Paying regular extra payments toward your loan principal will provide enormous returns. You can do this using a few different techniques. Making a single additional full payment once per year is likely the easiest to track. If you can’t pay an additional whole payment all at once, you can divide your payment by 12 and write a check for that additional amount monthly. Finally, you can commit to paying a half payment every two weeks. These options differ a little in reducing the total interest paid and shortening payback length, but each will significantly reduce the length of your mortgage and lower your total interest paid.
Additional One-time payment
Some people just can’t make any extra payments. But you should remember that most mortgage contracts allow you to make additional principal payments at any time. Whenever you get some unexpected cash, you can use this rule to pay an additional one-time payment toward your mortgage principal.
For example: several years after buying your home, you receive a very large tax refund,a very large legacy, or a cash gift; , you could apply a portion of this windfall toward your mortgage loan principal, which would result in huge savings and a shortened loan period. Unless the mortgage loan is quite large, even a few thousand dollars applied early can yield huge savings over the life of the loan.
Helpful Resources