--- title: Working in 10 year time spans description: A financial plan I personally follow is keeping any commitments to fewer than 10 years. 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In current times we have very easy access to very large amounts of loans. While access to this money enables us to enrich our lives and possessions it can also place a huge financial burden on us, chaining us to debt for all of our working life if we are not careful. The reason I like sticking under a 10 year timeframe can easily be understood by comparing a 10 year term to a 30 year term. I’ll use $500,000 as the borrowing amount at 6%: |   | Total Payments |   | Interest Paid | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 10 year term |  $           666,123 |   |  $       166,123 | | 30 year term |  $       1,079,191 |   |  $       579,191 | As the table shows, the price for borrowing $500,000 for a 10 year term is $166,123 which is still a total interest cost of 33% of the borrowed amount. For the 30 year term the cost is $579,191 or 116% of the borrowed amount.  33% I can accept, 116% has no appeal. It is not necessarily simple to understand how to work within 10 year blocks. Having a mortgage structure that allows you to pay off a loan in 10 years can be very different to a mortgage with a 10 year term. The former can be quite flexible while the latter very rigid. What is important is having a plan or understanding of how this can be achieved. It will be different for everyone. Moving in 10 year blocks instead of 30 year blocks creates enormous opportunity – better houses, greater investments and ways to give you are far better work/life balance. Before you commit to your next financial decision why not see how it can be achieved in 10 years or less? *The information contained in this article is of a general nature and should not be taken as advice. It reflects the opinions of the writer only and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of New Zealand Home Loans.* [![New call-to-action](https://hubspot-no-cache-ap1-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/cta/default/5029003/15f9b75f-b0b2-4fde-a7e7-54af0db03053.png)](https://hubspot-cta-redirect-ap1-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/cta/redirect/5029003/15f9b75f-b0b2-4fde-a7e7-54af0db03053)   - NZHL *Author* **Share this article** - LinkedIn - Facebook - Twitter - Google - Reddit - Tumblr ##### Related Articles [![Want to shave years off your mortgage? Make interest rates work for you](https://blog.nzhl.co.nz/hs-fs/hubfs/shutterstock_209153143.jpg?width=300&name=shutterstock_209153143.jpg)](https://blog.nzhl.co.nz/articles/want-to-shave-years-off-your-mortgage-make-interest-rates-work-for-you) [**Want to shave years off your mortgage? 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