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1993-03-16
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ACCELERATED PAYMENT STRATEGIES
------------------------------
The basic idea in developing an improved prepayment
("acceleration") strategy, especially for mortgages, is to
consider prepaying unequal extra amounts towards principal.
The most common situation is apparently to add the same
extra amount in each regular payment, but this is a poor
approach. The following example shows why.
With no prepayment, a 30-year mortgage for $50,000 at
9% is paid off in 360 monthly installments of $402.31 (total
interest, $94,832.07). If an extra $50 were added to every
payment, the loan would be paid off in 237 payments at a
savings of $37,900 in interest. This simple 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 obtained using a
strategy of unequal prepayments. If, instead, 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
8.635%, a substantial reduction. And the total prepayment
against principal is actually a few hundred dollars less!
Still better strategies can be developed by gradually
tapering the prepayment amount, but this simple example
illustrates the general effect.
Another critical aspect of developing a sound prepay-
ment strategy is taking into account the effect of interest
rate changes. This is particularly important to anyone
financed with an adjustable rate mortgage (ARM). 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.