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1993-03-16
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GENERAL COMMENTS ON ACCELERATIONS & SPLs
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Prepayment strategies, especially for mortgages, should
consider prepaying unequal extra amounts towards principal.
A simple example makes the point. With no prepayment, a 30-
year mortgage for $50,000 at 9% is paid off in 360 monthly
installments of $402.32 (total interest, $94,835.20). The
simplest prepayment strategy, and the one suggested by the
article, is to add the same extra amount each month. If an
extra $50 were added to every payment, the loan is paid off
in 237 payments, and $37,900 is saved in interest. This
strategy yields an effective annual percentage rate (APR) of
8.978%. Over the life of the loan, it prepays a total of
$11,850 toward the principal.
Significantly better results are provided by a strategy
using unequal prepayments. If an extra $100 were added to
the first 60 payments and $35 to the rest, then the mortgage
is retired in only 218 payments, and $45,614 is saved in
interest. The effective APR drops to 8.645%, a substantial
reduction. And the total prepayment against principal is
actually a few hundred dollars less! Still better strat-
egies can be developed by gradually tapering the prepayment
amount, but this simple examples illustrates the general
effect.
Another important concern in developing a good
prepayment strategy is the effect of interest rate changes.
This is particularly important to anyone financed with an
adjustable rate mortgage. When, and by how much, the
interest is changed will materially affect the performance
of any prepayment schedule. Even the best strategy can fall
apart because of interest rate fluctuations that weren't
taken into account when it was developed. Proper
consideration of this issue is a must for anyone thinking of
prepaying an ARM.
Besides prepaying existing loans, there are alternative
borrowing strategies that should also be considered. One of
the best, and most under-utilized, is the skip payment
loan. In an SPL, specific payments to be skipped are
prenegotiated by the borrower and the lender at the time the
loan is made. SPLs are very useful in leveling cash flow,
and they can be prepaid like any other direct reduction
loan.
Parents looking ahead to college expenses, for example,
can use an SPL mortgage to plan for major cash flow
variations years before they actually occur. The best SPL
schedules allow you to skip any prenegotiated sequence of
payments, not just the same ones each year. In the college
planning situation, the first skipped payments probably
won't occur until many years after the loan begins. SPLs
are also useful to individuals with fluctuating income, or
who experience cash crunches due to holiday gift-giving,
vacation costs, or other predictable expenses.