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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   1846 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for January 30, 2026

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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 realized when I read through the mortgage documents that the full 30 year term would have me paying double what I borrowed for the house, so resolved to pay it off as fast as possible.

I probably lost out paying down the mortgage vs putting the money in an index fund, but I don't really regret it. If all goes well everything will be paid off by next year, and I'm looking forward to not having a mortgage.

In US now I think there are laws now in many states that require the loaners to tell you how much you will be paying in interest (and therefore overall) at least at some point of the process, and have you sign on that. So theoretically it shouldn't be a surprise, but practically of course not all people read that anyway.

Yes, that's what I meant, I was looking through the mortgage documents prior to signing them and saw the total interest.

They also tell you how much of what you're paying each month is principal/interest/escrow, which provided additional motivation.

Technical detail: States are all over the place for required mortgage disclosures, but there is a federal disclosure requirement. The cost of credit (finance charge) must be disclosed on the LE (loan estimate) at application and again on the CD (closing disclosure) at closing.

This has been the standard since TRID replaced the GFE/TIL in (I think) 2015, but before then the finance charge has been a required component of lending disclosures since the TIL (Truth in Lending) Act of 1968.

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