There's a trick to significantly reduce the length of your mortgage and save you thousands in interest: Make additional payments that apply toward the principal. Borrowers use different methods to accomplish this goal. Making 1 additional full payment one time per year is likely the easiest to arrange. If you can't afford to pay an additional whole payment in one month, you can split that large amount into 12 smaller payments and pay that additional amount monthly. Finally, you can commit to paying half of your mortgage payment every other week. Each option yields different results, but each will significantly reduce the length of your mortgage and lower your total interest paid.
Some people can't manage any extra payments. Remember that almost all mortgages will allow you to make additional payments to your principal at any point during repayment. Whenever you come into extra money, you can use this provision to pay an additional one-time payment on mortgage principal. If, for example, you were to receive a large gift or tax refund just a few years into your mortgage, investing a few thousand dollars into your home's principal can significantly shorten the duration of your loan and save a huge amount on mortgage interest paid over the duration of the loan. For most loans, even this relatively modest amount, paid early enough in the loan period, could offer big savings in interest and in the length of the loan.
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