The biggest benefit is that instead of making a mortgage payment every month for 30 years, you'll have the full amount paid off and be done in half the time. Plus, because you're paying down your mortgage more rapidly, a 15-year mortgage builds equity quicker.
Borrowers with a 15-year term pay more per month than those with a 30-year term. In return, they receive a lower interest rate, pay their mortgage debt in half the time and can save tens of thousands of dollars over the life of their mortgage.
The amount saved will vary based on the initial size of the loan and interest rate. 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.
The main drawback to a 15-year mortgage is that monthly payments are much higher since you have to pay off the same amount in half the time. As a result, many homeowners simply can't swing the monthly payments. It's up to you and your loan officer to compare the costs — and potential savings — of a 15 vs.
There's a huge opportunity cost to tying up your money
When you choose a 15-year mortgage, you commit to making higher payments than with a longer loan term. You're locked into making these payments for the entire life of the loan, which means you're taking on a huge financial commitment for 15 years.
Pay extra toward your mortgage principal each month: After you've made your regularly scheduled mortgage payment, any extra cash goes directly toward paying down your mortgage principal. If you make an extra payment of $700 a month, you'll pay off your mortgage in about 15 years and save about $128,000 in interest.
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.
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.
Throwing in an extra $500 or $1,000 every month won't necessarily help you pay off your mortgage more quickly. Unless you specify that the additional money you're paying is meant to be applied to your principal balance, the lender may use it to pay down interest for the next scheduled payment.
Yes! Make sure you tell your lender that you want your payment to go toward your principal if you do make advance payments on your mortgage. Some mortgage lenders apply any extra payment you make toward your next monthly minimum. This won't help you reduce the amount of interest you owe.
You can always pay off the loan early, but a 30-year loan's smaller monthly commitment provides the option to pursue other financial goals, such as investing for retirement, handling a financial hardship, or building an emergency fund.
If you decide you can't afford your overpayments, you can reduce or stop them at any time and go back to your original monthly mortgage repayment. Paying a lump sum off your mortgage will save you money on interest and help you clear your mortgage faster than if you spread your overpayments over a number of years.
Okay, you probably already know that every dollar you add to your mortgage payment puts a bigger dent in your principal balance. And that means if you add just one extra payment per year, you'll knock years off the term of your mortgage—not to mention interest savings!
Paying off your mortgage early is a good way to free up monthly cashflow and pay less in interest. But you'll lose your mortgage interest tax deduction, and you'd probably earn more by investing instead. Before making your decision, consider how you would use the extra money each month.
In this scenario, an extra principal payment of $100 per month can shorten your mortgage term by nearly 5 years, saving over $25,000 in interest payments. If you're able to make $200 in extra principal payments each month, you could shorten your mortgage term by eight years and save over $43,000 in interest.
Adding Extra Each Month
Just paying an additional $100 per month towards the principal of the mortgage reduces the number of months of the payments. A 30 year mortgage (360 months) can be reduced to about 24 years (279 months) – this represents a savings of 6 years!
You should aim to have everything paid off, from student loans to credit card debt, by age 45, O'Leary says. “The reason I say 45 is the turning point, or in your 40s, is because think about a career: Most careers start in early 20s and end in the mid-60s,” O'Leary says.
It's typically smarter to pay down your mortgage as much as possible at the very beginning of the loan to save yourself from paying more interest later. If you're somewhere near the later years of your mortgage, it may be more valuable to put your money into retirement accounts or other investments.
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.