Sunday, February 1, 2009

Paying Your home off Faster

By Mortgage Wizard

Homeownership is one the American dreams. It is easy to mismanage your planb and end up never paying off your home. With the proper plan the ones who want to end up with no payment can.

The current mortgage market favors fixed loans. In the past people opted to get into adjustable rate loans because they could get a lower monthly payment. If your loan is going to adjust you may be able to take advantage of the low fixed rates and start your planning to get your home paid off.

There are plenty of fixed products that you can refinance into such as 30 year fixed, 20 year fixed, 15 year fixed, and 10 year fixed. If your goal is to pay off your home by the time you retire this is the best option.

30 year fixed loans are great but if you pay just what you owe each month you will have a mortgage for 30 years. If you dont feel comfortable getting into a shorter term loan you can always pay more towards your loan each. Even an extra $500 will be applied directly to your principal balance. What will happen is payments on the back end of your loan will be removed which saves you interest. You will always have to pay the total principal balance on your loan but the less time it takes you to pay off the less interest you have to pay. Makes sense right?

In most cases if you paid the same monthly payment as you would have on a 15 year fixed loan but had a 30 year fixed loan you would pay your home off about 16 years. This is one extra year of payments if you compare it to the 15 year fixed but that way you always have the flexibility of just making your regular payment if you need some extra money from time to time.

If you can be disciplined and allocate extra money each month you will save thousands in interest payments.

If you have extra money to pay off your house but not quite enough to get into a 15 year fixed this is a great plan to shorten your overall loan.

Just because rates are great does not mean you should run out and get a new loan. If you have been in a fixed loan for more than 5 years you have already paid the majority of your interest on your loan. Refinancing, even at a lower rate will cause you to restart the interest cycle again and extend your loan out another 5 years. The majority of interest in a mortgage in paid in the first 5 years. If you are in an adjustable rate mortgage or an interest only mortgage and can afford a little higher payment, now is the time to strike. Rates are great. - 15224

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