[USER]

I’m looking for practical strategies to pay off my 30-year mortgage ahead of schedule, but refinancing isn’t an option. I’d love to hear from people who have successfully done this or have insights on effective methods.

Have you used biweekly payments, extra principal payments, or any other approach that made a significant impact? How did you stay motivated and consistent? Also, are there any common pitfalls to avoid?

Any advice, success stories, or lessons learned would be greatly appreciated!

[Dottie]

Divide your mortgage in half and setup paying it every 2 weeks. That will give you 2 extra payments a year.

Put any extra money towards the principal

[Jacque]

We paid 1/2 of our monthly payment every 2 weeks and paid off our 15-year loan in 11 years 8months

[Sherri]

Make double payments a month and then it’s only 15 years. We did this.

[Lisa]

I’ve heard if you pay every two weeks instead of once a month it cuts it way back

I wish I had done that

[Lisa]

If you do double payments make sure second payment goes directly to principal.

Also, if you have 20% or more equity get your MIP removed if you have that.

Good luck!

[Flores]

Send extra money to the principal only! If you send double payment the bank takes interest twice.

One payment only and one interest charge

[Jason]

There’s an app you can download(free) it will tell you when it will pay off based on length of term, interest rate and extra applied to principal

[Wendy]

When I paid off another bill—my share of kid’s tuition, or car loan—I’d add that money to the mortgage, on loan principal.

[Charlene]

Look up an amortization table. Punch in numbers for different scenarios to see what pays it off sooner. Make sure your lender allows this in the contract.

We put any extra towards principal only.

Must specify that on payment. 1/2 a payment every two weeks will give you more than a full month’s payment at the end of year.

[Shelley]

See if your mortgage company takes payments bi-monthly. Pay half on the 1st and half on the 15th.

Your interest is reduced bc they have some money early.

I’ve also read making one extra payment a year takes a 30 yr mortgage down to 22 years.

[Helen]

Pay extra principal but be sure to tell mortgage company you want applied toward principal. You were given an amortization print out at closing.

It will show you how much each month goes toward interest and principal.

You can see if you can make an entire principal payment and mark off.

Little motivation to mark off as you pay. Be surprised how much it helps

[Lucinda]

We used to send in extra money to hit the next hundred. For example, if your monthly payment was $850, send in $900 denoting the excess to principal.

We were paid every two weeks, so received a couple of extra full paychecks per year.

We would send in even more towards the principal when that happened.

We never split the mortgage payments, but we could have done that as well.

But we definitely are happy that we included paying the mortgage off early in our savings/investment strategy.

[Susan]

Get an amortization from your mortgage company and ask them to show how to use it to pay your mortgage off early. If they won’t help, look info up online.

After you make your regular monthly payment, send in the amount of money that will be taken from your next month payment on your principal.

Pay that amount during the same month and tell them to put it on your principle.

That way you actually skip a month and cut your mortgage length in half.

[Dash]

Most of us are saying the same thing. Pay more on the principal each month, it works.

First house we paid off in 5 years, second house 14 years.

[Jennifer]

I paid off my 30 year mortgage in 12.5 years by adding an extra mortgage-taxes and insurance payment to principal every month.

If I came into any unexpected money, I put it to the principal.

[Ruth]

At every payment I paid an extra principal amount or more. That knocked off a month every time did it.

When the principal portion got too large, I added as much of it to each payment as I could.

[Denise]

Divide the monthly payment in half and pay every 2 weeks.
Or divide monthly payment by 12 and add that amount as additional principal each month.

At the end of the year you will have made the equivalent of 13 monthly payments and will significantly reduce your loan.

[Shawyna]

We paid off our 30yr in 10 by sending every penny we could find to it, if I cashed out ibotta that went to the mortgage, selling something, change etc anything we could find extra was straight on the principle.

2 yrs in a row 45% of our take home pay was sent to the mortgage and we are a under 6 figure 1 income family of 5.

[Carrie]

I paid $25 extra in beginning for several years… that is when small amounts can make a big impact…

paid more as I could afford, later… paid 30 year mortgage off in 18 years

[Pam]

Here is how we have gotten to having our house almost paid off, eight years early:

*Put a percentage of our paychecks towards the principal. Every. Single. Payday. Even if it’s only 1%.

*All monetary (holidays, parents, whatever) gifts go directly to the principal.

We have – on occasion – taken a SMALL portion from monetary gifts we have received and treated ourselves to something we have wanted but otherwise, the entire gift goes to the principal on our mortgage.

*If I feel like I need something and later decide not to buy it, I put the amount the item would have cost towards our principal.

*If I sell something on marketplace or elsewhere, that money goes directly towards the principal.

*Pay raises go towards our principal.

*Any tax refund we receive goes to our principal.

People have more money than they think they do.

It’s just a matter of how disciplined we can be with what we have.

[Author]

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