As long as you’re alive, you have to live somewhere and, generally speaking, you have two options: Rent an apartment (or a home) and line your landlord’s pocket; or buy a home, and over time, hopefully line your own.
This premise is one of David Bach’s most important messages. The author of the New York Times bestseller “The Automatic Millionaire,” is a firm believer in the idea that real estate is critical to building wealth. In fact, he says buying a home is one of the three most important actions people can take in pursuit of financial security.
“I’ve been a lifelong proponent of home ownership,” says Bach, author of 11 best selling books. “How do you build real wealth on an ordinary income? It’s not very sexy, but it’s a simple, timeless approach: Buy a home.”
It’s not merely the act of purchasing a home that Bach advocates. The secrets to financial success that he offers in “The Automatic Millionaire,” include urging readers to pay their homes off early via an approach he calls “automatic debt-free home ownership.”
It may sound radical to some, but according to Bach, who spent nine years as a financial adviser at Morgan Stanley, the common denominator among all of his clients who were able to retire early was that they had paid off their homes early.
Here’s Bach’s approach to debt-free home ownership.
1. Establish a Biweekly Mortgage Payment Plan
A biweekly payment plan is exactly what the name implies. Instead of only making monthly mortgage payments, split the payment down the middle and pay half every two weeks.
When you make a payment every two weeks, (instead of just one per month,) you end up making one extra month’s worth of payments annually. In other words, over the span of a year, you’re making 26 half payments, which is the equivalent of 13 full payments.
“By doing this, something miraculous will happen. Depending on your interest rate, you can end up paying off your mortgage early — somewhere between five and ten years early” he says in the book.
Additional Benefits of Biweekly Payments
The biweekly payment approach also saves the homeowner thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars, in interest. (Having a good credit score can help you save on interest, too. If you don’t know where your credit stands, you can get your two free credit scores, updated every 14 days, on Credit.com.)
In his book Bach provides the example of a 30-year-mortgage on a $250,000 home. If the interest rate on that mortgage is 5%, then the interest paid over the life of the loan will be about $233,139. When paid biweekly, the same mortgage instead costs about $188,722 — a savings of more than $44,000.
Establishing a biweekly payment plan merely requires calling your lender. If the mortgage is held by a large bank, they may refer you to a third-party that handles payment processing.
But one critical point Bach makes in the book is this: Before signing onto biweekly mortgage payments ask the servicing company what the fee is for the program and what they do with your money when they receive it. The second question is particularly important because some companies hang onto the extra money you’re putting toward the mortgage and send it to your mortgage holder all at once at the end of the month.
You want the extra payments applied to your mortgage as soon as possible, so that you’re paying down the mortgage faster.
You also cannot just split your monthly mortgage payment in half yourself (without talking to your mortgage holder, bank or other servicing company) and mail in payments every two weeks. The bank may send the extra payment back to you, unsure of what to do with it.
This trick can also work for paying down your credit card balance faster. (Here are some other tips for paying off credit card debt.)
2. Pay Extra Each Month
The next approach to debt-free home ownership outlined in Bach’s book is a plan he calls “No-Fee Approach No. 1.” It involves merely adding 10% to whatever your monthly mortgage payment happens to be. If your monthly payment is $1,342, pay an extra $134 dollars each month. (Sending the bank $1,467 per month instead of $1,342.)
This approach leads to paying off a home in 25 years, instead of 30, saving about $44,000. However, Bach urges making the extra 10% automatic, so that you don’t come up with excuses not to do it. In other words, have the $1,467 automatically deducted from your checking account each month.
3. Make One Extra Payment Each Year
Pick one month each year and pay the mortgage twice. Translation: Send the bank one extra payment a year.
Try doing this with some of your tax refund, suggests Bach. But no matter when you choose to do it, don’t simply send the bank a check for double the normal mortgage amount.
According to Bach this will confuse the bank. He advises writing two checks. Send one in with your mortgage coupon and the other with a letter explaining that you want the money applied to your principal.
The big takeaway according to Bach is that if you don’t buy a home, you won’t get on the escalator to wealth that home ownership provides. He says this message is particularly important for millennials who have been shying away from home ownership.
“The critical point is that one — you can buy a home. Two — you should buy a home. And three — you will be glad that you did,” says Bach.
Image: filadendron
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December 13, 2023
Mortgages
