Sunday, February 21, 2010

How To Pay Off Your Mortgage Faster


By Graham McKenzie

For most people a mortgage loan of 30 years is the only way for them to affordably own a home. The monthly payments are all they feel they can afford. If they were to be told they could pay their mortgage off faster and not have to come up with more money or make changes to their budgets do you think they would go for it?

Most people do not realize how easy it is to pay a mortgage off faster than the bank states. The first rule should be to have the best possible interest rate. If your credit score is better now than when you obtained the loan refinancing might be in order. The lower the interest rate the easier to pay the loan off quicker and you also save thousands in interest payments.

For those who want to benefit from early payoff but do not want to experience a squeeze on their budgets paying a bi-weekly payment instead of a monthly one will work. A bi-weekly payment plan actually pays two additional payments to the loan each year. This can greatly reduce the life of the loan. Since you have paid nothing more than you are used to the budget remains intact and you feel no ill effects of this method.

The method of coming up with a lump sum each year to place on the loans principle is harder to do for most people. You can find out from your lender what penalties they have for early pay off and make sure if they do penalize that you stay under the limits to avoid them. You can usually pay a lump payment of 15% of the loan at the end of the year after making your regular monthly payments and notice a tremendous difference in the life of the loan.

To be more realistic you can use the method of paying an additional amount each month instead of annually. This method allows you to pay on the principle each month and it is much more affordable for people to do this than the other method. The amount you decide on is up to you and what you can afford. The loans lifetime will shorten the more you pay each month.

If you are looking for a way to truly reduce the size of the loan and want to see more results than just a mere five years drop off you can combine methods. If you choose the bi-weekly payments then include an additional payment with each. A small amount will show you results so you do not have to go overboard here. The larger the amount the sooner the payoff obviously but even with a modest amount you will see a ten year difference in the lifetime of the loan. If you are lucky enough to have a lender who does not penalize for over payment then you can easily reduce your loan by 15 years or more with over payments. The weeks you have more you can send more and when you don?t have much just send a few dollars over.

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