PAYING OFF YOUR MORTGAGE QUICKLY- 
Making extra payments

The most important thing is to check with your lender before making your first extra 
payment to see if they have any special restrictions such as a pre-payment penalty.

Pre-payment penalty charges can be applied to your loan if you pay more than what you 
are allotted per year in payments.  Also, those same charges can apply if you pay the 
loan off in one lump sum.

Some borrowers like to make extra payments that exactly correspond to the principal 
payments on their amortization schedule because it provides an easy way to calculate how 
quickly the loan will be paid off.  For example, by following this strategy, you could 
pay off a 30 year fixed rate loan in only 15 years.

However, any amount you pay early will reduce the amount of interest you will have to 
pay over the life of the loan.  Just remember that you get the biggest bang for the buck 
in the early years of the loan when almost all of your monthly payment is going to pay 
interest expense.  If you sell your home or refinance your mortgage before it is 
paid off, you will still save some money on interest expense, but the total savings 
will not be as large as if you had held the loan for the full term.