Tips To Help Pay Down Your Mortgage

Purchasing a home is one of the most expensive investments you can make in your lifetime.  Not only does it take up a huge amount of the money you are currently earning but also a chunk of the money you have in savings.  The larger the down payment the smaller the monthly payment however you never want to leave yourself without a comfortable cushion.   Having a mortgage takes up a large percentage of your monthly take home pay and therefore many homeowners try to pay their mortgage down as fast as possible.  With that in mind we have compiled a list of ways to make it easier to pay your mortgage down quickly.

The first way to pay your mortgage down faster is quite obvious; put more money down on your mortgage each month.  The larger the payment, the faster you will pay down your mortgage and the closer you will be to paying it off.  One way to do this is to make payments bi-weekly instead of monthly.  This will allow you to make 26 smaller, more manageable payments rather than 12 larger payments.  Using this technique will allow you to make one extra payment a year as well.

If you want to you can also increase the amount of your mortgage payment.  If you are able to do this you will then be putting more money directly towards the principal of the mortgage.  Be sure to include the portion of the payment to be applied to the original mortgage payment and what you would like to be applied to the principal.

Another method to pay off your mortgage faster is to put increases in wages towards the payment.  This includes bonuses or incentives as well.  The more money that is applied directly to the principle of your mortgage the sooner you will find yourself paying your mortgage off.

If you come into a lump sum of money and already have stocked away a fund for emergency’s consider making a onetime lump sum payment to the principle of your mortgage.  The more that is paid directly to the principal the less you will pay in interest in the long run.  The less interest paid the more money available to go towards the principle of your mortgage.  It is one of those times that the catch twenty two works in your favor.

When you are looking at options in mortgages look for options that offer a fifteen year fixed mortgage payment over the thirty year.  If the payment at fifteen years is too large to handle try a twenty year mortgage.  The less amount of time you finance your mortgage for the less interest you will pay and the sooner your home will be yours clear and free of a mortgage payment.

Apply these tips to paying off your mortgage and you will see how quickly an extra yearly payment or two stacks up in the long run.

Cross Country Mortgage in Brighton, Michigan provide mortgage services for clients including new home loans, refinancing, reversed mortgages, new purchase home mortgages and home equity loans to the entire Livingston County area including Brighton, Howell and Livingston County. Cross Country Mortgage Brighton, MI at http://brightoncrosscountry.com/.