How to Use a Mortgage Loan Payment Calculator to Save Money

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By ccard123
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Use a Mortgage Loan Payment Calculator to Save Money

The Mortgage loan payment calculator is one of the most useful tools that you can have in your financial planning tool box. Everybody knows that making extra payments on your mortgage will allow you to finish paying off your mortgage loan much sooner; however, most people aren't aware of the specific results that the extra payments would generate. This is where the mortgage loan payment calculator comes in.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Step 1

First, you need to find a mortgage loan payment calculator. I always use the one at bankrate.com (I've included the link below). Once you get to the bankrate site, click on the "Calculators" tab at the very top of the page. And then select "Mortgage Payment Calculator" from the "Mortgage Calculators" list.
Step 2

When you get to the mortgage loan payment calculator, you should fill in the information about your specific mortgage--they ask 4 simple questions: amount of mortgage, interest rate that you pay, the date that your mortgage started on, and the length your mortgage. After you have entered these pieces of information, you simply hit calculate, and the site calculates your monthly payment.
Step 3

Now for the fun part! The bottom half of the mortgage loan payment calculator is the section where you can test out different mortgage repayment scenarios to see how each will affect the end date of your loan. Try playing around with several different possibilities, and you will find out just how much adding extra payments speeds up your accrual of home equity.

Tips & Warnings

The mortgage loan payment calculator allows you to enter different a variety of different repayment options; you could see what your repayment schedule looks like if you make monthly, yearly, or even one-time extra payments.

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