As anyone who is looking to tighten their belts will know, there are some things which we simply have to pay for every month. Home utilities and transport to work for example are absolute essentials which you cannot shirk on, another large monthly expense is a mortgage, something which the large majority of people have. Despite the mortgage not going away any time soon, there are ways in which you can manage your mortgage so that you can pay it off quicker. Let’s take a look at what you should be doing to get rid of that mortgage, and take ownership of your house.
Switch
The biggest problem with paying ff your mortgage is usually the interest rate which is attached to it and you will inevitably be paying far more than the value of your home once you consider the interest. More often than not when people buy homes, they take high interest mortgages which give them a better chance of securing the investment. In order to get your mortgage paid off quicker, try switching providers so that you can get a better deal, with lower interest rates.
Overpaying
Try to get into the habit of overpaying each month on your mortgage payments. An additional payment of whatever you are able to afford each month, will greatly bring down the overall length of the mortgage. Very often only a small percentage of our monthly payments actually come off the mortgage and the rest goes on interest. When you overpay however, every cent that you have overpaid will be take directly off the mortgage value itself.
Don’t Remortgage
if you are strapped for cash and have something coming up that you need to pay for, it can be easy to take some additional funds out of your mortgage. This may be good news in the short term, but in the long term you will be adding more money and ultimately more time on to your mortgage. If you need cash, try to find other ways such as personal loans, selling items or borrowing from friends and family.
Downsize
If what you really want is to own your own home and have no mortgage, why not consider moving out and downsizing to a cheaper property. If you are able to do this then you can take the value out of your mortgage and use this as a deposit for a far smaller mortgage, which will be paid off far quicker.
Savings
Savings are always worth having and they can sure help you out should something go wrong or you have a rainy day of some kind. With this being said, it makes little sense to have debt and savings and the smart thing to do is to consolidate your mortgage using a chunk of your savings. This is not to say that you should use all of your savings, doing so could be suicide, but dipping into them to reduce the term of your mortgage is a very smart idea.
Keep going, keep finding ways of bringing it down and that mortgage will be paid off in no time.