What are the benefits of aggressive home loan repayments?

Home loans are a huge financial commitment for anyone to undertake – especially first home buyers – and it can be intimidating to lock yourself into such a long-term obligation.

However, owning your own property is an incredibly gratifying experience. Having somewhere to call home that is yours is a feeling that cannot be beaten.

It's important to remember that home loans aren't monolithic, unchangeable concepts that exist inside a vacuum. In fact, it's entirely possible for you to become smart with your repayments and cut years off your overall mortgage if you keep an eye on your finances and get aggressive with mortgage payments.

For example, remember that interest is calculated daily. What this means is the less principal you have left to pay on your home loan, the less interest you end up paying overall. Immediately, the benefits of increasing your minimum repayment amount can be seen.

By chipping away at your loan at a faster rate than normal, you reduce the amount of money that interest can be calculated on, thereby reducing the amount of interest you end up paying overall.

Couple this with an already competitive interest rate and you're in a great position to save yourself money in the long run.

Getting proactive about your repayments also has the benefit of helping you jumpstart the equity building up in your home. Equity is the difference between the value of your home and how much of your loan is left to be repaid, and it can potentially be accessed through refinancing. 

This can be used as a line of credit and accessed for a wide range of applications – anything from property investment to renovations or a well-deserved holiday.