| 
 
 
 
Question 1206015:  You want to buy a $238,000 home. You plan to pay 5% as a down payment, and take out a 30 year loan at 5.5% interest for the rest. 
 
How much money in interest will you save if you finance for 15 years instead of 30 years? 
 Answer by math_tutor2020(3817)      (Show Source): 
You can  put this solution on YOUR website!  
Answer:  $129,619.80
 
 
Work Shown
 
 
home value = $238,000 
down payment = 5% of home value = 0.05*238000 = $11900
 
 
loan amount = home value - down payment 
loan amount = $238,000 - $11,900 
loan amount = $226,100 
Or 
loan amount = 95% of home value (since 5% is already paid off) 
loan amount = 0.95*($238,000) 
loan amount = $226,100
 
 
 
Monthly payment formula 
P = (L*i)/( 1-(1+i)^(-n) ) 
where, 
P = monthly payment 
L = loan amount 
i = monthly interest rate in decimal form 
n = number of months
 
 
In this case, 
L = 226100 
i = 0.055/12
 
 
If you finance for 15 years, aka 15*12 = 180 months, then we'll have n = 180
 
 
Which leads to this monthly payment: 
P = (L*i)/( 1-(1+i)^(-n) ) 
P = (226100*0.055/12)/( 1-(1+0.055/12)^(-180) ) 
P = 1847.425690898 
P = 1847.43
 
 
The monthly payment for a 15 year mortgage is $1847.43 
You can use an online calculator such as this to confirm. 
https://www.calculatorsoup.com/calculators/financial/loan-calculator.php
 
 
If you pay $1847.43 per month for 180 months, then you'll pay back a total of $332,537.40 due to the scratch work 180*1847.43 = 332537.40 
Let A = 332537.40 since we'll refer to this value later.
 
 
 
Now let's consider a 30 year mortgage. 
This is over a span of 12*30 = 360 months. 
We'll have n = 360 but every other input stays the same. 
P = (L*i)/( 1-(1+i)^(-n) ) 
P = (226100*0.055/12)/( 1-(1+0.055/12)^(-360) ) 
P = 1283.770932046 
P = 1283.77
 
 
This time you pay back $1283.77 per month for 360 months.  
The total amount paid back is 360*1283.77 = 462157.20 dollars. 
Let's call this value B.
 
 
Subtract the two results A and B to find how much is saved. 
B - A = 462157.20 - 332537.40 = $129,619.80 which is the final answer.
 
 
 
Or you can compute the interest for each mortgage length and then subtract those interest values to find out how much is saved. 
 
  | 
 
  
 
 |   
 
 |   
 |  |