Get a Low Cost 15 Year Mortgage and Pay Off Early!
For many home buyers, the only real decision they have to make is whether to have a 15 or 30 year fixed mortgage rate? Many people wait until they are older before taking on the responsibility of a mortgage so an early payment of this large debt is an important issue to think about. But, before you commit yourself and sign any documents, there are points you need to think about. One point to remember is ensuring that your monthly mortgage repayment remains the same throughout the entire period of the loan.
It is always wise to avoid agreements that do not appear to have any negative aspects because they invariably have but are hidden. Interest rates should remain the same throughout the life of the loan for 15 year fixed rate mortgages.
This is always a good thing for those people that do not like surprises. My wife and I had already decided to research long term fixed mortgage rates when we started looking at homes for sale.
Having a realistic, sustainable monthly payment on our mortgage was important even though we wanted to pay off our debt as soon as possible. This meant we had to consider 30 year fixed rate mortgage plans as well as those of 15 years.
Still, having a mortgage close to retirement was not what we were looking for, so we decided to try for a loan with a 15 year fixed mortgage. There was obviously very good reasons to finish paying the loan off early.
We thought about it long and hard and despite the pressure we decided to go with the 30 year loan plan. There were many things that lead us into making this choice. It was easier reaching this conclusion when I learned that my wife was expecting a baby.
Her regular monthly income would become unreliable because she wanted to be at home raising our child. Our monthly payment would have been too high if we had committed ourselves to the 15 year fixed mortgage plan. For us it just was not feasible as we would just be in over our heads. A thirty year loan brought the monthly payments down to a reasonable level.
We found that if we could make a few extra payments throughout each year then it would gradually reduce the principle sum owed. It is possible to take years off your loan if you can make a few extra payments during each year. This may be difficult but well worth the effort in the a few years down the line. Our desire for a 15 year fixed rate mortgage was second place to our more immediate needs. Things worked out well anyway, even though we were unsure about it to start with.