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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   1782 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

I pay ahead on my mortgage, and I'm going to say something controversial here.

Sometimes you can do something good, even if there are alternatives that are better. You don't have to violently min-max every aspect of your life. Start with what you can do and are comfortable with doing, and reevaluate later on.

Paying ahead on your mortgage is a good thing. Sure, you could invest the money in something instead and gamble on the gains being higher, but that makes some assumptions. Are you sure you can make the right calls? Can you buy and sell at the right time? Are you confident there won't be any big market downturns like 2001, 2008, or 2022? People will argue that the market wins in the end, but the market is immortal and we aren't. If you aren't itemizing, the value of the mortgage interest deduction isn't there either. To top it all off, the actual money might not be that much different if the mortgage value isn't high, and now you have capital gains to factor in while doing your taxes.

I don't know what your mortgage is, but for me, paying ahead sure was a lot better than doing nothing.

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