Anyone paying extra to their mortgage?

[DivaJen]

DH and I talk about doing this. We have about 18 years left on our mortgage. DD will be college age in 12-13 years. It would be great to be able to have the house paid off while she is in college, or at least by the time she is done with school. DH will be 58 when DD is 22, so retirement at that time would definitely be doable, if we had things in order.

Right now, the income tax deduction for mortgage interest is helpful.

I need to find a calculator that would help us figure out how much extra to pay each month if we wanted to pay off the mortgage in, say, 16 or 17 years, or in 12-13 years. (Maybe Jeffrey and Nate have one here - will have to take a look.)

[gakline]

Here's an awesome amortization schedule. Just fill in the blue numbers. Due to the file limitation size, I had to cut it to 15 years, but you can just copy the formulas down. It's really easy to change the years, see what would happen if you made additional payments.

It was right down to the cent when I calculated my mortgage. I've used for all sorts of other things too, including student loans. It'd work for any other sort of debt.

Have fun. I found it's time consuming because I have so much fun playing "What if..."

[Armywife]

I've been searching for something similar for a while now... This is one amazing tool.. Thank you for posting it!


Barb

[SeeAPenny]

Our mortgage is split into two loans -- one large, and one small. The large one is a 15-year that we are two or so years into (since refinancing). The smaller one is a 5-year balloon that we are also two or so years into. We're anxious to pay off both ASAP, but our minimum payment is pretty steep as it is, so while we can't throw too much money at it, I do try to prepay a little extra every month. On average, it's probably around $65 between the two ( hope to gradually increase this as time goes on...)...

[Tree0164]

Jen Here is one
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/amortization-calculator.asp

We were paying $50 a month towards the mortgage. Not a lot but just something extra to make me feel a bit better.

[DivaJen]

Thanks for the spreadsheet, and link.

I make one extra payment a year, usually around tax refund season. It's supposed to shave 7 years off the life of the loan.

While we could be paying more, I prefer to use that money for other loans that I can't get a tax break on. Once we pay those off, I'll start putting more towards the mortgage, and then our dream/second/vacation home...right...

[txjman]

Keep in mind the sooner you make the extra house payment the more impact it will have on the total amount of interest you pay. If you wait to start adding an extra payment you will effect the length of the loan more than the interest you pay.

[DivaJen]

Originally Posted by txjman

Keep in mind the sooner you make the extra house payment the more impact it will have on the total amount of interest you pay. If you wait to start adding an extra payment you will effect the length of the loan more than the interest you pay.

You're right. This is a good reminder.

[barbd00]

Especially since (I just learned this) intereste is higher in the beginning of the loan usually and if you can get them to apply the extra money to the earlier payments and not at the end (which is what they usually do) you can save that interest !!

[loveofpets]

I make extra payments every month - sounds weird, but I look at the mortgage balance and try to keep it rounded down to the nearest 100. So, if it said $99,599., I'd pay my regular mortgage amount and then pay an additional $99 dollars on the principal. It's just a game I play with myself to encourage me to put more against. If it comes to an even number -- $99,500, I'd probably give myself a month off and treat myself to dinner out. Not a scientific way of doing it, but I know I'm doing something small each month.

[Momof3grls]

I put $50 extra each month on my mortgage hopefully though very soon we will just pay it off hoping to anyways!!!

[mom-from-missouri]

I currently am doing $25 a month extra. I also have mine electronically paid each month, buy having it put on my ATM-credit-debit card, as a credit. it still comes out of my checking account, I pay no intrest on it--BUT, I earn reward points, which at the end of the year I get as cash deposited into my checking account by my bank. I then take that cash, and also apply it to the mortgage.

[CJsoccerchic]

If I had a mortgage, I would most definently be up by at least one payment.
When I had a car loan, I was always up three or four payemtns, simply because I thought that the car payments were too little!!! I figured, the more money I put into the car now, the less interest I would have to pay later!! In the end, I think on my car loan of 10000, I only paid less then 200$ in interest! is that good?

[sweeps]

Originally Posted by CJsoccerchic

If I had a mortgage, I would most definently be up by at least one payment.
When I had a car loan, I was always up three or four payemtns, simply because I thought that the car payments were too little!!! I figured, the more money I put into the car now, the less interest I would have to pay later!! In the end, I think on my car loan of 10000, I only paid less then 200$ in interest! is that good?

That's awesome. Congrats. But it's also a function of your interest rate. I paid off one car very quickly because it had a relatively high 4.9% interest rate. I'm paying the minimum on the other car because it has a low 0.9% interest. I can earn a lot more by saving the money than paying down the 2nd car.

[CJsoccerchic]

OK, I feel better! the car loan I had, it had a 2.9% which I thought was good at the time, now I realize that there are better deals out there!

[Fern]

I pay an extra $100 a month; used to do $200 a month when i was making more $, but forced to cut that back.

[TBH]

When we first got the loan I was overpaying by $50 or $100 every month, but then my spouse convinced me to stop doing that because we were feeling so strapped and couldn't save enough money for other things (emergency fund, retirement, etc).

Now I pay electronically but have it set to pay $10 extra each month. It's very very little, I know, but I want to prepay something, especially this early in the loan.

I was able to throw an extra $1000 at it the first year, which means I'm paying about $5 more in principal each month than I was before. That's satisfying.

[niki_the_tiger]

We can only afford an extra $30 a month but we figured it out and even just that will knock 4 years off our mortgage (we have a 30 year mortgage). Not too bad for an extra $30. When we're done paying off our debt and saving 6 months expenses, we will attack the mortgage.

Hey which bank offers points on their debt/credit card? That's a great idea!

[CJsoccerchic]

That is truly amazing that with only an extra $30 a month, you could knock off 4 years off your mortgage!!! way to go!