Making Your Annual Bonus Count With A Mortgage Calculator (entrepreneur organizations)

May 25th, 2010 admin Posted in business |

By Dustin Hines

An annual bonus can be a wonderful windfall at the end of the year to do with as you please. It could go into savings, a special purchase, paying down your credit cards or into your house as a prepayment on your loan. When your mortgage is calculated, either fixed or adjusted, you are told how much to pay on a monthly basis.

However, a mortgage calculator that specializes in additional payments will show it can be very much in your favor to consider this using your bonus as an additional annual payment

And you thought you were through with a mortgage calculator after you signed the papers on your house.

The monthly payment your mortgage lender requires is the least amount you must pay in order to keep current on your mortgage. It doesn’t mean that you can’t pay more! If you have an annual bonus which comes in every year, then it is definitely worth investing this by paying an additional annual payment against the principal outstanding on your mortgage.

Use a mortgage calculator to work out how much difference your annual bonus makes to your mortgage. Depending on the size of the annual bonus, and how much of it you want to use against your mortgage principal, you can save money in terms of interest you won’t need to pay. This reduction shows up because you are paying the loan off faster that your mortgage. The less time you owe, the less interest you pay.

This is the “miracle of compound interest” your bank loves working against him. When you pay ahead on the principal, you reduce the amount of interest you pay on the interest. Poor him, lucky you. Your mortgage calculator reveals the way to make it work for, not against you.

Another option you need to consider, however, is whether or not investing the money in another way would be more beneficial. It might work to your advantage to build up a larger amount and pay in that lump sum, say every 5 years, for example.

Using the current rate of interest offered for an investment account that can be opened with the amount of your annual bonus, work out how much in total you would have at the end of 5 years. Then pull up the additional payment mortgage calculator to work out what difference it would make to your loan.

The investment account pays you interest, and so you will have extra money to pay against your principal. In the second part of this scenario: use the mortgage calculator to calculate the mortgage if you paid the bonus directly against the principal balance on your mortgage each year for 5 years.

Which of the two totals works best for you financially? If it looks too good to be true, change mortgage calculators and double check. Which of them gives you a lower balance and lower mortgage term? This is the option that most effectively puts your money to work.

An additional payment against your mortgage principal is an ideal way of investing your extra capital in your home. Use the mortgage calculator first however to determine whether this, or an investment account, is the most efficient use of your money.

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Guide To Flexible Mortgages

By Giuseppe Mathis

In today’s ever-changing world, people need more and more flexibility when it comes to borrowing and mortgages. With this in mind, more and more lenders are offering what they term as ‘flexible’ mortgages. However, the term ‘flexible’ can mean a lot of different things. If you are unsure about which mortgages are flexible and what the benefits of a flexible mortgage are, then this article might be helpful to you.

What does flexible mean?

Although there are a lot of mortgages that claim to be flexible, there are some things that define a truly flexible mortgage. There are four main characteristics you should look for when determining if a mortgage is flexible. These are:

Being allowed to overpay

Being allowed to underpay

Being able to take payment holidays

Interest is calculated daily

Overpayments

One of the best features of flexible mortgages is the ability to overpay. With traditional fixed repayment mortgages, there is no easy way for you to pay more than your fixed repayment each month. If you have a flexible mortgage, then you will have the ability to pay as much as you can each month. This means that during the good months you can speed up the process of paying your mortgage back. If you regularly overpay then you can save yourself thousands of pounds in interest payments.

Underpayments

Underpayments are another useful feature of flexible mortgages, but they should be used sparingly. If you are unable to make the repayment in a given month, then you can just pay as much as you can, effectively underpaying on your mortgage. Although this is good as it stops you from defaulting, there are penalties involved. The more you underpay, the longer the mortgage will last or the higher your repayments afterwards will be.

Payment holidays

Payment holidays are similar to underpayments, but they let you completely halt payment for a period of time. Although this might sound appealing, there are usually restrictions. Lenders will not let you take a payment holiday unless you have overpaid in the past, and after your holiday you will have to overpay again to get the repayments back on schedule. However, payment holidays are useful for people who are self employed or who want to take a break from work for personal reasons.

Other benefits

Another benefit of flexible mortgages is the ability to borrow back money from your mortgage. If you have overpaid in the past but are now in need of extra cash to fund home improvements or some other purchase, then you can borrow the money back that you have overpaid. Although you will be changing your mortgage terms again, getting a loan at the rate of your mortgage is the lowest personal loan rate you can possibly get.

If having flexibility and the chance to overpay and underpay is important to you, then you should definitely opt for a flexible mortgage.

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Adjustable Rate Mortgages Versus Fixed Rate Mortgages

By Giuseppe Mathis

The most basic distinction between types of mortgages that are available when you’re looking to finance the purchase of a new home is how the interest rate is determined. Essentially, there are two types of mortgages - fixed rate mortgage and an adjustable rate mortgage. If you choose a fixed rate mortgage, the rate of interest that you are paying on your mortgage remains the same throughout the life of the loan no matter what general interest rates are doing. In an adjustable rate mortgage, the interest rate is periodically adjusted according to an index that rises and falls with the economic times. There are advantages and disadvantages to either, and no easy answer to ‘which is better, a fixed rate mortgage or an adjustable rate mortgage?The main advantage to a fixed rate mortgage is stability. Since the interest rate remains the same over the entire course of the loan, your monthly payment is predictable. You can count on your monthly mortgage payment to be the same amount each month. On the minus side, because the lending institution gives up the chance to raise interest rates if the general interest rates rise, the interest on a fixed rate mortgage is likely to be higher than that of an adjustable rate mortgage.A fixed rate mortgage loan makes the most sense for those that are going to settle into their home for many years. While the initial payments may be larger than with an adjustable rate mortgage, stretching the payments over a longer period of time can minimize the effect on your budget.An adjustable rate is one that is adjusted periodically to take into account the rise or fall of standard interest rates. Generally, the adjustable term is annual - in other words, once a year the lending company has the right to adjust the interest rate on your mortgage in accordance with a chosen index. While adjustable rate mortgages make the most sense in a situation where interest rates are dropping, though it’s dangerous to count on a continued drop in interest rates.Lenders often offer adjustable rate mortgages with a very low first year ‘teaser’ interest rate. After the first year, though, the interest rate on your mortgage can increase by leaps and bounds. Even so, there are limits to how much an adjustable rate can actually adjust. This is dependent on the index chosen and the terms of the loan to which you agree. You may accept a loan with a 2.3% one year adjustable rate, for instance, that becomes a 4.1% adjustable rate mortgage on the first adjustment period.Finally, there’s a new kind of loan in town. A hybrid between adjustable rate mortgages and fixed rate mortgages, they’re known as ‘delayed adjustable’ mortgages. Essentially, you lock in a fixed rate of interest for a number of years - say 3 or 7 or 10. At the end of that period, the loan becomes a 1 year adjustable rate mortgage according to terms set out in the agreement you sign with the mortgage or financial institution.