Mortgage Maze: a free game about loans, interest and risk

What is Mortgage Maze?

Three houses, four loans each: fixed or variable, short or long. The cheapest monthly payment is not always the cheapest loan, and rates can move. Pick the loan you can carry for five years.

Mortgage Maze is a free money game about home loans. For each of three houses you see four example loans: fixed or variable rate, shorter or longer.

Then five years play out. Rates move, variable payments follow, and a payment that eats too much of your income turns a dream house into a stretch.

At a glance

Category

Money Moves

Difficulty

Medium

Play time

4–6 min

Price

Free, in your browser, sign-up optional

How to play

Choose

Four example loans per house, with 20% down: rate, fixed or variable, length and monthly payment.

Five years

Rates move each year. Variable loans follow them, fixed ones don't. A payment over 35% of income is stretched, over 45% is sinking.

Three levels

Beginner, Intermediate or Expert, picked before you play: the content and the clock change, and each level keeps its own best score.

Coins

Example numbers in plain fictional coins, made up for the game. Not financial advice.

Scoring

400 for the safe, cheapest loan; 250 for another safe one; 150 if stretched (over 35% of income); 0 if sinking (over 45%).

Three houses, five simulated years each.

What it trains

Interest

How rate and length change the payment and the total.

Risk

Fixed vs variable when rates move.

Strategy and tips

Payment vs income

Keep the monthly payment well under a third of income, even after rates rise.

Longer is not cheaper

A longer loan lowers the payment but adds a lot of interest over the years.

Fixed buys calm

A fixed rate can cost a bit more today and save you when rates climb.

Why play Mortgage Maze?

A home loan is often the biggest money decision of a life. Seeing how rate and length change the payment makes the real choice far less scary.

Frequently asked questions