Tourism can be expensive. Consider utilizing a tool such as an amortization calculator to determine if you can refinance your home to free up cash for your touristic dreams without resorting to risking your savings on a roulette wheel!
Before calling a real estate agent and asking to take a tour of homes for sale, be sure you know what you can afford to buy. While it might be fun to daydream in front of an online real estate page, remember that you have a budget and financial commitments ahead of you, especially if you have a family to support. A mortgage amortization calculator can help you to think ahead.
An amortized mortgage is popular in the United States because the initial loan shrinks with every payment. Whereas compound interest causes a loan to increase in value unless the holder is able to pay it off quickly, amortization works to the benefit of long term borrowers. Each time you pay your mortgage, a portion of the principal is shaved off while the rest of your payment contributes to the interest payments. You can pay monthly or twice monthly, but it will not matter: your principal will shrink each time. Interest charged applies to this new figure, not the one you started with.
This means it will take several years to reduce your loan by half, perhaps twenty or more. The last half takes much less time to pay since the loan has been slowly getting smaller. Consumers like this style of borrowing because they can see that their money is paying for more than just interest, and they know their loan will come to an end within a given number of years.
A mortgage amortization calculator allows you to figure out roughly how much you can afford to spend on a house, townhouse, or condo. The formula for assessing this requires the following: a sum you wish to borrow, a payment schedule (monthly, twice monthly etc.), a rate of interest, and a period of time you set aside to pay it off. While 25 years was normal a generation ago, rising house prices mean that thirty years is not uncommon today.
Using an online calculator allows you to work out the numbers at home before approaching your mortgage broker or bank. Change them around, considering what you might gain by changing certain figures. Reduce the sum you hope to borrow, or change the interest rate for example. Although you can pay in a shorter period of time, the fees are not less. The process is simply faster. You just might not like having a mortgage hanging over your head until your kids get married. Assess these hypothetical results and approach a real estate agent with realistic goals for your future. You might need to aim higher, or you could set yours sights on something better. This is all assuming that your credit is good and the bank will give you a loan.
Do not use the results of a mortgage amortization calculator as solid fact written in stone. There are plenty of details which could alter the outcome of this formula, details a lender will know more about. Still, this tool gives you a place to start from when you are new to the system.
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