Refinancing: How Much Will You Save in the Long Run?

People borrow money for all sorts of reasons, but when it comes to refinancing their loans, people predominantly choose to do so for what comes down to be two simple reasons:

1. To increase personal cash flow by reducing the size of their loan payments.
2. To increase their wealth by reducing the total amount paid over the remaining life of the loan.

Political Calculations has previously looked at whether it makes sense to refinance a loan purely on the basis of whether an individual's increased cash flow would cover the costs of refinancing, but today, we'll investigate the second reason people choose to restructure their debt.

The tool below has been set up with default data that shows the individual's monthly payment going up substantially after refinancing. Does it make sense to refinance given this circumstance? Just click the "Calculate" button to find out!

As an added bonus, you can use the tool below with your own numbers to determine whether or not it makes sense to refinance your loan by comparing how much you would have paid if you simply let your existing loan ride against what you'll pay if you refinance:

Current Loan Data
Input Data	Values
Installment Payment Amount
Number of Remaining Payments
Refinanced Loan Data
Installment Payment Amount
Number of Remaining Payments
Refinancing Charges

Total Payments and Potential Savings
Calculated Results	Values
Amount to be Paid on Existing Loan
Amount to be Paid on Refinanced Loan
Savings (Costs if Negative)

Some Analysis

Using our default data, we see that even if your monthly payment costs go up after refinancing, it's still possible that you will save money overall, depending upon the size of your new payment and how long your new loan lasts!

Then again, if the amount of your payments went up *and* you have a negative result in the tool above, it would be much to your advantage to keep your existing loan as it is.