Comments on: Our New Mortgage

By: Jane

Jane — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:02:49 +0000

Question, for those of you who choose the lower/same interest rate on the 30 years option did you look at the total amount of interest paid? I asked I just did a quick calculation over at Bankrate for how much total interest paid on a 30 yr. vs. 15 yr. $100,000 loan using 4.875 as the interest rate. The total amount of interest on the 30 yr is more than double. $90,000 vs. $41,000.

By: Mrs. Money

Mrs. Money — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:53:09 +0000

I’m thinking about you and hoping everything is going well!

By: pidgeon92

pidgeon92 — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 21:38:28 +0000

We started out with a 30-year, after a few years we had saved up enough to refinance into a 15-year, which we ultimately paid off in 7 years. If you can afford the higher monthly payment, definitely do it. Better than giving the money to the bank in interest.

By: Financial Elite

Financial Elite — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 00:50:27 +0000

Very smart move. Choosing a 15 year loan over a 30 year loan saves thousands of dollars over the years. The extra $300 a month you are paying is going to be a drop in the bucket compared to what you will save. Congratulations on your goal of paying it off in 7 years too.

By: Jennifer B

Jennifer B — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:15:43 +0000

One thing I learned the last time we refinanced is that you can get a mortgate for just about any term you want – you don’t have to get a 15 or 30. We were comfortable with the amount of our payment but wanted to take advantage of the lower interest rates, and found that we could get a 20 year mortgage (at the same interest rate as a 30 year one) that would give us almost the same mortgage payment as we had had before.

Unfortunately the 15 year payments were just a bit too much of a stretch at the time.

As we’ve been able we’ve thrown more money at the principal as well, so we’re down to about 11 years left. Makes me really happy that we didn’t just reset the clock and go for another 30 year mortgage as it could have been so easy to do at the time…

By: Sunday Link Love | Save Green and Live Green!

Sunday Link Love | Save Green and Live Green! — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 18:42:28 +0000

[...] up moving themselves, but it worked out well in the end! Frugal Babe got an awesome rate on her new mortgage for their new house. J Money at Budgets are Sexy talks about living like you’re broke. [...]

By: Cheapchick

Cheapchick — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 22:11:04 +0000

I don’t believe in 30 year loans although some would not be able to afford to buy a house without them. I absolutely agree with your strategy for a lower interest loan, especially if that is your only debt with slightly higher payements. Calculate how old you will be in 15 years and that is 100% dept free time! I don’t want to be collecting pension and making mortgage payments at the same time. Good choice. Thrifty hubby and I went with a line of credit prime plus 1% but we are also able to lock into a regular mortgage at any time. We did so as hubby is straight commission sales and sometimes large paychecks mean an instant paydown of the mortgage.

By: Abigail

Abigail — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 20:49:32 +0000

I’ve never had a 15 year mortgage, but my aunt and uncle got when when they refinanced their house. This was ages ago, of course. But they refi-ed and got the shorter mortgage. Then they scrimped and saved and threw all their extra money at it. At some points, they were making triple payments, I think. (Of course, the house cost probably $100,000 or less so triple payments were more possible.)

Flash forward to about three years ago (maybe five?) and their house is completely paid off! They were in their late 40s and owned the house outright. (Which is good, because a year or two later, they needed a new roof! They had the money for that fix with very little worry on their part.) Now they only have to deal with taxes and can each work part-time.

By: frugalchick

frugalchick — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 03:14:57 +0000

We’re trying to refinance our 30 yr mortgage to a 15 yr with a slightly higher rate than what you got. We’ll be paying $300 more each month too but I think it’s worth it knowing that the house will be paid off a few years before our first born goes to college.

By: NorCalRN

NorCalRN — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 02:47:29 +0000

We chose the 30 yr option last year instead of the 15yr (which we wanted!) because of flexibility. With our 30 yr, when we can afford to, we pay enough extra to put it up at a 15yr rate…. but now that I lost my job, we are thankful we don’t HAVE to continue to pay more. We can go back to our lower 30 yr payments as needed in times of hardship, or to pay for roofing or what-have-you. And when I am working again- we can restart our accelerated payments again. I would rather have that option than be locked in at something higher. Just because you have a 30yr loan doesn’t mean it has to take 30 yrs to pay it off. But you have some wiggle room for life’s emergencies and the unexpected. And that way we never have to take a HELOC, or borrow from our emergency funds as much…. we just decrease our mortgage payments.