Enter your loan, then add an extra amount each month or a one-time payment. The page shows your new payoff date and the interest you keep, as you type.
Each bar is the length of your loan with one monthly amount. A shorter bar is an earlier payoff date. Pick one to make it your plan.
The bars count only the monthly amount. Your one-time payments and the bi-weekly setting stay in your plan if you pick one.
The dotted line is the full length of the loan.
Step 3
Decide once. Your mortgage company sends the extra each month, and a yearly reminder keeps the plan honest.
The link holds your whole plan, so a bookmark keeps it. The reminder is a calendar file your device makes; nothing is sent.
Each year of your plan, every payment, and payment #1 next to your own statement.
| Year | Interest | Principal | Extra | Balance |
|---|
Enter your statement’s balance in step 1. Then the interest on your next statement should match payment #1.
How the page works it out
Statements round each line to the cent. So does this.
Ordered by typical impact, biggest lever first. Your situation may reshuffle it: with PMI, #2 can outrank everything; with a low rate, #1 drops off the list.
Dollar figures use the example loan: $400,000 at 6.5% for 30 years, a $2,528 payment and $510,178 of lifetime interest. Run your own numbers above.
Extra payments earn exactly your rate. Refinancing changes the rate on every remaining dollar, which is why it’s the biggest single lever when it’s available. Rough test: can you cut your rate by about a point, and will you stay past the break-even on closing costs? If yes, price a refi before committing big lump sums. Then keep prepaying the new, cheaper loan to compound the win.
If you put less than 20% down, prepaying does double duty: on a conventional loan you can request PMI cancellation at 80% loan-to-value (it must drop automatically at 78%). Reaching that line even a couple of years sooner frees $100 to $250 a month on a loan this size. That is premium savings stacked on top of the interest savings, often the best per-dollar return anywhere in personal finance. Redirect the freed premium into principal and it compounds. (FHA loans usually carry MIP for life. There, refinancing is the removal path.)
The best habit is one you never re-decide. Rounding $2,528 up to a flat $2,700 sends an extra $172 to principal every month, finishes 4 yrs 11 mos sooner, and keeps $99,554 out of the interest column. Set it once in autopay and forget it. The gap between the two curves is money that stays yours.
Paying half your mortgage every two weeks means 26 half payments, which is thirteen full payments a year. On the example loan that finishes 5 yrs 10 mos early and keeps $116,342. You don’t need a program: add one-twelfth of your payment monthly (the bi-weekly toggle above models exactly this) or send one extra payment each December. Never pay a fee for this arithmetic. The bi-weekly calculator runs the true 26-payment calendar and prices the paid programs honestly.
Lump sums punch above their weight because they kill interest for every remaining month. A single $5,000 tax refund applied in year two saves $24,820. That is nearly five dollars back per dollar in. Make it a ritual and it rivals the big levers: $2,500 every year saves $111,040 and ends the loan 5 yrs 7 mos sooner. Add your expected refund, bonus, or vest as one-time payments above.
The same $1,000 does wildly different work depending on when it arrives. Sent in year two, it erases $5,116 of future interest. Sent in year twenty, it erases $912. Early dollars retire principal that would have compounded against you for decades. Don’t wait until you can start big. Start small now.
Each answer below uses your loan. Open a tool to change the rest; your numbers carry over.
Payoff calculatorYou are here
See every payment?
Every payment, split into interest and principal, with the rows your extras delete.
Open the scheduleDebt-free in 20 years?
Or pay $61,225 once, today. Any other month works too.
Pick a dateDebt-free by age 65?
This line uses an example birthday, Jun 1985. The tool uses yours.
Price it in birthdaysInvest the $200 instead?
Assumes 7% a year after tax, to Jul 2056. Paying extra earns a guaranteed 6.5%; the 7% is not guaranteed.
Race the two roadsPay half every 2 weeks?
The loan ends 5 yrs 10 mos sooner. 26 half payments a year equal 13 full payments.
Run the true calendarRecast after a $50,000 payment?
The new payment is $2,208.67. Keep paying $2,528.27 instead and the loan ends in May 2048.
See both roadsRefinance at 5.5%?
The usual formula says 25. This line uses an example offer: 5.5% and $6,000 in costs, rolled in, a year from now.
Price an offerPay off the loan a year from now?
Your statement would show $395,529.10. The payoff adds 14 days of interest at $70.44 a day.
Price the payoffWhen can PMI stop?
Without a request it stops at payment #102. This line uses an example home value of $450,000.
Find both datesNo. Your required payment stays the same. Extra principal shortens the loan and cuts total interest instead. If you want a lower required payment after a big lump sum, that’s what a recast is for (see below).
More than most people guess. On the example $400,000 loan at 6.5%, one extra payment a year (or its bi-weekly equivalent) saves about $116,000 in interest and ends the loan 5 years 10 months early. Flip the bi-weekly toggle above to see the number for your own loan.
Use the “principal-only” option in your servicer’s payment portal, or note it explicitly on a mailed check. Then confirm on the next statement that the balance dropped by the full amount rather than your next due date moving forward.
On conventional loans you can request cancellation once the balance reaches 80% of the home’s original value, and the servicer must remove it automatically at 78%. Extra principal pulls both dates closer, and some servicers will also cancel based on a new appraisal if the home has appreciated. FHA mortgage insurance usually lasts the life of the loan, so refinancing is the removal path there.
You can replicate them for free. A bi-weekly schedule is just one extra monthly payment per year in disguise. Add 1/12 of your payment each month or send one extra payment annually and you get the identical result without fees. The bi-weekly calculator puts the schemes and their fees side by side.
Prepaying earns a guaranteed return equal to your rate (a little less if you deduct mortgage interest on your taxes). Compare that honestly to what you’d earn elsewhere after taxes and risk. Fund retirement matches and an emergency fund first. And remember that “guaranteed and sleep-well” is worth something too.
After a large principal payment, many servicers will re-amortize your remaining balance over the remaining term for a small fee. Your rate and payoff date stay put, but the required monthly payment drops. Not all loans qualify, so ask your servicer.
With the standard amortization formula: payment = P × r(1+r)n / ((1+r)n − 1), where P is the principal, r the monthly rate (APR ÷ 12), and n the number of months. Each month, interest accrues on the remaining balance (balance × r); the rest of the payment, plus anything extra you send, retires principal. Every figure on this page comes from running that loop payment by payment.
The payoff math is principal and interest only. Add property tax, insurance, HOA, and PMI under More options to see your estimated total monthly cost. Those amounts are for budgeting only and do not affect the payoff date.