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Home loan repayment calculator

Your home loan repayment and where every payment goes, laid out year by year: how much went to interest, how much to principal, and what remains. Built from the same month-by-month arithmetic the lender uses, with weekly and fortnightly options because they change the answer.

Fortnightly is 26 payments a year, not 24, so paying half the monthly amount every fortnight clears the loan sooner. That is a real effect, not a trick.
Interest-only keeps the balance flat while it lasts, so nothing is repaid and the principal still has to be cleared over a shorter remaining term.
Only applies if you chose interest only above. Australian and UK lenders commonly allow up to five years.
Anything above the required payment - every dollar of it goes straight to principal and shortens the schedule below.
Set a target instead of an amount, and this works out the extra payment that gets you there exactly.
Why these starting numbers? The defaults are a round loan at a mid-range rate over a common term, chosen so the first year clearly shows how little of an early repayment reaches the principal. That pattern holds at any rate, but the exact split depends entirely on your own numbers.

Why are early payments mostly interest?

Early payments are mostly interest because interest is charged on the whole outstanding balance, and early on the balance is nearly the whole loan. On $300,000 at 6.5% over 30 years the payment is $1,896.20 a month; in year one roughly $19,340 of the $22,754 paid is interest, and the crossover - the first year in which more goes to principal than interest - does not arrive until well past the halfway mark. Watching the balance column is the clearest cure for underestimating what a mortgage costs.

Why does an extra dollar do more good early than late?

Because every extra dollar comes straight off the balance that interest gets charged on for the entire rest of the loan - pay it in year one and it saves interest every single month from then until the loan ends. Pay the same dollar in the final year and there is barely any "rest of the loan" left for it to save anything on. That is also why the "principal first exceeds interest" line above moves so much when the extra payment field is used: it is not just paying the loan off sooner, it is changing the shape of every payment that comes after it.

What conventions does this schedule use?

Monthly compounding, level payments, no fees or extras - the standard amortizing loan. Rounding is done at display time, so the final year absorbs the few cents of drift instead of hiding them. This page already handles extra payments directly - use the field above to see what they do to the schedule. For offsets and interest-only periods, the loan & mortgage calculator covers those.

Common questions

What is amortization?

Amortization is paying off a debt through regular payments that each cover some interest and some principal, following a fixed schedule until the balance reaches zero. An amortization schedule is the year-by-year breakdown of exactly how much of each payment goes to each part.

Why are early payments mostly interest?

Interest is charged on the outstanding balance, and early in the loan that balance is nearly the full amount borrowed. On a $300,000 loan at 6.5% over 30 years, roughly 85% of the very first year's payments is interest.

What is the difference between amortization and depreciation?

Amortization is paying down a loan balance over time. Depreciation is spreading the cost of a physical asset over its useful life for accounting purposes - a repayment schedule versus a cost allocation.

If I make an extra payment, does my required monthly payment go down?

No, not automatically. An extra payment shortens how long the loan takes to pay off at the same monthly payment - it does not lower the required payment unless you specifically ask your lender to recast the loan.

What is the difference between an amortizing loan and simple interest?

A simple interest loan charges interest only on the original amount for the full term. An amortizing loan recalculates interest each period based on the actual remaining balance, so more of each payment shifts toward principal over time.

How is the monthly payment on an amortizing loan calculated?

From the loan amount, the periodic interest rate, and the number of payments, using the standard annuity formula that produces a fixed payment which exactly zeroes out the balance at the end of the term.

For general information and education only. This tool shows an illustration based on the figures you enter - it does not know your circumstances, tax position, or appetite for risk, and nothing here is financial, investment, tax, or legal advice. It is not intended to be relied on when making a decision about any particular financial product. Before acting, check the figures against your own documents and consider advice from a licensed financial professional in your country.