Originally posted by: Corn
I'm just like you in many respects. I'm 41 years old and only got one credit card which I use to purchase everything (gotta love points) and pay the balance in full every month. I've been doubling up (or more) on my mortgage payments for the last 8 years (my rate is fixed @ 5.875%) and will have my house paid off before I hit 46 years old. My car note is under 3%. I would never encourage anyone to load up on debt, but there is nothing wrong with leveraging other people's money when they offer to practically give it away.....
What I want to know is why would *anyone* get an ARM mortgage--especially over the last 4 years where fixed rates for 30 years were typically below 6%. I can almost understand getting a 3/1 or 5/1 ARM if you *knew* your home was only temporary but even then I like to err on the side of caution.
Um, you sound just like me. And I was the PERFECT candidate for an ARM - especially in the last 4 years. Lets just try some numbers.
Case 1:
[*]$200k mortgage, 30-years fixed at 5.875%, $300/month escrow payments.
[*]Pay it off in 30 years, nothing extra.
[*]Monthly payment: $1483.08.
[*]Paid off in: 30 years.
[*]Total paid (ignoring escrow for fair comparison): $425,904.
Case 2:
[*]$200k mortgage, 30-years fixed at 5.875%, $300/month escrow payments.
[*]Double your payments as you said you do.
[*]Monthly payment: $2966.16 (double from case 1).
[*]Paid off in: 7 years, 10 months.
[*]Total paid (ignoring escrow for fair comparison): $249,859.
Case 3:
[*]$200k mortgage, 5/1 ARM initially fixed at 5.375%, $300/month escrow payments.
[*]Assume worst case scenerio where ARM interest goes up 2% per year after 5 years, thus it becomes 7.375% on year 6, 9.375% on year 7, 11.375% on year 8, etc.
[*]Double your payments as you said you do.
[*]Monthly payment: $2966.16 (double from case 1).
[*]Paid off in: 7 years, 10 months.
[*]Total paid (ignoring escrow for fair comparison): $248,347.
Savings by getting the ARM (case 2 vs case 3): $1512. And this is the very worst case scenerio. Lets try a different scenerio where the interest rates go up 1% per year after the ARM period is up.
Case 4: if ARM rates increase by 1% per year: Savings = $3626.
Case 5: if ARM rates don't increase and stay the same: Savings = $5578.
Case 6: if ARM rates decrease by 1% per year: Savings = $7388.
As you can see, if you had instead gotten the 5/1 ARM, you would have been better off
in all possible scenerios. But this is only true BECAUSE you pay off more than the minimum. You and I are perfect candidates for the ARMs. The initial interest rate decrease by far offsets the minimal increase at the end. Why? Because if you pay off more than the minimum, you won't owe much money when the ARM rates increase. Thus, you aren't affected significantly when rates do increase.