Amortization Schedule Breakdown and Understanding Principal Vs Interest

Amortization Schedule Calculator1 $500.00 $99.55 $99,900.45
Understanding an amortization schedule can be very2 $499.50 $100.05 $99,800.40
useful. A mortgage amortization schedule is broken3 $499.00 $100.55 $99,699.85
down on a monthly basis to show you exactly what4 $498.50 $101.05 $99,598.80
you're paying the bank each month and how much5 $497.99 $101.56 $99,497.24
you still owe. I could probably survey 100 people and6 $497.49 $102.06 $99,395.18
50 of them wouldn't even know how much they owe7 $496.98 $102.57 $99,292.61
on their mortgage. These people are going to be taken8 $496.46 $103.09 $99,189.52
advantage of at some point in the mortgage process.9 $495.95 $103.60 $99,085.92
With some basic knowledge on mortgage calculators10 $495.43 $104.12 $98,981.79
and interest rates you can understand when someone11 $494.91 $104.64 $98,877.15
might be trying to trick you.12 $494.39 $105.16 $98,771.99
Your mortgage is recalculated each month based onFirst of all, in the amortization schedule the "Interest
how much principal is paid down. Your mortgagepayment" and "principal payment" columns will always
payment will always stay the same, but the principalequal your monthly payment amount of $599.55.
goes up and the interest will come down as time goesSome of it will go toward the $100,000 that you owe,
on. Example below:and the rest of it goes toward interest.
Enter this information into a mortgage calculator;Notice that the amount you owe is lowered by the
Mortgage amount - $100,000.00amount of principal you pay each month (100,000 -
Fixed Interest Rate - 6.0%99.55 = 99,900.45) If you pay an extra $200.00 toward
Years - 30principal then it would be 100,000 - 99.55 - 200.00 =
Based on that information you will see that the monthly99,700.45.
mortgage payment is $599.55 and over the course ofThe interest payment goes to the bank for loaning you
30 years you will have paid $115,838.19 JUST inthat specific amount of money. The bank tells you the
interest! That's more than the cost of the home itself!yearly interest rate (6%) for added confusion because
It's only natural to try and reduce that number. First, weit's actually calculated monthly. Take your yearly
need to understand it by looking at the informationinterest rate and divide it by 12 (12 months). You can
from the mortgage calculator.plug those numbers into a mortgage calculator or see
The graph below shows you the breakdown of eachthe graph above. 6% / 12 months = 0.50% per month.
payment you make over the first year.So you owe 100,000 x .005 (.50%) = $500.00 in interest
Monthly Payment - $599.55for the first month (See above graph). So the less
Month Interest Payment Principal Payment Remainingmoney you owe the bank, the less interest you pay
Balanceeach month. That's why paying principal down faster is
$100,000.00better.