Early Mortgage Payoff

[Alan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Prime We are paying down our mortgage by a variable amount each month. We just take whatever is left at the end of the month and add it to the payment for the next month. I have an excel sheet that tracks the payments. Shows how much we've shortened it and saved in interest. That is very motivating.

About 5 years from DD going to college I used Excel to determine how much to pay each month to retire the debt a month or 2 before she went. (This was '95 and I think our interest rate was ~6% ). In 2000 our monthly payment then started going to an out of state university instead of the bank

[chinaco]

Forgot to mention in my previous post..

We paid an extra amount each month mortgage to pay it off early. But after the meltdown, interest rates went to hell... I just paid it off out of our taxable account.

[valsdad]

Many calculators and articles at Mortgage Professor website.

[veremchuka]

i paid mine off in june. 3 years into FIRE and i was tired of having to go to cash savings every month because the mortgage ate up so much of my pension check.

skyvue try this calculator it lets you add 1 time payments to recalc but you'll have to do it each time you make a 1 time payment.

Mortgage Loan Calculator - Financial Calculators from Dinkytown.net

[BTravlin]

Mousmc please take the time to look at Excel and learn to use it as it is an invaluable tool when it comes to numbers, especially $$$ numbers. There are many very useful templates that come with the program. And from your original post I would guess you would actually enjoy learning to use it.

[Hobo]

Paying down a mortgage faster than necessary seems to a lot easier to do than consciously saving excess discretionary income. That's a plus.

However, since mortgage interest can be a tax deduction a good mortgage calculator can be a big help to make what can be some pretty lengthy, complex calculations. Easy to make a mistake with Excel too.

With that fancy $20 mortgage calculator, plug in the cost of an appraisal and compare it against the cost of the money saved at a substantially lower interest rate payment. I always heard the rule of thumb: If you can save 2% with a re-finance, it is worth the cost.

You might want to talk to your mortgage lender too. If your house won't appraise at a high enough value to re-finance, then you may fall into the category of an "underwater mortgage". I think some mortgage lenders are anxious to re-finance an underwater mortgage because they certainly don't want you to default on your payments. They don't want to foreclose on another "toxic asset".

[BTravlin]

Yes, if they bought the house three years ago then that would have been close to the peak of the market. Depending upon how much equity they have in the home they could indeed possibly leverage the situation to their benefit.

[serie1926]

We paid ours off early last month, was our last debt.

Words cannot describe the feeling!

Even though my wife and I both still work full time, it feels about as close to retirement as I can imagine.

God willing and the creek don't rise; we only have 28 quarters to go, before we can both punch out for the last time!

[Alan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by serie1926 We paid ours off early last month, was our last debt. Words cannot describe the feeling! Even though my wife and I both still work full time, it feels about as close to retirement as I can imagine. God willing and the creek don't rise; we only have 28 quarters to go, before we can both punch out for the last time!

That's great - congratulations - it's all downhill from here. (by that I mean easy going )