✓ Verified math — proven against independent references and last checked September 1, 2026; the full proof is under "How this is figured," below the results.
The payment on a Canadian fixed mortgage, figured the way the Interest Act requires — semi-annual compounding, not the monthly convention U.S. calculators assume — and what an accelerated schedule does to the payoff. For the conversation; the structuring is ours.
Two schedules on this page sound almost identical and are not. The figures below use the numbers this tool opens with — $1,000,000 at 5.00% over a 25-year amortization — so they can be reproduced on the panel above. An illustration, not a quoted rate.
They differ by one word and, on the figures this page opens with, by rather more than a hundred thousand dollars. Plain bi-weekly is a calendar change: the annual total is derived from the monthly payment and divided into 26. On $1,000,000 at 5.00% over 25 years that is $2,684.33 every two weeks against $5,816.05 monthly, and both come to $69,792.60 across the year. Accelerated bi-weekly is a different instruction: halve the monthly payment to $2,908.02 and pay it 26 times. Twenty-six half-payments is thirteen monthly payments, not twelve, so the year costs $75,608.65 — and the additional $5,816.05 lands entirely on principal.
Monthly carries $744,814.96 of interest across the full amortization. The accelerated schedule retires the debt in 21 years and 6 months at $623,943.24 — $120,871.71 less, and three and a half years earlier. Plain bi-weekly, by contrast, saves $3,810.21 over twenty-five years. It is worth being blunt about that figure: the calendar change is a convenience, not a strategy, and it is routinely sold as though it were the other one.
That is the real question, and it is one of capital allocation rather than of mortgages. Retiring mortgage debt returns exactly the mortgage rate, with certainty and without attracting tax — a demanding bar for a risk-free result. Against it: the capital becomes illiquid the moment it is applied, recoverable only through a line of credit or a refinance, and the comparison should be drawn against what the same $5,816.05 a year would earn elsewhere on an after-tax basis. For most borrowers the acceleration wins. For a portfolio compounding well above the mortgage rate, it does not.
Where the interest is deductible. Under the direct-use rule, borrowing employed to earn income carries a deduction the household mortgage does not, and retiring that debt early surrenders the deduction along with the interest. Anyone running a deductible structure — a rental portfolio, cash damming, a Smith Manoeuvre — should model the acceleration before automating it, and have their accountant confirm the treatment. Which debt is retired first matters more here than how quickly.
No. The additional payment is part of the schedule rather than a prepayment against it, so the lump-sum and payment-increase allowances remain available in full. Privileges vary by lender and by product; the commitment letter is the authority.
Large or complex financing — jumbo, multiple properties, or borrowing without disturbing a portfolio — structured cleanly and discreetly, in coordination with you.
Arrange a confidential introductionRamin Hallaji, Principal, licensed in British Columbia (BCFSA) and Alberta (RECA) — a private-client desk of Mortgage Guru Financial, Dominion Lending Centres Group · 778-879-6768 · ramin@privatewealthfinancing.ca · Legal & licensing · Privacy policy
Illustration only — not an offer of financing, and not investment, tax, or legal advice. Assumes a fixed rate held for the full amortization, compounded semi-annually (Canadian convention); real mortgages renew every 1–5 years at then-current rates, and rates, approval, and terms are subject to lender qualification and property valuation. Private Wealth Financing arranges mortgage financing only.