Both a 15-year and 30-year mortgage can have fixed interest rates and fixed monthly payments over the life of the loan. However, a 15-year mortgage means you will have your home paid off in 15 years rather than the full, 30-year mortgage so long as you make the required minimum monthly payments.
If your aim is to pay off the mortgage sooner and you can afford higher monthly payments, a 15-year loan might be a better choice. The lower monthly payment of a 30-year loan, on the other hand, may allow you to buy more house or free up funds for other financial goals.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Regardless of the amount of funds applied towards the principal, paying extra installments towards your loan makes an enormous difference in the amount of interest paid over the life of the loan. Additionally, the term of the mortgage can be drastically reduced by making extra payments or a lump sum.
Since your interest is calculated on your remaining loan balance, making additional principal payments every month will significantly reduce your interest payments over the life of the loan. By paying more principal each month, you incrementally lower the principal balance and interest charged on it.
The additional amount will reduce the principal on your mortgage, as well as the total amount of interest you will pay, and the number of payments. The extra payments will allow you to pay off your remaining loan balance 3 years earlier.
Adding Extra Each Month
A 30 year mortgage (360 months) can be reduced to about 24 years (279 months) – this represents a savings of 6 years!
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.
A 15-year, fixed-rate mortgage is a great tool for borrowers who can afford the higher payments while still saving and investing for retirement. Paying off a mortgage gives many people a feeling of independence, safety and accomplishment. But if your income is uncertain or variable, avoid the 15-year mortgage.
Because less than 10 percent of homeowners have 15-year mortgages, Bechtel says it's not an option for everyone, mainly because of the higher payments.
The interest rate is lower on a 15-year mortgage, and because the term is half as long, you'll pay a lot less interest over the life of the loan. Of course, that means your payment will be higher, too, than with a 30-year mortgage.
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.
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.
Drawbacks to biweekly payments
One drawback to biweekly mortgage payments is that some lenders may charge fees to enroll in their biweekly payment plan. When it comes to fees, you should crunch the numbers to confirm you'll still get ahead financially by paying biweekly.
The practice is called bi-weekly mortgage payments, a strategy where mortgage loan customers pay their mortgage loan every two weeks, instead of once a month. The idea is to chop down your mortgage payment more quickly, and in the process, lower the amount of interest you pay on your mortgage overall.
“What you do is take the normal 30-year mortgage you have, and instead of making the monthly payment the way you normally do, you split it down the middle and pay half every two weeks. That means, if your mortgage payment is $1,500 a month, you will pay $750 every two weeks.