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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   1725 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for January 30, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Who here makes extra payments on his mortgage? Or has a paid-off house?

I make extra payments, and looking through my amortization table just now I was incensed to learn that a full 75% of all of the reduction in our loan balance is solely due to our extra principal payments! What in the scam? (Edit: I guess I have to clarify that I am not retarded and do not believe that a 30-year mortgage is literally swindling me through nefarious trickery.)

Further, to say nothing of the compounded benefits, we have a present-day benefit in the form of $2,000 of saved interest, and we're still very near the beginning of our loan term! It's obvious when placed next to an amortization schedule that assumes we only make necessary payments.

(2/1/2026 Loan Balance)minimum payments - (2/1/2026 Loan Balance)extra principal - (sum of extra principal paid) = ~$2,000

To make sense of mortgages, you really have to take into account inflation and the time value of money. Yes, it pays off a lot faster when you pay a little extra. But in inflation-adjusted terms, it decreases even without you paying any principal at all. And then you can put the extra payments into an investment that earns more than the mortgage rate.

I'm apparently one of the few people on Earth that thinks Trump's 50-year mortgage idea could actually be a good idea...

I mean, it all depends on the rate. Once you get up to 6%, it gets real narrow if you can beat it with investing. Especially after paying taxes on whatever your profits are. Maybe if you were chucking everything into an IRA in an S&P500 index fund. But the difference between a post-tax, post-inflation, highly variable "10% average return" and a guaranteed 6% return from paying down debt is extremely marginal for most people. I wouldn't fault anyone for paying down a 6% mortgage over investing. I mean, I'd probably invest anyways, because I reason I'd rather have the extra money in case of emergencies than less debt. But that's a separate reasoning than it being a better rate of return.

Man, I'd love to be able to get a 6% mortgage instead of 26%.

You could have gotten a Dodge Charger for an interest rate like that.

instead of 26%.

Where the heck are you to that rates are 26%?

ortho is russian (currently in russia, it must be clarified) I believe

That only makes sense if you paycheck keeps up - I guess if your job is connected to extracting or selling natural resources (oil, gas?) it could be real. But I think actually Russia has subsidized mortgages: https://realting.com/news/russian-mortgage-market-analysis I imagine that's what people actually do.

I think I'm going to go make tender, emotional love to a bald eagle now.

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