A traditional fixed-rate North Florida mortgage payment consists of two parts, interest on the loan and payment towards the unpaid balance or principle of the loan. The amount you pay towards interest and principal differs dramatically over time. Mortgage loans work so that the early payments are primarily interest, and the later payments are mainly for the principal. Lenders originally developed an “amortization table” to make it fairly easy to gauge how much money of each payment is interest and how much is for the principle balance.