Paying down principal pays off

Today I made the monthly extra principal payment on my second mortgage and while I was online I looked at my account.

I paid $10,400 in interest last year. I paid $3310 so far in interest this year. Yes, that is a lot of money in interest. But consider that even if I did not pay another dollar in principal this year I will still pay about $500 less in interest this year because I paid down some of the principal. Since my monthly payment is about $1000 that means my loan will be paid an extra half month early even if I do nothing else.

I am taking away the power of compounding interest! Hooray for extra payments!