Mortgage extra Payment Calculator

I don't know about the rest of you but I am absolutely obsessed with minimizing debt and have set a goal of being completely debt free by the time I'm in my early 50's, I'm 38 now.

There are a lot of mortgage ammortizers/calculators on the web but I found this one and I think it's the best by far. There is a lot of detail you can play with as far as one time principal only payments or recurring principal only payments.

Just wanted to share it with everyone.


Extra Payment Calculator

 

I could go on for DAYS on this topic. It is near and dear. But my views on the topic might be a bit extreme and put people off so I'll refrain unless someone asks for them.

I have been 100% debt free since age 31...I'll be 34 this year. It's the only way to live IMO.

 

I would be interested to hear them. I own most everything but have a little c.c. debt and the mortgage.

 

I'm interested in hearing your view and everyone else's too. It's part of why I created the thread. I could talk about personal finance all day not get tired of it.

 

Sounds like you're ahead of 99% of young parents of 3 Jet... by a lot! Of course... the teeeeeeeeenage years are comin'...

 

lukem congratulations also. That is a great feat.

 

We own all our vehicles. I do still owe myself some money for my tractor. Credit cards will be paid off by the end of the month or so. I hate those things but use them online.

 

Mortgages, even though they are considered "good debt, are really killers when you look at the principal to interest allocation of each payment early on in the mortgage.

My wife and I were fortunate enough for a small inheritance to come along which we applied to our mortgage. not quite large enough to payoff the mortgage but enough to knock 10 years off the term and drastically shift the interest to principal ratio for each payment in our favor overnight. I'm unfortunately a very pessimistic person by nature, I can't help it, and have been looking for ways to cut another five to ten years off the mortgage rather than enjoy the moment.

We have no credit card debt, no medical debt, some student loan debt (waste of money if you ask me) and only one car payment. Cost of daycare is a huge thorn in our side at the moment though.

 

Great topic! I am in the financial industry... So just following along here .

 

Yea I would love to pay mine off sooner than later. Even though they are "good debt" it's one more I would rather do without. We are always looking for ways to save money and like you said I like to look ahead instead of the here and now. Granted we do things with/for the kids but we save the money for those things.

 

Do you mind sharing what specifically you do in the financial industry?

 

My wife keeps bugging me about saving for the kids college but I keep telling her that we won't be able to afford it so why bother. it's their responsibility and the best thing we can do for them is to raise them right so that they understand that if they do go to college there's smart ways to fund so you minimize your debt coming out the door and also don't major in something that the world does not give a hoot about. College for many is not actually worth it IMO and I say that as a college grad.

 

I understand that 100%. I fully support if my kids want to go or not. I will help that as long as it's something they can use in life.

That said I didn't even think about college and still have a job that pays well.

 

damm right. I keep telling my wife that it would be best for the kids to work for a bit after high school to see what they want to do and try to get into a company with tuition reimbursement. Either that or start at a community college to get the gen eds done for two years and then move on to a 4 year college to finish. If someone wanted to create an equation that represented the true value of an education some of the variables would have to be the amount of debt you finish with, the % of your degree finding you a decent paying job etc etc

 

lukem... I would love to hear how you did it. Im 38 and have a long way to go. With even the smallest house running 300-400k+ in these parts its very hard for a young family to purchase and pay off a home that early in life here unless you get big $$ from your parents to kick start things... especially if you also have student loan debt and child care expenses.


I'm happy that I havent had a credit card balance since college and have a 3-6mo cushion in the savings account... Didt have car payments till I bought the truck, but that's at 1.5% and Ill probably pay it off next year. Still have about 5 years to go on student loans (5%) and 25 to go on the mortgage (3.5%) but I dont see us making any headway on either till the kids are in grade school and my wife goes back to work. But even when she does, the first thing I want to do is max out my 401k and Roth contributions, then add the desperately needed second bathroom, and then think about paying own debt.


On the subject of financial calculators.. here is a site I use with lots of them
http://www.dinkytown.net/

 

I try to teach my kids the value of a dollar every chance I get. They get all my scrap metal and a few friends save cans for them. They help sort it all and I let them have the money from the scrap yard. It gets split 3 ways. I think it's more important that they know money doesn't just appear. If they help out with a meaningful task then I usually give them a little money. They get to use this or save it, but I tell them once it's spent it's gone. I don't let them buy "junk" impulse hey that looks cool cause I saw it on tv doing this toys. They also have to stay within there budget.

 

I have all kinds of spreadsheets I've made calculating mortgage interest, Roth IRA and 401k potential earnings, potential car loans I've looked at, and just general month to month finances. I like to see how adding $100 here and $1000 there will impact things 15 years from now. I was finally feeling good about what I'm putting towards retirement and was just about to start putting additional payments to principal on my mortgage to basically turn a 30 year loan onto a 17 year loan, but I got married instead...to a wife with $100,000 in student debt! Which is annoying because I make twice what she does, and graduated with just $4,000 in student debt which I paid off in under a year. But I knew all of this going into the marriage, and of course I wouldn't have it any other way It just goes to show you things don't always turn out the way we all had planned.

So now I have spreadsheets with all of her loans and the various interest rates, and have a pretty good plan in place to knock that out. I guess we're lucky that most of the rates are at 2.5%, but there's a few that are around 7% which we need to knock out pretty soon. It just drives me nuts to be paying for what could basically be a second small home, and have nothing to show for it.

 

Aside from the strictly financial stuff the one thing that I try to do and dearly want to instill in my children is become completely immune to the 24-7 barrage or marketing and materialism. I think a lot of the financial difficulty people experience is worsened if not completely brought upon themselves, by buying stuff they don't need because it's fancy and shiny. Our whole society today is predicated upon the notion that the true path to happiness and measure of success is the accumulation of material possessions and/or money.it is beaten into our heads every day from every direction from the time we open our eyes until we close them again at night.