I’ve been asking myself the same question these days.
I’ve got a pretty hefty mortgage right now. Until recently, II started out making the initial loan payments on a 30year fiexed, maybe made 1 extra principle every 6 months…I was hoping to hold more onto cash in some areas, waiting for interests rate to kick in, and for it to eventually beat my mortgage rate….Well, it hasn’t happened…So then I started to make the standard payment per month on my 30 year fixed, plus roughtly an extra principle payment of about the same amount. I figured it was one way to finish paying off the loan in 15 years versus 30… However right now, I’m considering reverting back to the minimum payment.
I guess my concern, is the way the economy is going….I’m thinking of going to conserve as much cash as I can, less the recession turns into a depression, and which one of us or both of us loses our jobs.
Unfortunately, I have about 60% left on my principle balance and I have only been in this loan for about 5 years (because in addition our initial down was larger than the conventional 20%, and sometimes when bonuses from employment were more than expected, I made the mistake of putting more of the bonus into principle reductions)…Looks like it might backfire now, if there’s a depression.