Dave Mortgage Calculator
A lender will happily approve a house payment that eats a third of your paycheck. Dave Ramsey’s test is stricter, and it comes before the house hunt: put 20% down, take a 15-year fixed, and keep the payment at or under 25% of your take-home pay. This calculator runs that test on your numbers.
Enter a home price, down payment, rate, and term, and you get the monthly principal-and-interest payment, the total interest over the life of the loan, a side-by-side 15-year versus 30-year comparison at your own rate, and, if you add an extra monthly payment, your new debt-free date and the interest it saves. It is an independent tool built on Ramsey’s published principles, not affiliated with or endorsed by Ramsey Solutions.
Estimate, not financial advice. This is an independent tool inspired by Dave Ramsey’s published principles. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Ramsey Solutions. Results cover principal and interest only; add property taxes, homeowners insurance, and any PMI for your full monthly housing cost, and confirm final numbers with your lender.
Quick Answer
Key takeaways
- Ramsey's mortgage test has three parts: 20% down, a 15-year fixed term, and a payment at or under 25% of take-home pay. This tool checks all three instead of just quoting a payment.
- Term beats rate as an interest driver at these numbers. Holding the rate at 6.5%, stretching 15 years to 30 costs $169,788.39 more in interest on a $240,000 loan.
- Extra principal is Baby Step 6 math: $200 a month extra cuts two full years and $20,880.74 of interest off the worked example.
- The payment shown is principal and interest only. Taxes, insurance, HOA dues, and PMI sit on top, and Ramsey's 25% rule is meant to cover the whole housing payment.
- Quick Answer
- Running the Ramsey test on a house, step by step
- The amortization formula this tool runs
- Worked example: a $300,000 home at 6.5%
- What an extra $200 a month does to this loan
- 15-year or 30-year: the trade-offs in one place
- Still carrying card and loan balances? The house comes second
- What competing Ramsey mortgage calculators miss
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Add This Calculator to Your Website
Running the Ramsey test on a house, step by step
Start with the price and the cash you actually have for a down payment, not the cash you hope to have by closing. Enter the rate from a real lender quote if you have one; if you are still shopping, the weekly averages in the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey give you an honest market rate to test with. Leave the term at 15 years for the first run, because that is the loan Ramsey recommends and the one the 25% rule is built around.
Enter price, down payment, and rate. The loan amount is price minus down payment. On the pre-filled example, $300,000 minus $60,000 leaves a $240,000 loan.
Read the payment, then the verdict badge. If you entered take-home pay, the badge states your exact percentage and whether it passes the 25% rule. A pass on principal and interest alone is a pass with an asterisk: the rule is meant for the full payment.
Compare the 15-year and 30-year columns. Both use your rate and your loan amount, so the interest gap between them is your gap, not a national average pulled from someone else's loan.
Test an extra payment you could sustain. The simulation replays the loan month by month with the extra included and reports the new payoff time, the debt-free date, and the interest saved.
One run is rarely the end of it. Buyers usually work backwards: fix the income, then lower the price or raise the down payment until the 15-year payment fits under 25%. That backwards pass is the real affordability test, and it is stricter than the gross-income ratios lenders use. If you want that lender-side view as well, the affordability ratio calculator works from income and debts the way an underwriter frames them.
The amortization formula this tool runs
The payment comes from the standard fixed-rate amortization formula, the same one lenders use. Nothing about it is Ramsey-specific; his rules sit on top of it as checks.
Two consequences of that formula explain most of what the results show. First, interest is front-loaded: in the early years most of each payment is interest because the balance is at its largest, which is why extra principal early in the loan saves so much more than the same extra paid late. Second, term stretches interest far more than it cuts the payment, because doubling the years does not halve the payment; it mostly adds years of interest charges. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Owning a Home toolkit walks through the same payment components for shoppers comparing Loan Estimates, and IRS Publication 936 covers when the interest on a loan like this is deductible for itemizers.
Worked example: a $300,000 home at 6.5%
The calculator is pre-filled with this case, and every figure in the table is what it returns when you press Calculate.
| Measure | Result | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| Loan amount ($300,000 minus $60,000) | $240,000.00 | 20% down, so no PMI on a conventional loan |
| 15-year payment, principal and interest | $2,090.66/mo | The Ramsey-recommended structure |
| Total interest, 15 years | $136,318.38 | Total of all payments: $376,318.38 |
| 30-year payment, same loan and rate | $1,516.96/mo | $573.70 a month lower |
| Total interest, 30 years | $306,106.77 | $169,788.39 more |
| 25% rule at $9,000 take-home pay | 23.2% | Passes, on principal and interest |
Read the trade honestly. The 30-year payment is $573.70 a month easier to carry, and for a household that would otherwise have no emergency fund, that breathing room is not nothing. What Ramsey's framework insists on is seeing the price tag attached to that comfort: $169,788.39 of extra interest, and a mortgage that follows you into a different decade of your life. His answer is to buy a cheaper house on the 15-year structure rather than the same house on the 30-year one. Lenders frame the same question through debt-to-income limits instead, and the 45% debt-to-income ratio calculator shows how much looser those limits are than the 25% rule.
What an extra $200 a month does to this loan
Extra principal is where the mortgage stops being a purchase decision and becomes Baby Step 6: paying off the home early, after non-mortgage debt is gone and the emergency fund is full. The tool's month-by-month simulation on the worked example gives this ladder:
| Extra per month | Payoff time | Interest saved |
|---|---|---|
| $0 (payment only) | 15 years | $0 |
| $100 | 13 years, 11 months | $11,347.10 |
| $200 | 13 years | $20,880.74 |
| $300 | 12 years, 2 months | $29,012.12 |
| $500 | 10 years, 9 months | $42,173.52 |
Starting in October 2026, the $200 row puts the debt-free date in October 2039; the tool always counts forward from the day you run it. Two practical points before you send extra money. Tell your servicer in writing that the extra applies to principal, not as an advance payment toward next month, and check your note for a prepayment penalty; most modern conventional loans have none, but the check costs one phone call. If you are instead weighing a new loan against the one you have, the cost to refinance mortgage calculator prices the closing costs and break-even point of switching.
15-year or 30-year: the trade-offs in one place
Neither term is free. The 15-year charges you monthly cash flow; the 30-year charges you interest and time. Laying the two side by side is the fastest way to see which cost your household can actually bear.
15-year fixed, the Ramsey pick
- Interest on the example: $136,318.38, less than half the 30-year cost
- Equity builds fast, so a move in year five leaves you with real proceeds
- Debt-free date arrives while kids are still home, not after they leave
- Cons: the $2,090.66 payment is rigid; a job loss hits a bigger fixed cost
- Cons: passing the 25% rule usually means a cheaper house or a bigger down payment
30-year fixed, the flexibility pick
- Payment on the example: $1,516.96, freeing $573.70 a month of cash flow
- Easier to qualify for, and easier to survive a bad month on
- You can voluntarily pay it like a 15-year, and some borrowers do
- Cons: $306,106.77 of interest if you pay only the scheduled amount
- Cons: most borrowers never sustain the voluntary extra, which is Ramsey's core objection
His published position, in Ramsey Solutions' guide to how much house you can afford, is that the full housing payment, taxes, insurance, HOA dues, and PMI included, should stay at or under 25% of take-home pay on a 15-year fixed. Run your numbers both ways here; the tool does not block the 30-year, it prices it.
Still carrying card and loan balances? The house comes second
In the Baby Steps order, this mortgage page is the end of the story, not the start. Baby Step 2 clears all non-mortgage debt first, Baby Step 3 builds three to six months of expenses, and only then do the down payment and the house arrive; extra mortgage principal is Baby Step 6, after investing and college saving have started. If you still have credit cards, a car loan, or a personal loan in the mix, run those numbers first with the Dave Ramsey loan calculator, which builds a debt snowball payoff order across several debts and prices it against the avalanche method. The two tools are deliberately different: that one orders multiple debts for payoff, this one underwrites a single mortgage against Ramsey's buying rules. When the other debts are gone and you are pricing the purchase itself end to end, the buy a home calculator adds the closing-side costs this page leaves out.
What competing Ramsey mortgage calculators miss
The tools reviewed for this page tend to split the job or soften the test. The gaps below are the ones that change a decision.
Miss 1: the payoff test and the buying test live on separate pages. Ramsey Solutions itself splits them: its mortgage calculator estimates a purchase payment, and its mortgage payoff calculator is a different tool with different inputs. A buyer deciding whether extra principal makes a 15-year survivable has to re-enter the loan twice. Here the payment, the comparison, and the extra-payment simulation share one set of inputs.
Miss 2: a 25% rule mentioned, but never scored. Ramsey-branded clones describe the 25% rule in their prose, then return a payment with no percentage and no verdict. This tool takes your take-home pay and reports the exact figure, 23.2% on the worked example, with a pass or over-limit verdict you can act on.
Miss 3: the 15 vs 30 comparison at a blended or different rate. Several comparison tools quietly give the 15-year a lower rate than the 30-year, which is realistic in the market but hides how much of the saving is the term itself. This comparison holds your rate constant on both sides, so the $169,788.39 gap is purely the cost of time.
One honest limit in the other direction: the official Ramsey mortgage calculator folds estimated taxes, insurance, and PMI into its payment breakdown, and this tool does not. It computes principal and interest only, and says so wherever the 25% verdict appears. If your taxes and insurance are heavy, the full payment can fail the rule even when the principal-and-interest figure here passes it.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. It is an independent tool built on his published principles: a 15-year fixed term, 20% down, and the 25% rule. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Ramsey Solutions.
Your total monthly housing payment should be no more than 25% of your monthly take-home pay. Ramsey uses take-home pay, not gross income, which makes the rule stricter than the debt-to-income limits most lenders apply. This tool checks the principal-and-interest portion and reports your exact percentage; add taxes, insurance, and PMI for the full test.
Interest and time. On the worked example, a $240,000 loan at 6.5%, the 30-year costs $169,788.39 more in interest than the 15-year at the same rate, and keeps you in debt twice as long. The 15-year payment is higher, which is why his framework pairs it with a cheaper house or a larger down payment rather than a bigger loan.
No. Ramsey recommends 20% down because it avoids private mortgage insurance on a conventional loan, and the tool reminds you when your down payment is below that line, but it calculates your payment, comparison, and payoff either way.
Each extra dollar reduces principal directly, so the next month's interest is charged on a smaller balance. The tool simulates that month by month: on the worked example, $200 a month extra ends the loan in 13 years instead of 15 and saves $20,880.74 in interest. Tell your servicer to apply extra money to principal, not as an advance payment.
Baby Step 6 is paying off your home early. In Ramsey's plan it comes after Baby Step 2 (clearing non-mortgage debt with the debt snowball), Baby Step 3 (a fully funded emergency fund), and the start of investing and college saving in Baby Steps 4 and 5. The extra payment field on this calculator models exactly that step.
Ramsey's answer, inside his plan order, is to invest 15% of income first (Baby Step 4) and then attack the mortgage with what is left. An extra mortgage payment earns a guaranteed return equal to your loan rate with no market risk. Long-term market returns have often been higher than mortgage rates, so the pure math can favor investing; the tool shows the guaranteed side exactly, and the investing side depends on returns nobody can promise.
No, and that limit is stated wherever the results appear. It computes principal and interest only. Add your estimated monthly property tax, homeowners insurance, HOA dues, and any PMI to get the full housing payment before you judge it against the 25% rule.
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References
- Ramsey Solutions, "Mortgage Calculator" - the official Ramsey purchase calculator, including its payment breakdown and 15-year versus 30-year comparison. Ramsey Solutions: Mortgage Calculator. Accessed October 2026.
- Ramsey Solutions, "Know How Much House You Can Afford" - the published source for the 25% of take-home pay rule, including taxes, insurance, HOA fees, and PMI in the payment. Ramsey Solutions: How Much House You Can Afford. Accessed October 2026.
- Ramsey Solutions, "Am I Ready to Buy a House?" - readiness conditions behind the rules: debt-free apart from the mortgage decision, an emergency fund, and a down payment. Ramsey Solutions: Financially Ready to Buy a Home. Accessed October 2026.
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, "Owning a Home" - the federal home-buying toolkit covering Loan Estimates, payment components, and closing costs. CFPB: Owning a Home. Accessed October 2026.
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, "Private Mortgage Insurance" - what PMI is, why lenders require it under 20% down, and when it can be cancelled or ends. CFPB: Private Mortgage Insurance. Accessed October 2026.
- Freddie Mac, "Primary Mortgage Market Survey Archive" - the weekly 15-year and 30-year fixed-rate averages used to sanity-check the rate in any worked example. Freddie Mac: PMMS Archive. Accessed October 2026.
- Internal Revenue Service, "Publication 936, Home Mortgage Interest Deduction" - the rules for deducting mortgage interest and qualified mortgage insurance premiums. IRS: Publication 936. Accessed October 2026.
- Federal Trade Commission, "Shopping for a Mortgage FAQs" - federal guidance on comparing lenders, Loan Estimates, and Closing Disclosures. FTC: Shopping for a Mortgage FAQs. Accessed October 2026.
- Federal Housing Finance Agency, "House Price Index" - the standard US house price series for judging whether a local price level is stretched. FHFA: House Price Index. Accessed October 2026.
- Ramsey Solutions Help Center, "The 7 Baby Steps" - the plan order this page follows, with Baby Step 2 (debt snowball) before the house and Baby Step 6 (pay off the home early) after investing begins. Ramsey Solutions Help Center: The 7 Baby Steps. Accessed October 2026.