Custom Amortization Charts?

[Irving]

So my mortgage came with an Amortization chart, which is fine and all, but I want to be able to figure out how many years I'm cutting off of my mortgage (and how much interest I'm saving) by making two to three extra payments a year. Of course there are complications like the now permanent mortgage insurance and what not; but it seems to me that all of those are variables that can be accounted for and adjusted by a pretty simple calculator. Does anyone know of such a calculator I can find online?

I want to be able to input my mortgage amount, interest rate, estimated insurance and taxes, and mortgage insurance amounts, and change my monthly payment amounts to see how it affects my total years to pay off and total interest paid.

[<MADDOG>]

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=custom+excel+amortization+schedule

[Irving]

Oohhh, thank you.

[<MADDOG>]

Sorry Irv; I couldn't resist... There is just way too much info nowadays if you look for it.

[Irving]

Well, the more I think about what I want, the easier I think it will be to just make one. Everything is pretty much fixed except for those two elements, so I just need to separate the junk info from the real info and go from there. I think your link will be the ticket and I can figure out what I want to know.

[Great-Kazoo]

You should have done a 10 or 15 yr mortgage. While paying once in a while may make you feel good, paying an extra $100 per month is when it starts to add up. Not 2 or 3 "extra" payments. Do it every month.

[Irving]

I currently am paying $157 more a month, AND paying bi-weekly. Just paying the regular mortgage amount, but bi-weekly, nets you one extra payment a year, which in turn takes several years off your mortgage. If I just made bi-weekly payments, it'd be like paying $87 more a month.

I'm paying bi-weekly AND making 1.8 extra payments a year. Not counting the bi-weekly math, the extra $157 I pay a month takes 9 years off the mortgage and saves me $35,125.50 in interest. If I bump it up to $197 extra a month for an extra 2.26 payments a year, it takes 10 years off the mortgage and saves me $40,685.34 in interest.

EDIT: Reworked the math on the above. Paying $157 extra + bi-weekly is the same as paying $257 extra a month. That brings my 30 year mortgage down to 18.25 years and saves me $47,611.07 in interest.

I'm glad I bought less house than we can realistically afford. Thank God for being able to manually pay every two weeks without having to sign up for automatic billing. If it wasn't for the $171 extra in mortgage insurance BS, we'd be even better off. There is an argument for paying as little as possible, but I'd like to reach the 80/20 loan to value threshold as soon as possible.

So for those looking to buy a house, if you split your mortgage payment up to pay a smidge over half, each time you get paid, then you'll save yourself YEARS off your mortgage for very little extra financial pressure on the front end. Thanks for the link Maddog.

[Great-Kazoo]

Nice to hear we're not the only one who don't buy as much as their credit / account allows. Every home we purchased, or vehicles financed. We budget payments based on one income, only. Lenders have always said, with our income we could afford a larger monthly payment. We tell them, sure what happens if one or both of use loose our job? They just look at you with this blank stare, not understanding why someone isn't willing to live their credit limit.

[Wulf202]

I keep mortgage calculators with ammoritization on my phone so I can run numbers anytime. I'm below the 80/20 mark now. Next year my mortgage insurance will go away.

[gos]

http://www.amortization-calc.com/