Paying Extra Towards your Principal (2024)

FAQs

Paying Extra Towards your Principal? ›

Since your interest is calculated on your remaining loan balance, making additional principal payments every month will significantly reduce your interest payments over the life of the loan. By paying more principal each month, you incrementally lower the principal balance and interest charged on it.

Paying a little extra towards your mortgage can go a long way. Making your normal monthly payments will pay down, or amortize, your loan. However, if it fits within your budget, paying extra toward your principal can be a great way to lessen the time it takes to repay your loans and the amount of interest you'll pay.

Throwing in an extra $500 or $1,000 every month won't necessarily help you pay off your mortgage more quickly. Unless you specify that the additional money you're paying is meant to be applied to your principal balance, the lender may use it to pay down interest for the next scheduled payment.

When you pay extra on your principal balance, you reduce the amount of your loan and save money on interest. Keep in mind that you may pay for other costs in your monthly payment, such as homeowners' insurance, property taxes, and private mortgage insurance (PMI).

When you pay an extra $100 on your monthly mortgage payment, that entire amount goes to principal. You'll reduce your total balance much more quickly when you make an extra payment that goes directly to repaying your balance. You could cut around four years off your repayment time with just an extra $100 per month.

Options to pay off your mortgage faster include:

Pay extra each month. Bi-weekly payments instead of monthly payments. Making one additional monthly payment each year. Refinance with a shorter-term mortgage.

Refinance into a shorter term

When you refinance your home, you can pay off your home faster by replacing your 30-year mortgage with one that's a shorter term. With a mortgage refinance, you can shorten your loan term by selecting a 20, 15, or even a 10-year loan.

By paying extra $500.00 per month starting now, the loan will be paid off in 17 years and 3 months. It is 7 years and 9 months earlier. This results in savings of $122,306 in interest.

Do extra payments automatically go to principal? ›

Ideally, you want your extra payments to go towards the principal amount. However, many lenders will apply the extra payments to any interest accrued since your last payment and then apply anything left over to the principal amount. Other times, lenders may apply extra funds to next month's payment.

Rather than delaying credit until the next month, the optimal day within the month to make an extra payment is the last day on which the lender will credit you for the current month.

Making additional principal payments will shorten the length of your mortgage term and allow you to build equity faster. Because your balance is being paid down faster, you'll have fewer total payments to make, in-turn leading to more savings.

To O'Leary, debt is the enemy of any financial plan — even the so-called “good debt” of a mortgage. According to him, your best chance for long-term financial success lies in getting out from under your mortgage by age 45.

Increasing your monthly payments, making bi-weekly payments, and making extra principal payments can help accelerate mortgage payoff. Cutting expenses, increasing income, and using windfalls to make lump sum payments can help pay off the mortgage faster.

When you pay extra on a mortgage, you're paying above and beyond the regular monthly installment. The money you send is meant to apply directly to the loan principal, not the interest. This allows you to pay down your loan sooner and save money on interest.

Since your interest is calculated on your remaining loan balance, making additional principal payments every month will significantly reduce your interest payments over the life of the loan. By paying more principal each month, you incrementally lower the principal balance and interest charged on it.

Regardless of the amount of funds applied towards the principal, paying extra installments towards your loan makes an enormous difference in the amount of interest paid over the life of the loan. Additionally, the term of the mortgage can be drastically reduced by making extra payments or a lump sum.

Making Extra Mortgage Payments

You could, for example, pay an extra $50 or $100 each month, or make one extra mortgage payment a year. The benefit in taking this approach is that it will, over the life of the loan, reduce the total amount of interest you pay.