Fixed-Rate Payment

See: Mortgage.

The payment is set. It doesn't change. That is, if you take out a $200,000, 30-year mortgage at 5%, your monthly payments will remain at a fixed amount of $1,074 as your interest rate of 5% will remain fixed. Everything is fixed, static, non-moving. So it remains the same the entire 30 years until you have paid off the home fully.

The odd thing about fixed-rate payments and this whole structure is that, when you start those grand-plus payments, they probably feel very expensive...but 25 years later, just with very basic 2% a year inflation, they'll probably seem almost crazy easy. And in America, anyway, that's probably a good thing; at that point, you'll have a kid or three to put through college, health bills, and a parent to sock away in the guest house.

Welcome to adulthood. Sorry.

Related or Semi-related Video

Finance: What is a mortgage's amortizati...3 Views

00:00

Finance allah shmoop what is a mortgage amortization schedule and

00:07

how does it work All right we'll think of mortgages

00:10

Is the jet i warrior of bonds Their special government

00:15

kissed even there not just a typical bond like a

00:17

car loan or alone for that new turbocharged skateboard you

00:21

had your eye on Mortgages carry one key special feature

00:25

that's an integral part of what has made america great

00:28

The interest payments on bonds for mortgages are tax deductible

00:33

So if you're paying fifteen hundred bucks a month and

00:35

mortgage payments and the highest or a marginal tax rate

00:38

that you pays forty percent with federal and state taxes

00:41

combined and most of that fifteen hundred boxes interest which

00:44

is the case in the early years of pain off

00:46

these things than the fifteen hundred dollars payment feels like

00:49

only about nine hundred bucks on an after tax basis

00:52

like forty percent of fifteen hundred and six hundred dollars

00:55

You subtracted from the fifteen hundred there And you get

00:58

sweet luscious deduction meaning that it's say well ninety five

01:01

percent plus of that fifteen hundred dollars for interest than

01:04

in that year You'd have twelve payments of fifteen hundred

01:06

dollars or total payments made to the bank of eighteen

01:09

grand That's round a bit here and say that seventeen

01:12

grand of it was interest i you paid down a

01:14

thousand bucks of principle And if you earned ninety thousand

01:17

bucks that year with the tax rate of say thirty

01:19

percent federal in ten percent state on earnings from seventy

01:23

thousand to one hundred grand well then on the amount

01:25

over seventy grand iaea get to that ninety grand of

01:29

your full year earnings Well you would take off or

01:32

deduct seventeen thousand dollars from the ninety and pay taxes

01:36

on earnings of just seventy three thousand box The government

01:39

lets you deduct the interest payments against your taxable earnings

01:42

as if in fact you had never had those taxable

01:45

earnings in the first place They essentially give you a

01:48

discount on the net after taxes interest rate your paying

01:51

in the form of a give back on your taxes

01:53

So let's dive into a mortgage amortization schedule and amortization

01:57

here just refers to the pace at which you reduce

02:00

the principle you owe over time and we have this

02:04

pretty chart to help illustrate that So you finally bought

02:07

that four hundred fifty thousand dollar home It's an almost

02:11

literal shoebox in palo alto but well its home or

02:14

it will be You went to the bank and got

02:16

alone for three hundred fifty thousand dollars After putting one

02:18

hundred grand down your loan is a thirty year loan

02:21

They offer them and all kinds of flavors like fifteen

02:23

year loans interest only loans or reverse mortgages A whole

02:27

different kettle of fish there Well in this case note

02:29

the monthly payments Each payment is the same two thousand

02:32

forty two dollars fifty cents a month and note that

02:36

the first payment is three hundred sixty five bucks in

02:38

change in principle paydown See right there and sixteen seventy

02:42

seven and change in interest So after that first month

02:45

the principal owed is three hundred fifty thousand minus the

02:47

three hundred sixty five dollars in principle you paid down

02:50

or three hundred forty nine thousand six hundred thirty five

02:53

dollars ish So if you go on about your business

02:55

for fifteen years well the ratio of principle to interest

02:58

looks dramatically different at this point Well again on the

03:02

same payment of two Oh for two point five o

03:05

the principal covered by that payment is eight hundred sixty

03:08

box and the interest on the loan is now down

03:10

to about eleven eighty three And note that after fifteen

03:13

years thie amount owed on the home is down from

03:16

three hundred fifty thousand Right That's the loan you originally

03:19

took out Two Now a principal set of about two

03:22

hundred forty six thousand like you've paid down over one

03:24

hundred grand So you're still making the same monthly payment

03:27

of two oh four to fifty But on lee eleven

03:30

eighty three of it the interest portion is deductible So

03:33

from an after tax perspective that mortgage gets a bit

03:36

more expensive each year as the principal has paid down

03:39

in a higher portion of the mortgage payment then comprises

03:41

principal pay down which is not deductible versus interest payments

03:45

Which are so then what do things look like near

03:48

the end Different We're talking about the end of the

03:51

mortgage period Yeah well that last payment is again in

03:53

two o four to fifty but it comprises two o

03:56

three Two of principle pay down and yes about in

04:00

box of interest That's it So then after thirty years

04:03

you'll have paid a total interest amount of over three

04:05

hundred eighty five grand That's just an interest So think

04:08

about that number It's more than the entire amount of

04:10

the loan you originally took out So you have wow

04:13

two oh four to fifty a month Tone your dream

04:16

home That's it right No not at all Remember you

04:19

have insurance and depending on what kind you get and

04:22

i'll figure around three hundred bucks a month toe over

04:24

a grand And then you have real estate taxes and

04:27

figure about one and a half percent of the purchase

04:29

price which then goes up about the rate of inflation

04:31

overtime So on this four hundred fifty thousand dollar home

04:34

that's real estate taxes of about sixty sir seven fifty

04:37

ish year about five fifty a month And for many

04:39

first time home buyers you have to get pm i

04:42

or private mortgage insurance That's kind of safety cushion for

04:45

the bank not for you and is laid on is

04:48

an additional expense When the homeowner has put on ly

04:51

a small amount down as a down payment that is

04:54

the homeowner has to pay some percentage of alone They've

04:57

taken out In addition to that base interest of say

05:00

six deductible percent like you have to pay an extra

05:02

one non deductible percent in pm i until they can

05:06

get the bank to agree that their loan to value

05:09

ratio is less than eighty percent That's kind of like

05:12

the bank's magic number or set another way that the

05:14

equity they have in the home is mohr than twenty

05:17

percent of its value Or so why like why would

05:20

the bank do this other than to make it yet

05:22

more profit from you mr or mrs vulnerable mortgage taker

05:26

But the reality is that if the bank ever does

05:28

have to foreclose on the house and then sell it

05:30

and spend a fortune on legal bills evicting you let

05:33

alone dealing with all the bad press it gets extremists

05:36

all excited about regulating the bank's further you know because

05:40

of course it was the bank's fault that you were

05:42

drunk and got fired from your job and spent your

05:45

dough on fast cars and even faster robots So banks

05:49

make risky small down payment makers take out cushion insurance

05:53

in case well this ever happened so that they aren't

05:55

the ones left owning a house they never signed up

05:58

to buy Yeah Hey at least there's a white picket 00:06:00.835 --> [endTime] fence Go for it No

Find other enlightening terms in Shmoop Finance Genius Bar(f)