we used to pay extra principle on our mortgages until this house. It seemed we never stayed in the other houses long enough to make any difference so why bother. We pay exactly what they ask for, and for us right now that is an incredible stretch of our resources anyway.

I pay about $100 extra a month on my principal but this month I "splurged" and paid $300.  Your lender should send you an annual ammortization schedule, if they don't you can call and request one.  I have about $55,000 left on mine which I plan to pay off in the next 5 years. 

Cinnamonhuskies:

we used to pay extra principle on our mortgages until this house. It seemed we never stayed in the other houses long enough to make any difference so why bother. We pay exactly what they ask for, and for us right now that is an incredible stretch of our resources anyway.

 

If you're not going to stay there for the long term, then prepayment is not the route for you to take.  I prepay my mortgage because I intend to have my house paid off before I retire in about 15 years - different goals make for different strategies.  People have to choose the strategies that work for their goals and lives.  I have a friend who is in the military but hates military housing - he buys a house or condo wherever he goes (the down payment he has available has gone up every time he moves, although if he gets transferred with the market the way it is, it may not happen this time) but he never prepays, because he knows he won't be staying.  He buys properties that cost about what rental would, to take advantage of the tax write-off on the interest.

We paid extra on our 15 year mortgage every month. It was auto deducted from my checking acct but I just told the bank to add an extra $x to principal (do it in writing). We did this for six years and it really has helped with our equity situation now that we are selling our home.

DH and I decided to pay extra because we could and instead of having $1025.62 taken out of my account, it looked nicer to have an even $1100 deducted every month. At the time, we escrowed our insurance and taxes but no longer do that so we earn the interest and not the lender.

With our new house, I'm not sure what we are going to do. We have an interest only loan for now until we sell our current house. Based on our down payment from the sale of our house, we are really trying to do the 15 year mortgage again. We don't need any of our equity to fix up the new house b/c we bought a move in ready home (with a new roof, new HVAC, new kitchen, new electrical, new paint, newly refinished wood floors), unlike our current home which we had to put about $30,000 into in repairs and updating over the past 10 years. If we can't do the 15, we will try for 20 (yes, they are out there) or 30 as the last option and pay extra in principle each month.

Yes, we pay about $150 additional every month, rounding up the total payment to the next whole dollar.  I use an excel spreadsheet to track the progress of my loan.  There are probably some online calculators that can figure it for you.  Don't be dismayed, though, the results are small in the near term and the real savings are at the end of the loan.
Tammy

Thanks everyone for the replies, I am going to try to pay at least the next months principle every month.   I also make my payments early, which should save on interest.   I am not sure if I will stay in this house or not, I may move when my youngest goes off to college in six years.   I just figure any money I put into my house, will be there when I sell it.  My goal is to retire in 13 years and have my house paid off.

I can choose between paying down the house or saving for retirement.  I choose to save for retirement.  With compounding interest, I will have a lot more money than I can save on my mortgage if I put it into an IRA. 

 There is a line on my payment coupon that says extra principal.  I try to pay a little extra, even $10.  Our payment is recalculated every year to take into account escrow changes.  Our mortgage company is very user friendly. 

The way I keep track is I know how much the principal goes down in an average month, I just add the extra and subtract from the principal to keep a running total of what I owe.  

 

Alot of mortgage loans are compound interest also. I would take a close look at it and see what your total would be after payoff. For example, my friend bought a very small home back in 2000. It was only $24,000. Her payments are $285 for 15 years. but if you multiply $285 x 180 months, you get $51,300. This is on a "cheap home". Please be careful with that. I just don't like the ideas of giving a company money for interest...

We've been paying an extra $300 toward the priciple for about 4 years now. It's become such a habit, that when working on our budget, I automatically wrote down the amount with the extra added to it. We pay our taxes & insurance ourselves, so there is no escrow account with our mortgage. We also get a monthly statement from our mortgage company that shows how much we still owe, and how much of last month's payment was interest & principle. I am now enjoying watching the priciple amount go up, and the interest paid go down!!! We still have our old house, which we plan to fix up and either sell (my first choice) or rent (his first choice), and it will be paid off in full in November. In September, I'll request the payoff papers, and possibly go ahead and just pay it off a month early!! That will be a monthly savings of about $510 for us, when that house is paid off!! WOOHOO!!