Huge Savings on Interest: Available to Anyone with a Mortgage
Making consistent extra payments on your principal balance can yield enormous savings. You can accomplish this using a few different techniques. Paying a single extra full payment once a year is likely the simplest to arrange. If you can't afford to pay an extra whole payment all at once, you can divide that payment by 12 and pay that additional amount monthly. Another popular option is to pay half of your payment every other week. The effect here is that you will make one extra monthly payment each year. These options differ slightly in lowering the total interest paid and reducing payback length, but they will all significantly shorten the duration of your mortgage and lower your total interest paid.
Additional One-time payment
Some people just can't make extra payments. But it's important to note that most mortgage contracts allow you to make additional payments at any time. You can benefit from this rule to pay extra on your principal when you come into extra money. If, for example, you receive a large gift or tax refund just a few years into your mortgage, you could pay this windfall toward your mortgage loan principal, which would result in huge savings and a shortened loan period. For most loans, even this small amount, paid early enough in the mortgage, could offer big savings in interest and length of the loan.