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A Better Way to Pay Off Your Mortgage Early

Written on September 2, 2008 by George Krueger & Mary-Lynn Foster in Debt Reduction, Money

home_mortgage Over the years, a number of ways have been touted to pay off a mortgage early. Recently, we’ve seen a number of solicitations for a new way to do it.

The basic idea is to take out a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) with your chosen bank. You use this account like your primary checking account. You will pay all of your bills out of this account and deposit all of your income into it. Any left over money goes to pay off your mortgage.

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The benefit is appealing – you may pay off your 30-year mortgage in as little as 10 years. Of course, if you have any other debt (e.g. credit card debt or car loan), it’s almost certain you should pay that off first.

We’re talking in generalities here; you and your financial planner can determine your best financial move based on your specific situation.

The pluses

We liked that the program we looked at included a great visual that showed you the exact month and year your mortgage would be paid off if you stuck with it. We also liked that you could easily see your money coming in and going out.

Using intuition

The example showed a rate of 6% on the first mortgage and an 8.6% rate on the HELOC. Intuitively, it didn’t make sense to us to borrow at 8.6% to pay down a 6% loan.

So we decided to do some calculations to see if our intuition was right.

New vs. old

We decided to compare this new way of paying down a mortgage to the oldest of the old ways – including an additional amount with each regularly-scheduled payment.

The example we looked at was for a couple who made $5,000 a month and had bills totaling $4,000 each month. They held a $200,000 mortgage, with a 30-year term, and an annual interest cost of 6%.

The main driver – with the old way or the new way – was the $1,000 in discretionary money each month. The new program also accessed the HELOC in the first or second month, but once again that money is being paid back at 8.6% instead of 6%.

Apples to oranges

We found that the new program lived up to its promise – you will pay less in interest over a 30-year period. The problem is that it’s an apples-to-oranges comparison.

Their basic assumption is that you will use ALL of the $1,000 in discretionary money each month to pay down your mortgage if you are on their program. If not, you won’t use ANY of it – that is, you won’t pay down your mortgage OR invest it.

Apples to apples

So we decided to do our own comparison. We used the simple, old, do-it-yourself extra mortgage payments method – we added the $1,000 of discretionary income to our monthly mortgage payment.

The result?

We paid off all of our debt (which consisted of only a first mortgage) eleven months faster than they paid off theirs (which included the first mortgage and the HELOC)!

We found some of the assumptions about the timing of income and expenses questionable. With a more conservative approach, we would actually pay off all of our debt fourteen months faster using our old-fashioned strategy.

As for total interest savings, we would save between $10,989 and $24,210, depending on the timing of income and expenses discussed in the previous paragraph. This takes into account the cost of their software as well as a small annual fee on the HELOC.

Conclusions

In a strictly financial sense, the old-fashioned way is your best bet. However, it’s important to also consider the human side.

That’s where programs like this come into play – some people would be more likely to pay off a mortgage early because they could track their progress so easily.

Of course, you could set up one account yourself. With basic spreadsheet skills, you could set up a chart (or talk a friend into doing it for you) to show the effect of additional mortgage payments.

The bottom line – the old way is the better way if you’re looking to save the most money. But if you’re a little light on financial discipline, programs like this may be helpful.

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9 Questions to Answer Before You Make Extra Mortgage Payments

Written on May 15, 2008 by George Krueger & Mary-Lynn Foster in Bigg Solutions, Challenge, Debt Reduction, Financial Freedom, Money, Passive Income, Real Estate

Bigg Challenge
One of our listeners, Randy, is considering making paying his mortgage every two weeks instead of every month so he can pay it off faster. He wants to know if this is a good idea..

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Bigg Advice
We can’t give you a direct answer, Randy, but we will give you nine questions that will help you determine if you should make the extra payments.

#1 – Do you have any other debt?
Chances are your mortgage is the cheapest debt you’ll ever find, after taxes are considered. So if that’s the case, you should pay off your other debt first.

#2 – Do you have an emergency cash reserve?
The general wisdom among financial planners is that you should have somewhere between three months to a year of living expenses in an account that’s readily available.

#3 – How good is your credit rating?
The better your credit rating, the better chance you have to borrow in the future at a reasonable cost should the need arise. When you make extra payments, you’re essentially investing in an illiquid asset. So if your credit score needs some improvement, work on that first.

#4 – How do you feel about debt?
Some people don’t like having any debt at all. If you’re one of them, and if you’re happy with the answer to the first three questions, then make extra payments!

#5 – What’s your interest rate?
This question gets you ready to determine your best financial move. There are two things you need to know:

the interest rate on your mortgage

your tax bracket (i.e. how much you’ll pay in taxes on your next dollar of income, that’s called your marginal tax rate).

Multiply your interest rate by (1 – your marginal tax rate) to get your after-tax cost of interest.

#6 – How disciplined are you?
If you’re likely to just spend the extra money if you don’t make extra mortgage payments, then by all means just make extra payments. If you’re disciplined
(or set it up so you don’t have to be), then you’re ready for the next question.

#7 – When do you plan to retire?
In general, the longer you have until you retire, the more aggressive you can be. So if you plan to retire in a relatively short time, lean toward extra payments. If you have a relatively long time before you retire, you’re probably better off investing.

#8 – What could you earn if you didn’t pay off your mortgage early?
You figured out your after-tax interest cost in Question 5. That’s your cost of money. Now you’re going to look at how much you can make from your investments. That’s your projected return. If the return on your portfolio is greater than your cost of money, that’s a sign you shouldn’t make extra payments on your mortgage.

#9 – Will your current portfolio support your desired lifestyle?
If you already have enough money to keep you happy for the rest of your life, why do anything risky? Just pay off your mortgage and reduce your risk even more.

We’ve offered some general advice here. Find a certified financial planner or CPA to help you with your specific situation.