Pay Off Your Home Early and Save Money—For Free!
"The concept of a biweekly mortgage payment is pretty simple. You make half of your mortgage payment every two weeks. That results in 26 half-payments, which equals 13 full monthly payments each year.
That extra payment can knock eight years off a 30-year mortgage, depending on the loan’s interest rate.
How to Set Up a Biweekly Mortgage Payment
1.Locate the principal and interest portion of your payment on your monthly statement and simply divide that number by two. For example, if the principal and interest portion of your payment is $1,500, your new biweekly mortgage payment is $750.
2.Find out how or if your mortgage company handles biweekly mortgage payments. Some lenders will process biweekly payments while others refuse to accept partial payments at all. In any case, do not pay a fee to initiate a biweekly mortgage plan.
3.If your lender isn’t open to biweekly payments, open a new bank account exclusively for your mortgage payment. Deposit your half-payment every two weeks and use that money to make your full mortgage payment either by check or automatic payment on every second deposit.
Things to Consider:
1.Make sure your extra payment goes where you want it to go. Make a note on your extra payment that it is to be applied to the principal portion of your loan.
2.Don’t forget to include the tax and insurance portion of your payment each month. In our $1,500 payment example above, the $750 biweekly payment only covers principal and interest. You’ll have to pay the tax and insurance portion of your payment in addition to that.
3.A biweekly payment is not a substitute for gazelle intensity. Once you reach Baby Step 5, start putting as much money as you can toward the mortgage to pay it off even faster.
4.Biweekly isn’t the only early payoff option. If you divide your monthly payment by 12 and add that amount to each month’s payment, you’ll end up making one extra payment a year. You’ll increase your $1,500 payment to $1,625, but you won’t have to jump through a bunch of hoops with your lender to make it happen."
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