Guides
These pages explain the same fixed-rate formula as the calculator. They are worked examples, not a payoff letter and not advice to borrow, refinance, or prepay.
The homepage opens on a $300,000 loan at 6.5% for 30 years. Several guides use that sample so you can retype it. Others use a $400,000 loan at the same rate, which is labeled in the first paragraph of those pages. When a figure is in cents, it came from the formula. When a total is in whole dollars, it is the calculator’s on-screen rounding.
The guides
- Where your payment actually goesMonth 1 of a 30-year loan, the year principal finally exceeds interest, and why an extra dollar early beats the same dollar later.
- Extra paymentsOne extra payment a year, a monthly extra, extra versus investing, snowball versus avalanche, and recast versus prepay.
- Biweekly paymentsWhy 26 half-payments equal 13 full ones, what the bi-weekly toggle does to the $300,000 sample, and how close that is to adding one-twelfth each month.
- Refinance break-evenA lower payment can still raise lifetime interest if the term starts over. Cash break-even and interest, on the sample loan after five years.
- Choosing a payoff timeline15 years versus 30, the employer match, a different refinance example, prepayment penalties, and life stage.
- Principal and interest on a 60-month auto loanEarly payments on a car note are already mostly principal. What $50 and $100 extra actually save, and why that differs from a new mortgage.
What the calculator will and will not do
It will recompute when you change the loan amount, the rate, the term, the extra monthly amount, the one-time amount, or the frequency. The one-time amount lands in month 6, or in bi-week 13. Bi-weekly rows are two weeks, not months.
It will not include taxes, insurance, or a lender fee. It will not show two loans side by side. It will not tell you whether to send the extra payment. If your statement does not match, the usual reasons are in the about page: daily interest, escrow, or a servicer that did not apply the extra to principal. Write to contact@loanpayoffchart.com if a guide and the calculator disagree with each other.