There's no denying that paying off your home loan quickly will help reduce the total amount you spend on interest, but it's not necessarily a bad thing to maintain your mortgage for its full term if you put those additional funds to good use.
While paying off your mortgage ahead of time can be advantageous, it may not be your best option. Depending on your financial situation and goals, you may benefit more by staying the course and applying any extra funds toward other goals.
Paying it off typically requires a cash outlay equal to the amount of the principal. If the principal is sizeable, this payment could potentially jeopardize a middle-income family's ability to save for retirement, invest for college, maintain an emergency fund, and take care of other financial needs.
It's typically smarter to pay down your mortgage as much as possible at the very beginning of the loan to save yourself from paying more interest later. If you're somewhere near the later years of your mortgage, it may be more valuable to put your money into retirement accounts or other investments.
Paying off your mortgage early is a good way to free up monthly cashflow and pay less in interest. But you'll lose your mortgage interest tax deduction, and you'd probably earn more by investing instead. Before making your decision, consider how you would use the extra money each month.
There's no need to pay off your mortgage by a certain age, although one common rule of thumb says you should pay off your mortgage before you retire. The idea is that getting rid of one of your biggest monthly expenses means you need less income to cover your living expenses.
Sure, there's something to be said for being completely debt-free by age 45, but do remember that mortgage debt is considered a healthy type to have. And many homeowners continue to make mortgage payments well into their 50s and 60s. Some people even have a mortgage during retirement.
For one, having one debt paid off means being able to handle any short-term debts such as credit cards. You also end up saving money if you pay off your mortgage earlier, avoiding additional interest that would have otherwise accrued.
However, money for everyday bills is probably safer in a bank account. High-yield savings accounts or certificates of deposit (CD) are good places to park emergency savings and other money you're socking away for a big-ticket item or event.
You could make smaller overpayments each month or overpay with a lump sum whenever you have the cash to hand. Either choice should lead to mortgage savings, but they both have their pros and cons. The main advantage of regular monthly overpayments is that it's more predictable.
It's possible that you could see your credit scores drop after fulfilling your payment obligations on a loan or credit card debt. Paying off debt might lower your credit scores if removing the debt affects certain factors like your credit mix, the length of your credit history or your credit utilization ratio.
Paying down a mortgage quickly reduces the total amount of interest you pay over the life of the loan. This logic is also behind arguments favoring shorter maturity mortgages. For example, a $500,000 mortgage at 5% over 30 years has monthly payments of approximately $2,684.
The general rule of thumb for how much retirement savings you should have by age 40 is three times your household income. The median salary in the U.S. in the fourth quarter of 2022 was $1,084 per week or $56,368 per year.
We found that 15% of income per year (including any employer contributions) is an appropriate savings level for many people, but we recommend that higher earners aim beyond 15%. So to answer the question, we believe having one to one-and-a-half times your income saved for retirement by age 35 is a reasonable target.
One of the most common types of percentage-based budgets is the 50/30/20 rule. The idea is to divide your income into three categories, spending 50% on needs, 30% on wants, and 20% on savings.
If you pay $100 extra each month towards principal, you can cut your loan term by more than 4.5 years and reduce the interest paid by more than $26,500.
Since most home loans are for about 30 years, this leads to older individuals paying off their loans into their retirements. The average age to pay off a mortgage in Australia is 62. If you are reaching 62, relax! There are many retirees still paying mortgages.
The average mortgage term is 30 years, but that doesn't mean you have to get a 30-year loan – or take 30 years to pay it off. While it offers a relatively low monthly payment, this term will likely require you to pay the most in total interest if you keep it for 30 years.
Age doesn't matter. Counterintuitive as it may sound, your loan application for a mortgage to be repaid over 30 years looks the same to lenders whether you are 90 years old or 40.
Paying off your mortgage is a major milestone — you now own your home free and clear. It's a moment to celebrate, but also to take specific steps to ensure you're the legal owner of the property, and to continue paying your homeowners insurance and property taxes on your own.
People with a 15-year term pay more per month than those with a 30-year term. In exchange, they are given a lower interest rate. This means that borrowers with a 15-year term pay their debt in half the time and possibly save thousands of dollars over the life of their mortgage.
Some safer assets you might add to your portfolio include bonds, cash, annuities, and certificates of deposits (CDs). Retiring at 40 with $2 million is an ambitious goal, especially if you don't have a head start. It can be done, but you will have to dramatically increase your income, reduce your expenses – or both.