Do you know how to pay off your mortgage faster?

CPT Joseph K Murdock — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 19:03:23 -0400

There are several ways to cut years and tens of thousands of dollars from your mortgage.

Let's say your mortgage is $1500s a month. You can:
1. Pay $750 on the first and $750 on the end of the month.
2. Pay $750 every two weeks.
3. Pay an extra $1500 a year.
4. Pay $1550 every month.

If you do a combination, you might see a 30 year mortgage go down to a 15-17 year mortgage, thus saving you tens of thousands of dollars. Ensure you work with your bank to see if they will accept your terms.

Good luck amigos!

Response by SSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 8 at 2016 7:10 PM

SSgt Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 19:10:44 -0400

Prepay principle. My wife and I also refinanced from a 30 year loan to a 15. Saving tens of thousands of dollars.

Response by Capt Tom Brown made Apr 8 at 2016 8:29 PM

Capt Tom Brown — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 20:29:43 -0400

Prepaying the principal worked for us. Not easy to come up with the extra to put toward the payment, but paying off the loan is like giving yourself a $1500 a month raise (in this example) of your own money.

Response by MAJ Rene De La Rosa made Apr 8 at 2016 9:49 PM

MAJ Rene De La Rosa — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 21:49:53 -0400

Always get a 15 year mortgage; the difference between a 15 year and a 30 year mortgage is the difference of about $200. You would be saving on interest and time. Additionally, if you pay biweekly, you end up lowering the mortgage principal every 14 days versus 28-30 days. You end up making 13 payments versus 12. Also, if you deploy and take all the extra money and dump it on the mortgage, you accelerate the payoff.
My wife and I did this on a 15 year loan of $133,000 at 5.5% in 2004. We paid it off in 78 months!

Response by CPT Joseph K Murdock made Apr 8 at 2016 10:13 PM

CPT Joseph K Murdock — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 22:13:44 -0400

Some of you have a good cash flow, but it does not apply to everyone.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 9 at 2016 5:18 AM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 09 Apr 2016 05:18:08 -0400

Pay half every 2 weeks. It works!

Response by MSgt Doug P. made Apr 9 at 2016 9:49 AM

MSgt Doug P. — Sat, 09 Apr 2016 09:49:13 -0400

Take out a 30 year mortgage and make payments like it's a 15-year mortgage. You end up paying a little more interest compared to a 15-year (due to higher APR) but you save 50% of the interest you would have paid and you pay it off in about half the time.
One big benefit to this method is if there's a month where you can't pay the additional principal (i.e. unforeseen emergency), you can fall back to the 30-year minimum payment without worry of defaulting.
Any additional principal payments you make can quickly chop months if not years off your mortgage. I'm on schedule to pay off my house at 6 1/2 years. I credit paying as much additional principal as I could afford each month to my mortgage as the reason I saved $100k in interest (only paying $27,500 instead of $126,000).

Response by SSG Martin Reyna made Jun 28 at 2016 2:19 PM

SSG Martin Reyna — Tue, 28 Jun 2016 14:19:02 -0400

I pay 50% biweekly and $100.00 extra every Friday plus 25% of any overtime I work. I should pay my 30 yr mortgage in 7 years.