Top Mortgage Repayment Strategies

For some Australians, paying off your mortgage in a shorter time than the standard 30 years is not a very high priority. For others, they feel incentivised to pay off their mortgage as quickly as possible. This may stem from a desire to fully own the property or they may be keen to take advantage of the potential savings in reducing interest. Perhaps they’re keen to look into a home equity loan to fund further investment. Whatever the reason, a lot of people are interested in utilising a mortgage repayment strategy that can see them debt-free sooner!

We thought we’d take you through some popular mortgage repayment strategies.

Change From Monthly Repayments to Fortnightly

One of the simplest ways to pay off your home loan faster is to change your monthly repayments to “fortnightly repayments”. However, instead of making the minimum fortnightly repayments make half the minimum monthly repayments.

A year has 12 months but 26 fortnights so choosing to make your repayments fortnightly means you’re making two extra repayments every year, meaning that you’ll pay off your home loan faster. This can take about 6 years off a standard 30 year loan and save you tens of thousands of dollars in interest.

Invest Your Bonuses

This may seem like an obvious one, but if you acquire a sum of money such as an annual bonus, inheritance, or tax refund, use it to pay off some of your mortgage. Unlike paying off a lot of other debts, paying money into your mortgage is essentially an investment.

Downsize

An extreme option, but one which may be necessary for some Australians. If you feel your mortgage is too large to successfully pay off, consider moving to smaller house or a less expensive neighbourhood and using the profits to pay off a large portion of the new house.