It’s amazing how surprised people usually are to find out how much an extra $20 payment may save them on their loan in the long run. For example, a $100,000 30-year mortgage bearing 9 percent annual interest calls for monthly payments of $804.62. Suppose a borrower could afford to increase the payment amount by $20 to $824.62, and the lender does not charge prepayment penalties. By making the larger payment each month, the borrower would save $24,135.56. No, you didn’t misread the amount. An extra $20 a month results in roughly $24,000 of interest savings!

Here is our little manual on how to work your own miracle.

First of all, the topic you absolutely must discuss with your mortgage lender is the treatment of extra payments towards principal, because some lenders tend to include a penalty clause regarding extra principal payments in the mortgage. If your credit score is not particularly high, you will very likely have a mortgage loan with a higher-than-average interest rate, and you may be penalized if you try to make extra or early principal payments on the loan.

If your lender allows you to make extra payments - it is action time! Read the rest of this article »

I don’t think it’s hard to understand why a Fixed Rate Mortgage has been the most popular type for decades – most people like stability, and that’s exactly what they get with this kind of mortgage: the Interest Rate is fixed throughout the life of the loan; the monthly payments are fixed, too, if you want them this way. There is nothing tricky or unexpected about this mortgage program. The Interest Rate may be higher than with an Adjustable Rate Mortgage, but you can be absolutely sure, that no matter what, it will not go any higher.

So it is a sound steady payment plan, but is it good for you?

Let’s see into the mechanism, which provides this stability.

Your monthly payment consists of two parts: repaying the Principal and paying the Interest. The amount of the Interest part is calculated as a percentage of the remaining Principal (the balance) of the day. So, every time you pay some of the Principal off (with your monthly payment or some extra payment), the balance becomes smaller, which means that the next Interest payment will be the same percentage but of a lower amount. This Fixed Principal scheme suggests that Read the rest of this article »

A mortgage will become your biggest debt in years! For most people it is true, but it not as scary as it may sound. When you have the knowledge, when you understand what exactly is going on, when you are in full control of the situation – trust me, it is not scary!

I am here to share all the knowledge of the matter I have, with you.

We’ll start with the general idea of the most frequently used mortgage programs.

The two fundamental types of mortgages are the Fixed Rate Mortgage and the Adjustable Rate Mortgage. They both are amortized mortgages, which means that you have to repay the money you borrow (the principal) plus the interest on this money. As the name suggests, the Fixed Rate Mortgage provides the comfortable stability of a fixed interest rate – no matter what, you always know that you will not wake up one day to find out that your debt has unexpectedly doubled. If you have a stable job and your income flow is smooth and steady – this kind of mortgage can be for you. The only problem is that its Interest Rate may be higher than the Interest Rate of an Adjustable Rate Mortgage. You have to pay for the comfort, but it may be well worth it, if you don’t feel very adventurous about your finance.

An Adjustable Rate Mortgage usually looks very appealing in the beginning Read the rest of this article »