Some people don’t like being homeowners because they have to pay off their home loans for years. But they needed to learn that there are ways to speed up the process and pay off your home loan sooner than you thought!
We provided six tips that will help you pay off your mortgage faster:
1. Change your loan to a lower rate, but keep how much you pay each month
It’s a good idea to always look for better interest rates on home loans. You can save a lot of money over the life of your loan by refinancing to a lower interest rate. If the interest rate on your loan is lower, your monthly payments will be less, making it easier for you to make extra payments. With these additional payments, you’ll be able to pay off your loan faster.
2. Decrease your loan repayment term and make higher repayments
Shorten the time you have to repay your loan and pay more monthly. You can do more than get a lower interest rate when refinancing your loan. Changing the length of your loan will help you pay off your mortgage faster. You might want to change the length of time you have to pay back your loan because:
- You now make more money than when you first got the loan.
- Changes in your financial situation, such as when your children move out or when you pay off debt. For example, if you took out a 30-year home loan but now make twice as much as you did, you could increase your payments. You can shorten the length of your loan by paying more each month.
3. Offset Account
A home loan offset account is a savings account that helps you pay less interest on your home loan. For example, if you owe $200,000 on your home loan and have $30,000 in an offset account, only $170,000 will be charged interest. You can use the money in your offset account for anything, but the more money you have, the more interest you save. Using the same example above, if you spend $2,000 from your offset account one day, the amount in your offset account will be $28,000. The interest on your mortgage will then be based on $172,000, which is $200,000 minus $28,000. Most fixed-rate loans don’t have this feature, so you might need a loan with a variable interest rate to get it.
4. Make extra repayments
It’s an obvious tip, but making additional payments on your home loan will help you pay it off faster. Have you recently gotten a tax refund, a work bonus, or a large sum of money that came out of the blue? You could use it to pay down your loan.
5. Make weekly or fortnightly repayments
If you pay your home loan every two weeks instead of every month, you’ll make an extra month’s payment every year. You’ll save money on interest because you’ll pay off your loan faster. You can even make repayments weekly. Most lenders have monthly payments set as the default, so talk to them to find out how you can pay weekly or every two weeks.
6. Avoid interest-only home loans
When you pay only the interest on a loan, you don’t pay down the loan balance, and you won’t actually pay it off. Interest-only loans can be good in the short term because there are tax breaks for investment properties. But for the average person who buys a home to live in it, they can only slow down how fast you can pay off your loan. You will pay off your loan faster if you pay both the principal (the loan amount) and the interest.
Bottomline
In the end, there are a lot of good reasons to pay off your home loan as soon as you can if you can. It could give you more money over time and make you less worried about rate increases. Best of all, you’ll own your home outright and won’t have to answer to a lender, which is a great feeling for many. It’s a good idea to check with your mortgage company and do your own math to see if any of the above strategies will cost you extra money. You could also talk to a financial advisor if you want more personalized advice.