The advantage of a thirty year mortgage over a fifteen year mortgage- you have lower payments each month. But fifteen year mortgages cost less in total. If you want to reduce the overall cost of your mortgage (by eliminating all the interest that comes with them), the best solution is to pay it off sooner. Plus, who doesn’t want to be completely debt free? Can you imagine not paying for housing each month? That’s a lot of extra cash. Check out this post by Bob Ashworth for tips on paying it off faster:
-Every month when you review your mortgage loan statement from your lender, find the amount of the payment that is slated to go towards your principle
-Now while your payment will remain the same for the life of the loan, the amount that goes towards principle and interest will change as your principle balance is reduced.
-Add that amount to your payment. You’ve just made 2 months of payments. Do this same thing every month, and your 30 year or 360 month mortgage just became 15 years, or 180 months.