Pay off mortgage faster

[disneysteve]

Anything's possible. Which is why I think we need a bit more information to help us understand where the OP is coming from. When they began their statement with "I am fed up with my mortgage" it made me wonder why.

I suppose, but as I said earlier, a lot of folks aren't great at math. Unless our assumptions are way off base and OP's mortgage is at a rate higher than 9%, this plan will only get the loan paid off 1 month sooner at a cost of an extra $2,500 as corn illustrated.

[Braje]

Think we lost the OP but in case we haven't, just note that to pay off 10000 @ 9% in 12 months that is 874.51 per month. Why not just applied that to the mortgage each month. Depending on your mortgage rate you probably have the whole thing paid off rather quickly.

[snafu]

ucbear, we all support your desire to pay off your mortgage faster and save yourself a whopping amount of interest. I suspect you look at all the dollars paid over 4 years and realize the principal reduction moves slowly without realizing the interest is added first, plus municipal tax, plus mortgage insurance [if required], plus fire & theft insurance, plus HOA [if applicable].

I suggest you make paying off the principal a major focus. Examine every spending category in your current standard of living and choose a spending limit. Give every dollar, whatever the source, a 'job.' How much can you free up to accelerate paying off principal? If you can turn up $ 870. instead of paying a Line of Credit with 9% interest, pay principal. Every pay, send sums early, it reduces interest. Consider a part time job to increase income for mortgage principal paydown. Sell items you no longer use or need, have a yard sale, send proceeds to Principal. If you buy items 'on sale' put the differential in a jar until there is $ 1,000. to pay down Principal for example. Track home value like Zillow to make sure insurance is correctly evaluated. Rent an extra room to a college student targeting all but expenses to principal. Always contribute the applicable tax credit sum of refund back to principal.

[Petunia 100]

Can you share where you saw this idea posted? I'd love to check it out.

I'll bet it is one of these "mortgage accelerator" programs:

http://www.bankrate.com/finance/mortgages/mortgage-accelerator-loans-come-to-u-s--1.aspx

[Gailete]

I hope we haven't lost the OP yet as their first post was yesterday. I read the link that Petunia provided and the system makes no sense whatsoever and is charging the people a fee to use the program. Since I can now see my mortgage each month, I can see what I am saving by making extra payments and taking out a loan at 9% that you also have to pay off at the same time you are paying on your mortgage is a bit on the ludicrous side. Please understand that we are not making fun of you, but as people that try to read between the lines and make each penny/dollar do the work of three, this has nothing reasonable to recommend it. You want interest on your paycheck? Stick it directly into a high interest savings account if you can find one. But better yet, pay on your mortgage as soon as you have the money each month to do so -- Just because your payment isn't due for 7 days, pay it on payday if you can. You will be surprised at the interest that you save. Make extra payments whenever you have the money to do so.

I'm hoping that what you are trying to do, dumping the $10K loan onto your mortgage, doesn't mean that you think you won't have to make mortgage payments for a year (and that is where the money for paying back the $10K loan is for). Unless your mortgage is set up to pay REGULAR payments ahead of time and then you can skip payments until you owe another payment, this is not allowed by most lenders. Most mortgages, even if you pay $10K every month out of 11 and the December rolls around and you want to have extra Christmas money, you still have to make your December mortgage payment. It doesn't matter how much you are paid ahead. This is something you need to check with your lender and I'm hoping I read that wrong.

There is a thread going now of how some of us are paying off our mortgage loans as quickly as possible. I doubt if any of us, even if we paid the equivalent of two payments last month, get to skip a months payment, unless we have indicated that each extra payment is for the regular payment and I'm not sure how that would work out.

[scfr]

I hope we haven't lost the OP yet as their first post was yesterday.

I thought the same thing. If I was new here, asked a question, and just got insults hurled at me with no effort to understand where I was coming from, I probably would have left.

[EdwardG]

@ucbears22 hey buddy, i know your idea sounds tempting, but be wise and don't do it. Consult a financial advisor to show you the way. Wells Fargo offers assistance with planning and strategizing your debt pay off. It will take a while and requires a lot of patience, but you will pay it off. All the best!

[disneysteve]

Consult a financial advisor to show you the way. Wells Fargo offers assistance

I think that's an awful idea and I wouldn't trust Wells Fargo with a penny of my money.

Stay away from "financial advisors". Almost all of them are just salespeople trained to do little more than push products that generate juicy commissions for themselves. There are plenty of ways to educate yourself about saving and investing and places like this site and others to get advice on specific issues that you are facing.

[Gailete]

@ucbears22 hey buddy, i know your idea sounds tempting, but be wise and don't do it. Consult a financial advisor to show you the way. Wells Fargo offers assistance with planning and strategizing your debt pay off. It will take a while and requires a lot of patience, but you will pay it off. All the best!

I don't think the OP problem is so much that he doesn't have money, it is where he wants to stash it. I know nothing about Wells Fargo, but recommending one bank and their advisors over another is not that good of an idea. A Wells Fargo advisor will be working and trying to make money for WF, NOT the OP.

[Gailete]

I think that's an awful idea and I wouldn't trust Wells Fargo with a penny of my money.

Stay away from "financial advisors". Almost all of them are just salespeople trained to do little more than push products that generate juicy commissions for themselves. There are plenty of ways to educate yourself about saving and investing and places like this site and others to get advice on specific issues that you are facing.

You know Steve, that is great advice on many levels, the biggest being if you don't know what an advisor is talking about and just go along with what they say, they can make your investments not worth much of anything. AND the knowledge is out there just for the taking if you want to go it alone or alone with forums such as this. Information on investing even comes in simple enough words that just about any HS grad can follow it.

One of the benefits that I have found about being rather poor is that I knew if I wanted to invest in better things than a savings account, I would have to figure it out myself as I can't afford an advisor. And so I did. Do I have oodles tucked away? No, but I am making forward progress even with the bits and bits that comes into my life. I think not having much is more inspiring to get some put away than if I hadn't spent parts of my life living paycheck too paycheck.

[snafu]

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-wells-fargo-settlement-20170328-story.html

EdwardG...In case you didn't know, Wells Fargo has repeatedly lost every court ruling but still not paid their customers $10 M they owe in over & illegal charges. They are going to Supreme Court seeking to overthrow all 'class action' law suits. The question is will they have paid sufficient PAC money to win?

Another voice suggesting caution when engaging 'Financial Advisors,' too often merely sales force selling their best commission product or the product they have been instructed to 'hard sell' by their supervisor. This is super strength 'buyer beware' territory.

[disneysteve]

the knowledge is out there just for the taking

Investing on your own is so much easier than it used to be. Back in the day, if you wanted to buy stock, you had one choice - what we now call a full-service broker at a place like Merrill Lynch where the fees were sky high and they primarily dealt in 100 share lots. Investing was only for the well off.

Today, anyone can buy stock online, picking up as little as one share at a time, or even fractional shares, with virtually no commission. Then there are mutual funds and ETFs that allow us to invest small amounts over time but gain immediate diversification with super low fees.

Plus we have the internet with numerous great education resources.

[Gailete]

Investing on your own is so much easier than it used to be. Back in the day, if you wanted to buy stock, you had one choice - what we now call a full-service broker at a place like Merrill Lynch where the fees were sky high and they primarily dealt in 100 share lots. Investing was only for the well off.

Today, anyone can buy stock online, picking up as little as one share at a time, or even fractional shares, with virtually no commission. Then there are mutual funds and ETFs that allow us to invest small amounts over time but gain immediate diversification with super low fees.

Plus we have the internet with numerous great education resources.

The internet is the big reason that I can have investments that are growing instead of waiting until I have $100K in a savings account earning nothing so I can then pay a counselor.