Mortgage Payoff Calculator
See how many years an extra amount each week takes off the mortgage, and what it saves in interest.
Your total payment is $2,620 a month. Escrow is not part of the payoff maths below, because it pays your taxes and insurance rather than your balance. If the only figure you know is the total, subtract escrow to get the principal and interest above.
How to pay your mortgage off faster
Three ways to send more principal. They stack, and each one updates the numbers on the right.
Paying half the monthly amount every two weeks makes 13 payments a year instead of 12. Tick this to set your own amount.
A refund or bonus put straight at the balance, once a year.
About $108 a month, because a year holds 52 weeks rather than 48. This is the number Pace frees up: what is left after bills, as one weekly figure.
Finding the extra is the hard part, not the arithmetic. Pace counts your bills first and shows what is genuinely free to spend this week, so the money you put at this balance is money you already knew you could spare.
Find your weekly numberEstimates are educational. They assume a fixed rate and a fixed payment, and they exclude fees. Pace is budgeting software, not a financial advisor.
What this calculator does and does not include
Enter principal and interest in the payment field. There is a separate optional field for escrow, which covers property taxes and insurance. Escrow is real money leaving your account, so the calculator adds it to your total monthly payment, but it is kept out of the payoff maths because it does not reduce your loan balance. Folding it in would make the payoff date look better while changing nothing about the loan.
If the only number you know is the total your lender takes each month, that figure includes escrow. Subtract the escrow amount to get the principal and interest that actually pays the mortgage down.
Early in a mortgage almost every dollar goes to interest, so extra principal in the first years does the most work. The same extra payment made in year twenty saves a fraction of what it would have saved in year two.
Whether to do it at all is a genuine question rather than an obvious yes. An extra payment is a guaranteed return equal to your mortgage rate, tax-free. Money invested instead might return more, and might not. A low-rate mortgage makes investing the stronger argument; a high-rate one makes paying down the stronger argument. Neither answer is wrong, and anyone who tells you there is only one has not priced the certainty.
Frequently asked questions
- Is it better to pay off the mortgage early or invest?
- Paying extra is a guaranteed return equal to your rate. Investing has a higher expected return and no guarantee. The lower your rate, the stronger the case for investing. Many people reasonably split the difference.
- Should I include escrow in the payment field?
- No. Put principal and interest in the payment field and escrow in its own field. The calculator shows your total monthly payment including escrow, but keeps escrow out of the payoff date and interest figures, because taxes and insurance do not reduce your loan balance.
- Do biweekly mortgage payments really work?
- Yes, but not for a magical reason. Paying half the monthly amount every two weeks produces thirteen monthly payments a year rather than twelve. You can get the same result by sending one extra payment a year, without paying a service to arrange it.
- Will extra payments lower my monthly payment?
- Not usually. They shorten the term while the payment stays the same. Lowering the payment requires a recast, which some lenders offer for a fee.
- How do I pay off my mortgage faster?
- Pay every two weeks, make one extra payment a year, or add a fixed amount to principal each week. All three are in the calculator above. Extra principal does the most work in the early years, when almost all of your payment is interest.
More calculators
See the full set on the calculators page.