For many home buyers, the only real decision they have to make is whether to have a 15 or 30 year fixed mortgage rate? Early completion of a mortgage is important for those of use that leave buying a home until later in life. In a situation as important as this time needs to be spent considering all the available options. It is always a good idea to confirm that the interest rate does not alter during the term of the mortgage.
It is always wise to avoid agreements that do not appear to have any negative aspects because they invariably have but are hidden. The interest rate should remain the same for fixed rate mortgages until the loan is repaid. This is always a good thing for those people that don’t like surprises. When we were looking to buy a home, my wife and I decided to go for a loan with a 15 year fixed mortgage rate.
It was always our intention to clear our mortgage debt as early as we could but we didn’t want to over extend ourselves at the same time. This meant we had to consider 30 year fixed rate mortgage plans as well as those of 15 years. The problem was that we weren’t very happy about having a mortgage close to when we both retired so it was our hope a 15 year fixed mortgage rate would still be available to us. There was a lot of pressure to have the house paid off as soon as possible.
Taking everything into account we finally went for the easier 30 year mortgage plan instead. There were many things that lead us into making this choice. It was easier reaching this conclusion when I learnt my wife was expecting a baby. As she intended to raise our child at home we couldn’t rely on her financial income to the monthly expenditure. The problem we could see was the increased financial commitment on a monthly basis if we had opted for the 15 year fixed mortgage rate. We just decided we would probably get into trouble if we took this route. Despite the trepidation of having a longer term loan, it did reduce the repayments considerably.
We found that if we could make a few extra payments throughout each year then it would gradually reduce the principle sum owed. To our surprise we also discovered that we could knock years off our loan by doing this. This is well worth it in the long term but it does require some discipline. Taking our needs and abilities into account was more important than our desire for a shorter term mortgage plan. All things considered, it all worked out for the best in the end.