• Adalast@lemmy.world
    0·
    1 year ago

    When you’re done with the loan and it’s paid off you don’t have to make any more payments, so I’m not sure what you’re trying to express?

    I was tacitly contrasting it with renting. After 30 years of renting, you still are going to be paying rent.

    I personally always got 15-year loans, because with those loans you end up paying the least amount of interest on. Thirty year loans are horrible, considering how much interest you have to pay versus principal, which is why I would suggesting you try to pay it off faster than the 30 years by paying a little bit extra every month with extra principal payments.

    I was less commentating on the term of the loan and more on the total principal value. That said, for some insane reason, a 15-year mortgage also has a lower interest rate, so it is fundamentally the better option. But even with that, if you make $50k/year and are able to find a livable property for 75-80k, and get the 15-year, ostensibly there is little in one’s way from paying it off in 7 to 10 years. Unfortunately livable houses for that price don’t exist anymore for most of the US and making 50k is still a pipe dream. I don’t even make that much and I have a Master’s degree.

    • Kelsenellenelvial@lemmy.ca
      0·
      1 year ago

      Not for everybody, but I’ve heard reasonable advice of getting the mortgage at a longer amortization period, then making extra payments. When I was looking it was typical to be allowed to increase the payment by 10-20% or to make additional payments up to 10-20% of the initial loan amount each year without penalty. That’s enough to potentially be paying it off in under 10 years without penalty(which is often in the range of 3 months simple interest, so still worthwhile if you unexpectedly come in to some money), but also gives you the flexibility of going back to the minimum payments if your financial situation changes.

      Renting does make it cheaper/simpler to change accommodations though. Think things like starting a family and wanting to scale the household up from just two people to adding children and down again when those children move out. Renting makes it simpler to move closer to work, public transportation, schools, Etc. as a persons needs change. On the other hand, there’s also a lot of financial benefits to living in your own home: grants/rebates available for homeowners, not rental properties, being able to save costs by doing your own maintenance/renovations, etc…

      • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
        01·
        1 year ago

        Not for everybody, but I’ve heard reasonable advice of getting the mortgage at a longer amortization period, then making extra payments.

        Could you elaborate? That seems the opposite of all the advice I’ve ever heard of or seen with my own eyes.

        Normally it’s better to get a fifteen year loan, than a thirty year loan and pay extra to try to pay it off in eighteen years.

        In the past at least it seemed it was a lot harder for people to get fifteen year loans than thirty year loans, which is why I was offering the advice of trying to pay a 30-year loan off quickly, as the next best thing.

    • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
      01·
      1 year ago

      Unfortunately livable houses for that price don’t exist anymore for most of the US and making 50k is still a pipe dream. I don’t even make that much and I have a Master’s degree.

      If I may ask, what industry are you working in, that you have a master’s degree but earn so little?

      This is a whole different discussion than the one we’re having about home ownership vs renting, but I don’t think anyone who’s established by the time that they are in their 30s would be making 50k, they would be making a lot more, somewhere past the 100K mark for most professions, in the US at least, major cities.

      In any case, I wouldn’t suggest purchasing a home if you only had that much income available.

      Apologies if this offends in any way, it is not meant to.

      • Adalast@lemmy.world
        0·
        1 year ago

        No, I’m offended by the lack of ability to get a better job, not being asked about it. I have a BS from Kent State University in Applied Mathematics and an MA from The Savannah College of Art and Design in Visual Effects. I took a job 7 years ago when I graduated with a remote company because it let me take care of an ill mother and father so they could get through to their retirement, but it has trapped me in a low-wage situation. The job started at pennies and hasn’t really made it to dollars yet. I am actively applying, but everything in my industry requires credits by this point in my career and I have none, and I look underqualified for the AI sector jobs I am trying to get because I don’t have any on-paper experience there either. So I am a very well-educated bonified genius with verified earth-shattering innovations and capacity-altering skills trapped in a dead-end job with a startup that has never been able to take off high enough to pay me even remotely what I provide to them. I say the innovations are earth-shattering and verified because I have discussed them with people who know what they are talking about, but are not in a position to hire me themselves, and they have confirmed. One friend actually was trying to find me some investment money through his professional and social networks to pursue one of them because it would hit so hard, but his network was not connected to the right people.