Is it smart to pay extra principal on mortgage?
Because interest is calculated against the principal balance, paying down the principal in less time on your mortgage reduces the interest you'll pay. Even small additional principal payments can help.
If you made an extra $100 monthly mortgage payment from the start of the time that you borrowed, you would end up repaying your debt a whopping four years faster than if you did not make an extra payment. In the process, you would save yourself $60,995 in interest.
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.
Making extra payments of $500/month could save you $60,798 in interest over the life of the loan. You could own your house 13 years sooner than under your current payment. These calculations are tools for learning more about the mortgage process and are for educational/estimation purposes only.
Putting extra cash towards your mortgage doesn't change your payment unless you ask the lender to recast your mortgage. Unless you recast your mortgage, the extra principal payment will reduce your interest expense over the life of the loan, but it won't put extra cash in your pocket every month.
If you pay $100 extra each month towards principal, you can cut your loan term by more than 4.5 years and reduce the interest paid by more than $26,500. If you pay $200 extra a month towards principal, you can cut your loan term by more than 8 years and reduce the interest paid by more than $44,000.
When you pay extra on your principal balance, you reduce the amount of your loan and save money on interest. Keep in mind that you may pay for other costs in your monthly payment, such as homeowners' insurance, property taxes, and private mortgage insurance (PMI).
Paying extra on your auto loan principal won't decrease your monthly payment, but there are other benefits. Paying on the principal reduces the loan balance faster, helps you pay off the loan sooner and saves you money.
Ideally, you want your extra payments to go towards the principal amount. However, many lenders will apply the extra payments to any interest accrued since your last payment and then apply anything left over to the principal amount. Other times, lenders may apply extra funds to next month's payment.
Just making two extra mortgage payments a year can save you tens of thousands of dollars and cut years off your loan.
What happens if I pay an extra $2000 a month on my mortgage?
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.
Over the course of the year, you will have paid the additional month. Doing so can shave four to eight years off the life of your loan, as well as tens of thousands of dollars in interest. However, you don't have to pay that much to make an impact.
Refinance into a shorter term
When you refinance your home, you can pay off your home faster by replacing your 30-year mortgage with one that's a shorter term. With a mortgage refinance, you can shorten your loan term by selecting a 20, 15, or even a 10-year loan.
No matter how much extra you pay each month, that amount can help shorten the life of your loan. Even making one extra mortgage payment each year on a 30-year mortgage could shorten the life of your loan by four to five years.
But interest rates are cyclical. When they drop, debt issuers have a strong incentive to refinance their debt at lower prevailing rates. Not so with lenders. They dislike prepayments as they lose the remaining interest payments on the loan.
Paying down the principal means you owe less interest each month because your loan balance shrinks. Making extra mortgage payments — and applying them to the principal — reduces your principal balance little-by-little, so you end up saving money and owing less interest over the life of the loan.
Assuming you have a $200,000, 30-year mortgage at a 7% interest rate, you'd need to pay about an extra $500 a month toward your principal to drop your repayment period from 30 to about 15 years.
Switch to Biweekly Payments
Making biweekly payments instead of monthly payments results in one additional payment each year. Using the example above, making one full, extra mortgage payment each year will reduce the amount of time it takes to pay off your 30-year mortgage by five years.
As a general rule of thumb, making one extra mortgage payment per year at the start of your 30-year mortgage can shorten the term by approximately four to five years. You could potentially pay off the mortgage and own the home outright in 25 to 26 years instead of 30.
A 15-year mortgage costs less in the long run since the total interest payments are less than a 30-year mortgage. The cost of a mortgage is calculated based on an annual interest rate, and since you're borrowing the money for half as long, the total interest paid will likely be half of what you'd pay over 30 years.
How much extra principal should you pay?
Making Extra Mortgage Payments
You could, for example, pay an extra $50 or $100 each month, or make one extra mortgage payment a year. The benefit in taking this approach is that it will, over the life of the loan, reduce the total amount of interest you pay.
Which Is More Important? Both the principal and your escrow account are important. It's a good idea to pay money into your escrow account each month, but if you want to pay down your mortgage, you will need to pay extra money on your principal. The more you pay on the principal, the faster your loan will be paid off.
By applying the overpayment to your principal, you can reduce the amount of interest calculated on each month's principal balance. The more quickly your principal balance is reduced, the faster your interest costs will fall. Over 20 to 30 years, you can save thousands of dollars in interest costs.
Amortization extra payment example: Paying an extra $200 a month on a $464,000 fixed-rate loan with a 30-year term at an interest rate of 6.500% and a down payment of 25% could save you $115,843 in interest over the full term of the loan and you could pay off your loan in 301 months vs. 360 months.
You can earn more by investing your extra money instead.
Depending on your situation, paying off your mortgage early may be a good idea. In other cases, it doesn't make as much sense. But it's seldom because of the tax deduction.
