The monthly repayments for 30 year or 15 year fixed mortgage are just one important consideration for many people who are looking to buy a home. Many of us are buying homes later in life these days so it is not unreasonable to have the house paid off early. Although before signing any documents, there are many things to consider. One important point is to ensure that the interest rate doesn’t change during the life of the loan.

It is not uncommon to see lenders offering deals that are too good to be true. For loans that have 15 year fixed mortgage rates, the same amount of interest is maintained throughout the life of the loan. This is of great benefit for anyone that does not like surprises. Both my wife and I decided to research fixed rate mortgages when we started looking at homes for sale.

Having a realistic, sustainable monthly payment on our mortgage was important even though we wanted to pay off our debt as soon as possible. This meant we had to consider 30 year fixed rate mortgage plans as well as those of 15 years. The problem was that we weren’t very happy about having a mortgage close to when we both retired so it was our hope a 15 year fixed mortgage rate would still be available to us. We felt that there was a great deal of emphasis on paying the mortgage off early.

Taking everything into account we finally went for the easier 30 year mortgage plan instead. There were many things that lead us into making this choice. It was easier reaching this conclusion when I learnt my wife was expecting a baby. As she intended to raise our child at home we couldn’t rely on her financial income to the monthly expenditure. The problem we could see was the increased financial commitment on a monthly basis if we had opted for the 15 year fixed mortgage rate. We just decided we would probably get into trouble if we took this route. Despite the trepidation of having a longer term loan, it did reduce the repayments considerably.

We found that if we could make a few extra payments throughout each year then it would gradually reduce the principle sum owed. To our surprise we also discovered that we could knock years off our loan by doing this. This is well worth it in the long term but it does require some discipline. Taking our needs and abilities into account was more important than our desire for a shorter term mortgage plan. All things considered, it all worked out for the best in the end.