The YouTube channel
Finance with Fred
Every video works one decision all the way through on real numbers. Under each episode below is a free worksheet or calculator that runs the same math on your own loan, so you are not stuck watching someone else run theirs.
Episode 1
Which extra payment ends thirty years first
Biweekly, a flat extra amount, or one lump sum. They do not do the same thing, and the one most people are sold is not the one that wins. The worksheet puts your own loan through all four, and ranks them.
Get the worksheet →Episode 3
Early mortgage payoff or investing
There is a return the market has to clear before investing the money beats putting it on the house. It is not your note rate, and it is not the same number for you as for anyone else. Two cells in the worksheet and you have yours.
Get the worksheet →Episodes 8 to 14
The newest episodes and their worksheets
Each new episode has its own page with a free worksheet or the free Retirement Money Blueprint, so you can run the same math on your own numbers.
- One check worksheet (episode 14, Tuesday October 13)
- House to care months (episode 13, Saturday October 10)
- Gift the house or leave it: run your own numbers (episode 12, Thursday October 8)
- Keep the loan or clear it with your 401(k) (episode 11, Tuesday October 6)
- How Much of a $150,000 Downsize Do You Actually Keep? (episode 10, Saturday October 3)
- Which Senior Property Tax Break Saves $11,224? (episode 9)
- Where Should Your $2,402 Mortgage Payment Go Next? (episode 8)
Every episode, newest first
Written and fact-checked by James Smiling, PhD, founder of Debt Clarity Tools.
How Much 401(k) Does a $220,000 Mortgage Need?
Pay off the mortgage before retirement or keep paying it from your 401(k)? On $220,000 at 4% with 15 years left, keeping it takes $233,844 of 401(k) money at a 5% return, while clearing it takes a $276,087 withdrawal. Keeping wins until the rate climbs just above 6.5%.
Get the free Keep the Loan or Clear It worksheet →
How Much of a $150,000 Downsize Do You Actually Keep?
Sell for $450,000, buy for $300,000, and the napkin says $150,000. On closing day in Fred's example you keep $110,500, and the lines most people leave off take it to $100,600, about 67 cents on the dollar.
Get the free Downsize Tally worksheet →
Which Senior Property Tax Break Saves $11,224?
Over-65 exemption or the school tax ceiling: on a $350,000 Texas home the exemption saves $600 a year, while the lid adds up to $11,224 over ten years at 5% growth.
Get the free worksheet for this episode →
Where Should Your $2,402 Mortgage Payment Go Next?
Once the mortgage is paid off, the $2,402 a month it took is free. This episode works through where that money should go next, in order.
Get the free page for this episode →
How Do You Get PMI Removed and Keep $181 a Month?
How to ask your servicer to cancel PMI at 80% of original value instead of waiting for automatic removal at 78%, and what waiting costs.
Get the free page for this episode →
At What Loan Rate Should You Pay Cash for a Car?
Pay cash or finance the car? Fred shows why a 3.06% loan rate is the dividing line on a $40,000 car.
Run your own car loan in the free auto loan calculator →
What Do You Still Pay After Your Mortgage Is Paid Off?
The house is paid off, but property tax and insurance keep coming. Fred shows which part of the payment stays and how to plan for it.
Find your own payoff date in the free mortgage payoff calculator →
How Does a Mortgage Recast Cut $373 a Month?
How a mortgage recast works after a $50,000 lump sum, and how it lowers the payment by $372.79 a month without refinancing.
Run your own loan in the free mortgage payoff calculator →
What Return Beats Paying Off a 6.5% Mortgage Early?
Paying extra on a 6.5% mortgage or investing instead: why the market has to clear about 7.3%, not 6.5%, before investing wins.
Get the free worksheet for this episode →
Why Is Your Mortgage Payoff Quote $1,700 Higher?
Why the payoff quote from your lender is higher than the balance on your statement, and what to check before you send the last payment.
Check your own balance and payoff date in the free mortgage payoff calculator →
Which Extra Mortgage Payment Ends Your Loan First?
Fred compares an extra $100 a month, $200 a month, biweekly payments and $343 a month on a $380,000 mortgage at 6.5%, and shows which one ends the loan first.
Get the free worksheet for this episode →
Eight calculators, free, no email
If you only want a date and a number, skip the worksheets. The calculators on the main site are free, need no account and hold nothing back.
Open the free calculators · Get the free Retirement Money Blueprint
Fred is the voice of the channel, not a person and not a financial adviser. The arithmetic behind every episode is mine, and every figure on screen is one I can show you the working for. Educational information, not financial advice.