One Additional Mortgage Payment a Year
There's a simple trick to significantly reducing the length of your mortgage and save you thousands of dollars. The trick is to make one extra mortgage payment a year and apply that payment toward your principal.
One-Time Payment
It may not be possible for you to make additional payments to your principal at anytime. Perhaps, five-years after moving into your home you receive a larger than expected tax return, or an inheritance or a non-taxable cash gift. You could apply this money toward your loan's principal, resulting in significant savings and shorter loan period.
Example:
With a $100,000, 30 year , 6.5% fixed interest rate mortgage loan, the borrower will pay total of $227,542.98 to pay back the loan in 30 years. That equals $127,542.98 in interest payments.
If the same borrower makes a one time $5000 payment the first day of year 6, he/she will pay a total of $204,710.75 and pay off the loan in 27 years (324 months). That's a savings of $22,832.23 in interest.