Pay Down Your Mortgage

(I used to use the PC Financial mortgage calculator to help figure out the savings, since it is no longer available I am using the CIBC calculator that can be found at the bottom of this post.  All numbers are on $100,000 bi-weekly payments so you can multiply by 2 if your mortgage is $200,000 or 1.5 for $150,000 etc. )


There are lots of arguments to talk you out of putting extra money on your mortgage.  Some people told us things like "You will always have a house payment" or "My money makes more in investments" but we didn't see it like that.  Yes, your money will make more in investments most of the time, but the peace of mind to know that there aren't any more payments is priceless. 
However, we worked hard to pay ours off quickly, and it was worth every moment.

Without making any extra payments, the first five years would see $10,993 going to principal and $24,933 in interest!  GROSS more for interest in the first five years then to the principal.  You would be left owing $89,007. 

We started small, and every Friday we used to order pizza and it cost us over $20.  Instead, we bought frozen pizza or Pink Sticker deli pizzas. The deli pizzas are very yummy, but aren't always in our freezer.  They freeze and cook very well.  We  put the extra money each Friday from this one choice on our mortgage.  $20 a week x52 weeks is an additional $1040. WOW we used to eat over a grand in pizza a year! Chomp on that for a moment.
Sticking that extra $20 on as an extra payment every Friday sees $17,085 in principal, and $24,040 in interest and $82,915 owing.  Your 5200 in extra payments is saving you $892 and time off of your total months owing on your mortgage.  (Assuming you did this for the whole mortgage)This example has the house paid off in 19 years.
Your extra payments from PIZZA will have saved you $21,486 off your mortgage and 6 years off your amortization.

Once we saw the principal going down a bit each week, we got motivated.  We began to find other ways to pay it off fast.  Play around with the calculator and see what inspires you.
I also suggest making a chart to track your progress.
It Pays to be Frugal.

https://www.cibc.com/ca/mortgages/calculator/mortgage-payment.html https://www.cibc.com/ca/mortgages/calculator/mortgage-payment.html