your outstanding balance is $200,000, your interest rate is 5% and you want to pay off the balance in 60 payments – five years. In Excel, the formula is PMT(interest rate/number of payments per year,total number of payments,outstanding balance). So, for this example you would type =PMT(. 05/12,60,200000).
3. Make one extra mortgage payment each year. Making an extra mortgage payment each year could reduce the term of your loan significantly. ... For example, by paying $975 each month on a $900 mortgage payment, you'll have paid the equivalent of an extra payment by the end of the year.
By adding $300 to your monthly payment, you'll save just over $64,000 in interest and pay off your home over 11 years sooner. Consider another example. You have a remaining balance of $350,000 on your current home on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage.
On home mortgages, a large payment to principal reduces the loan balance, and with it the fully amortizing monthly payment, or FAMP. On home mortgages, a large payment to principal reduces the loan balance, and with it the fully amortizing monthly payment, or FAMP.
Saving Money By Paying Extra on Your Mortgage. ... Simply by making an additional payment over the life of a 15-year mortgage for $300,000 dollars at an interest rate of 5%, amounts to an eventual savings of up to 200 dollars monthly.
Set up a biweekly payment schedule
Some lenders will let you set up your payment schedule this way. You pay half your mortgage every other week, which adds up to one whole extra payment per year. This is because there are 52 weeks per year, which is 26 half-payments, or 13 full payments.
When you make biweekly payments, you could save more money on interest and pay your mortgage down faster than you would by making payments once a month. ... With an extra payment each year, you can pay your principal down faster than you would with the monthly payment strategy.
Doubling the amount of each scheduled payment that goes towards principal -- whether you are on a schedule of monthly or bi-weekly payments -- can reduce the life of your loan by almost 50 percent.
This means you can make half of your mortgage payment every two weeks. That results in 26 half-payments, which equals 13 full monthly payments each year. Based on our example above, that extra payment can knock four years off the 30-year mortgage and save you over $25,000 in interest.
Well, mortgage payments are generally due on the first of the month, every month, until the loan reaches maturity, or until you sell the property. So it doesn't actually matter when your mortgage funds – if you close on the 5th of the month or the 15th, the pesky mortgage is still due on the first.
If you pay $200 extra a month towards principal, you can cut your loan term by more than 8 years and reduce the interest paid by more than $44,000. Another way to pay down your loan in less time is to make half-monthly payments every 2 weeks, instead of 1 full monthly payment.
Adding Extra Each Month
Simply paying a little more towards the principal each month will allow the borrower to pay off the mortgage early. Just paying an additional $100 per month towards the principal of the mortgage reduces the number of months of the payments.
If you buy a home priced at $255,000, for example, and put down a 20% down payment ($55,000), you'll need a mortgage worth $200,000. You'll then pay off that balance monthly for the rest of your loan term — which can be 30 years for many homebuyers.
Paying off your mortgage early can be a wise financial move. You'll have more cash to play with each month once you're no longer making payments, and you'll save money in interest. ... You may be better off focusing on other debt or investing the money instead.