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Thursday, July 9, 2009

How To Pay Off Your Mortgage Faster

By Graham McKenzie

A mortgage loan is in most cases 30 years in length and they are designed to make owning a home affordable for all people. The length of the loan can reduce payment amounts but also increase the interest paid. The ability to pay the mortgage off early will save thousands in interest and allow people the freedom of true home ownership much sooner than they anticipated.

The interest rate of the loan should be as low as possible. If you are in better shape credit wise now then when you purchased you might consider refinancing to get the lower rate. A lower interest rate means a lower monthly payment and this can be very beneficial to be able to pay the mortgage off earlier. You also save thousands of dollars in interest with a lower rate over the life of the loan.

There is one way to pay your mortgage off early and feel none of the affects to your budget. You can pay your mortgage loan bi-weekly instead of monthly and receive the benefits of having two extra payments being made that go directly to the principle of the loan each year. This is the easiest method to reducing the life of your mortgage loan as it requires no changes in your lifestyle or budget.

You can choose to pay a large lump sum annually. The large amount of money goes directly to the principle and can dramatically reduce your loan. Most lenders will have limits of the amount of over payment you can pay without penalty so speak to them and find out what limits you are restricted to if any. You might be able to shave off 5 or ten years using this method. It can be hard to come up with so much money at once for many people.

To be more realistic you can use the method of paying an additional amount each month instead of annually. This method allows you to pay on the principle each month and it is much more affordable for people to do this than the other method. The amount you decide on is up to you and what you can afford. The loans lifetime will shorten the more you pay each month.

If you want to find a way to reduce your mortgage by 10 years, 15 years, or more you will need to combine methods. You could begin paying your mortgage bi-weekly and benefit from those two additional payments each year and in addition pay an additional amount on each payment. By paying an additional amount on bi-weekly payments you not only enjoy two extra payments each year but you also have the benefit as if you paid a lump sum amount as well. The more you pay the quicker the payoff so check with your lender about penalties for early payoff amounts. Stay under the limits and if you are lucky enough to have a lender who does not have limits for overpayments then you can reduce the loan as quickly as you would like. .

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