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Pay a Little Extra on Your Mortgage – What a Difference it Makes

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Could you adjust your budget and pay a little bit more toward your mortgage every month? Perhaps you can save a small amount and make a lump sum payment once per year?

It might not seem like it, but paying a little bit extra can actually make quite a big difference over the length of your mortgage. It is possible to take years off the loan by simply paying a small amount more per month or making one extra payment per year. When you shorten your mortgage loan, you also end up saving thousands in interest rates over the years.

You might not feel like you can afford to pay extra money on your mortgage, but there are likely a few adjustments that you can make to your budget so that you can squeeze in more payments.

Paying Biweekly Rather Than Monthly

One strategy for paying more on your mortgage is to change your payments to biweekly rather than monthly. Instead of paying a monthly amount, you will pay half the monthly payment every two weeks. As there are 52 weeks per year, you will end up making 26 payments rather than 24 if you made two payments per month. However, you will not notice the difference to your monthly budget.

Make a Big Lump Sum Payment Every Year

Another way to reduce your mortgage is to make a single large payment from the amount that you owe. When you do this, it will be taken directly off the capital, which will mean that your mortgage term becomes shorter. For example, if you get a Christmas bonus at work you could use the amount to pay off some of your mortgage. By doing this, you can reduce your mortgage loan length by several years.

Round Up Your Payments

Why not round your mortgage payment to the nearest hundred? For example, if your monthly payment is £573.45, you could pay £600 instead. This will not affect your budget too much, but it will mean that you end up paying an extra £26.55 per month, which adds up to an extra £318.60 per year.

To find out more about how you can pay more on your mortgage, talk to a UK mortgage broker such as First Mortgage.

Photo: 401(k) 2013

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Post-Holiday Distress: Did You Spend Too Much?

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Stop. Take a deep breath. That feeling of dread? It’s just the holiday spirit leaving your body with each passing breath. It’s your own fault… everyone knows not to look at the receipts on the day after!

If you were smart, you planned ahead. You created a holiday account at the beginning of the year so by the time November rolled around, you had cash on hand for cherry-picking the best deals.

If you were smart, you stuck to your budget and didn’t let stress, competition, irresistible deals, or last-minute price hikes to knock you off your plan. You made a list of people and charities you wanted to recognize, set a price per gift, stuck to your list, and got your shopping done early.

That’s if you were smart.

But if your candy cane and cookie euphoria is dissipating with every thought of your credit card statement, you’re not alone. It’s engrained in our culture: Thanksgiving is to overeating as Christmas is to overspending – lavish spending you’d never consider otherwise.

The pressure to GIVE is powerful; our senses may leave us entirely. When we shop, we anticipate the warm embrace and feeling of joy WE create when a gift is received. It’s awfully noble. But if you’re like me, today is the day you watch your kids and realize just how little use your gift will get (I will never buy a robotic pet again!).

So what’s next?

Budgets are fluid. They require constant reevaluation. If you overspent, it’s time to reconsider your budget for the coming months. You won’t be able to see any viable options without a clear picture. If you didn’t before, go back and write down what you spent.

Chances are, it’ll make you feel better. You’ll realize that, while you had a bad month for your budget, you aren’t completely out in the cold. Because, you see, most of the year… You were smart.

If you’re not feeling better, take solace knowing that it’s possible to mount a comeback.

A few years back, holiday spending tipped my credit card balances over the edge. I wasn’t smart. I thought I was – it makes sense to open up store credit cards to save 10%, right? Wrong. It wasn’t until too late that I realized I wouldn’t be able to make the minimum payments on so many cards.

I knew enough to see that with accumulating interest, everything I could afford to pay towards my various credit card bills would be going straight into the creditors’ pockets while my debt level remaind constant. Classic debt spiral.

What did I do? Consolidate. Debt consolidation sounds ominous, but it’s far worse for your credit to fall behind on payments. You can take advantage of low interest rates on balance transfers and merge your debt to one account, or seek a consolidation loan to pay off your principal balances. If you have good credit history, you may be able to achieve a lower interest payment or a longer payment period. Managable. You can handle that.

The moral of the story? I’ll say it again:

Stop. Take a breath. Enjoy what’s left of the holidays. You’ve got options.

Photo: TopGold

Thanks to Jennifer Willard for taking over the blog responsibilities today while Joe & OG search for more egg nog. Jennifer has a new blog, Crayons & Coins. She also writes for Credit Guard, a non-profit debt counseling company.

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