Mortgage

This started with our own house: could we pay it off early, would it actually save money, and is it still worth it once inflation is counted honestly? Every extra dollar toward principal skips years of scheduled interest, so small prepayments can shave years off a loan. But most of the interest a calculator says you save sits decades out, where inflation has quietly shrunk it.

The first view amortizes your actual loan, fixed or ARM, with recurring extras and one-time lumps, and compares it with the contractual schedule in nominal and today's dollars. The second is the jumbo-loan question: interest is only deductible on the first $750k of the loan, so the slice above the cap is carried entirely with after-tax dollars. It races paying that slice off against leaving the same lump invested, both spending the same cash every month, and gives the breakeven return that decides it.