Sooooo I have a question. When I use a mortgage calculator for about a 238,000 loan, it tells me my monthly payment with about 7% interest or so is about 1500 for a 30-year plan. But then I multiply 1500 * 360 (30 years) and I get 540,000??? Dude that’s more than twice the loan. WTF?
actually, it’s more like 570,000, but here’s some math, if you run the same scenario for 20 years, your paying 1845 a month, you drop the total amount financed to 442,850. Pretty big difference huh! You own the home 10 years earlier. Maybe you get to finance your childs college education, or finance your retirment, who knows. Stop thinking solely about rates! Term is just as important and it saves you thousands of dollars. Have a financial plan in mind, don’t do what everyone thinks you should, maybe your only 25 or 30 years old, a 30yr mortgage does pay this off before your retirement, but a 20 year lets you pay this off when your 45 or 50, entering your peak earning years, imagine what you can do with all that money! Think about everything, address the concerns and issues of today and tomorrow, but tomorrow is NOT your future, envision the dreams and goals for retirement and structure the term around them, feel free to ask questions, and good luck