Many of us secured historically low mortgage rates for our homes in the past decade. We now find ourselves content with a 4% rate or better as our home values continue to rise.
Our family refinanced to a 20-year loan in September 2020 at 2.75%. That rate has eliminated our desire to move.
With a low rate and reasonable monthly payment, we’re happy to pay the minimum payment and ride this loan for as long as we stay in this house.
But I still love spreadsheets. And I love the prospect of not having a mortgage someday, ideally when I fully retire.
So, I always want to know where our mortgage stands today.
Online mortgage calculators are frustrating because they are primarily for new loans and are splattered with ads trying to sell you a mortgage.
They don’t help us get smarter about our current loans.
I’ve used the same debt and mortgage calculator (Excel download) for more than 20 years. It’s the topic of a recent YouTube video I made to help people better understand their existing mortgage.
You can set up this spreadsheet to match the exact payment history and future payments of your current mortgage to the penny.
Better yet, if you want to set a goal to pay it off early by a specific age or date, the video shows you how to use the Goal Seek function in Excel to find the monthly extra mortgage payment amount needed to make it happen.
If you like the video, please hit the like button and subscribe to my YouTube channel. Video is a helpful content vehicle that’s easier to explain certain topics without multiple screenshots.
More people are consuming video content these days, so you’ll continue to see me rolling out new videos that enhance written content.
If you want to READ more about mortgages, check out these previous articles on the topic:
Featured photo via DepositPhotos used under license.
Craig Stephens
Craig is a former IT professional who left his 19-year career to be a full-time finance writer. A DIY investor since 1995, he started Retire Before Dad in 2013 as a creative outlet to share his investment portfolios. Craig studied Finance at Michigan State University and lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and three children. Read more.
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