Any chance you have a template on how to do that?

My local bank will not do anything longer than 20 years. They want 10-15 years.

Motion
Call your bank. I'm with Wells and self employed. They re did my mortgage over the phone. I got a great rate, went to a 20 year and am paying less.
If you have a great loan to value rate or tons of equity in your house they will be happy to write almost any type of loan you want

Steve

Here, let me google that for you. ;)

Plan payments and savings with Excel - Excel - Office.com

Mortgage Formulas For Microsoft Excel And Mac Numbers | The Mortgage Reports : Today's Mortgage Rates & Strategy

How to Create a Mortgage Calculator With Microsoft Excel - wikiHow

etc...

now on the flipside of personal financing...how to calculate whether its worth it more to save/invest extra money or to pay additional principal on mortgage?

I can get an easy 10% with investing, but that return is taxable, and frankly, I would sleep better at night knowing my 2nd home was paid off early. Since I'm not there all the time and using it, it becomes less of a liability.

Easy solution: send your extra money in on a separate check and mark it "Additional principle payment only".

I put my mortgage on a spreadsheet. I always paid a little extra with every payment even if it was only $20. Each time I had some extra money (commission checks, tax returns) I would go in and play with the principle number of the next payment and see how many months it knocked off the end. It was extra incentive to me because I had some "immediate gratification" in seeing how much I was saving. We ended up paying our 30 year mortgage off in about 7 years. :cool:

Are you paying on 2 separate mortgages now?

I had 7 years left on my 15 year mortgage at 4.625% refied at 3.5% for a ten year (no points, no fees, no appraisal, no money out of pocket or carried on the new loan) and took the additional $500 in savings and plow it pack in monthly to keep it at 7 years. It will save me an additional $40K in interest over that time. DO NOT refi to a longer term than you have know, in general you will pay more in interest than if you'd stuck with the original loan, unless you get a big reduction in interest rate. Watch out for APR versus APY, that can bite you depending on how they calculate it.

I find it is best to buy a comfortable ski mask... one that you can breath easy in...

Get in and out quickly... wear good shoes because you may be running.

Just 1 mortgage, although I have other mortgages for investment properties.

Can you get cheaper money than 6.25% somewhere else and pay off this mortage with its higher rate? Know that refi options are tight, but if you have good collateral on another property and can borrow fresh money at a current market rate on that property you could borrow there and pay off the mortgage here. Your debt outstanding doesn't change, but you've lowered your effective rate. Obviously, the challenge is finding the cheaper money somewhere else, but wondering if you had options other than just a refi of this property.

Best calculator I've found (without amortization table): DollarTimes.com | Early Mortgage Payoff Calculator

I doubt it... I was always an Alt-A guy, and don't look so good on paper.

Sounds like you need to live within your means.

From where/what?

I hate dealing with/thinking about money issues/strategies.... Instead I spend my time thinking about mechanical things.

That said, I do not know the exact details, but my wife I started making double payments + many years ago and paid our house off early. All I know is that not having car/house payments for the rest of my life is my idea of clean living. Once our house was paid off, I felt like a big weight was lifted from me and I rarely worry about my job security anymore. It is a great feeling to know that one could lose their job and not lose their house because of it. I know we could "get by" with me taking nearly any kind of temporary job.

Dunno how it works in the US, but here, if i want to pay off more, i can only do it once in a year.
And i have to pay an interest penalty of 3 months.

So can't pay more each month, and it's not worth doign small amounts

I have been investing in upgrading the insulation, and windows , and solar panels this year.
next year i should get a huge tax break for those.

I'm thinking about dropping 10 K on the mortage next year.

10 K on a 140 K, 3 years into a 30 year mortage
will save me 22 K in the long run and 42 months

Can't find anything better to invest my money in, at this time, or any time... It's a no brainer.
And if that means my house won't get refinished in the cosmetics in 2012, then so be it.
If that means no Porsche till 2014.. I don't mind one bit.

That's crazy. Any way you can refi into a mortgage that's less onerous in terms of the prepayment options?

I don't know of anyone here that has a prepayment penalty on their mortgage. I certainly would never have agreed to take one personally. My strategy with all credit (including mortgage) is to buy as inexpensively as possible (finance the least I can get away with while not laying out a ton of cash), commit to as low of a monthly payment as possible (so if I ever get in trouble due to a job loss or medical bill or whatever I'm not going to end up screwing myself trying to meet a higher commitment), then aggressively pay down the Principal balance early with overpayments/more frequent payments. I've always done this. I've never had a loan or line of credit go full term. Banks don't make a lot of interest off me this way and my repayment history is stellar.

As far as the mortgage goes, it depends on the specific personal goals. Is he intending to pay off/in full as quickly as possible? Keep in mind if so, he'll "live free" but still have to pay property tax and lose the Mortgage Interest Tax Deduction. Something to consider. For this reason, might it make sense to pay off Principal down to about 15-20% of total note value, then try to refi into an interest-only product? You'd still have enormous equity and be able to cash out/sell off readily, and you'd maximize your tax deduction by essentially "freezing" the Principal at some very low-risk, no-worry level in perpetuity. Just a thought.

If OTOH the goal is simply to reduce monthly payments, a simple refi at a lower rate might make sense.

What??? LOL