Turk wrote:Congrats to Windsor!! We're a few years away but the finish line is in sight.
The other suggestion I once read somewhere is to get an amortization schedule from the lender or build a spreadsheet, which splits out the principal and interest for each payment. (Be prepared to be depressed at how little principal gets paid in the early years). If you're going to send in extra money, send in the entire principal for the next payment(s), then cross them off. It's an easy way to figure out how far you're ahead of schedule and how much interest is saved.
I've heard of that method as well Turk...and I'm sure it work well if you have that much extra laying around.
Anything you can pay in additional principle helps enormously. I just messed around with a 5% 30 year fixed..$25 extra dollars with EVERY payment pays the loan off 23 months early and saves about 10k in interest.