Becca Stanek

Principal: This money is applied straight to your loan balance.
Interest: This is the cost of borrowing the money. How much you’ll pay is indicated by your interest rate.
Escrow costs: If you opt to use an escrow account (or your lender requires it), you’ll also have your property taxes, mortgage insurance , and homeowners insurance rolled into your monthly mortgage payment.

10+ years as a writer and editor.
7+ years in personal finance.
Work has appeared on Buy Side from WSJ, LendingTree, Forbes, Fox Business, SoFi, SmartAsset, The Week, Time, MSN, AOL, and Yahoo Finance.

Bio and experience

Becca Stanek is a writer and editor with more than 10 years of experience, including over seven years in personal finance. She has expertise in student and personal loans, mortgages, banking, retirement, taxes, and budgeting.

Becca previously worked as the managing editor for investing and savings content at LendingTree and an editor at SmartAsset. Prior to that, she was a staff writer at The Week. Becca is currently a contributing writer for SoFi, Forbes, Buy Side from WSJ, and The Week.