Save Big on your Mortgage Loan
Paying regular extra payments toward the principal provides big savings. People make this happen in several ways. Making 1 additional full payment one time per year is perhaps the easiest to track. Of course, many people can't afford such an enormous extra expense, so splitting an additional payment into 12 extra monthly payments is a great option too. Another option is to pay a half payment every other week. The result is you will make one extra monthly payment every year. Each of these options produces different results, but each will significantly reduce the length of your mortgage and lower your total interest paid.
One-time Additional Payment
Some people just can't make any extra payments. But remember that most mortgage contracts will allow additional principal payments at any time. Whenever you come into extra money, consider using this rule to make a one-time additional payment on mortgage principal. If, for example, you were to receive a surprise windfall just a few years into your mortgage, paying several thousand dollars into your home's principal will shorten the repayment period of your loan and save enormously on mortgage interest over the duration of the loan. Unless the mortgage loan is quite large, even a few thousand dollars applied early in the loan period can yield huge benefits over the duration of the loan.