Have a mortgage? interest vs. principal

[rj.phila]

hi all, im relatively new here, but anther thread reminded me of something that i found HUGELY helpful for me in the past.

Mortgage Payment Calculator from Move

this mortgage calculator will show how much interest vs. principal you will pay over the life of a mortgage. any early payment will skip you ahead in the future, of course, saving interest payment of that year.

i know this is pretty ABC, and most of you might have already done this, but you'd be surprised at A) how many people havent done this to their own mortgage, and B) how effective it can be in both VISUALIZING the issue, and helping to understand(thus pay down) a mortgage. it seems a common issue in alot of threads is "should i pay down my mortgage?", so i thought i'd post this link. plug your numbers in, switch to YEARLY, and there you have it. its pretty astounding how much money you will save, and especially if you pay EARLY n the life of the mortgage. example: 10k paid in the first 3 years of a 200k mortgage, vs LAST 3 years of a mortgage will save about 30k vs. 4k. its an easy way to calculate exactly how much you will save in interest by extra principal payments.

[ddavis]

Nice calculator. Thnx for the link.

It's always sickening when you go to sign your mortgage papers and they show you how much you are actually going to pay with 30 years of interest!

[hard2figure]

I have an excel workbook that I use and give to people I'm trying to help with Credit Card, Loans, Loan Comparisons, Savings, and Retirement information formulated into the different tabs. If someone knows either how/where to post it or knows an admin ... I would be happy to give access to this site and it's users.

I'm new but like what I've seen the last two nights ... liked it so much I decided to join tonight.