Do you remember studying homonyms* in school? (*words with a specific similarity) One of the pairs of words that sounds the same but is spelled differently and carries different meaning is 1) principal and 2) principle. (For the excessively curious, these are technically heteronyms; that is, words that are spelled differently but sound the same, a subcategory of homonyms.)

I remember learning:

Here's how you tell the difference. The school principal is spelled princi-PAL because he's your "pal."

Actually, the school principal is p-a-l because he is the first person in the school, the chief, the leader, numero uno. And in those days, in my schools, the school principal was always a "he."

Principles, princi-PLES, are guidelines, rules, things that disci-PLES might follow. In other words, the ways certain things work.

With those differentiations clearly in our heads, may I just say here that I was disturbed to determine the amount owing on my mortgage is my mortgage princiPAL. Do you see the problem? It doesn't feel very pal-ish to me. No friend here. Not even school principal friendly. But it does come first, in the scheme of things. You always owe your mortgage principal, until it's paid off. You can pay interest forever and ever - or none at all if your mom is loaning you the money. But the principal is numero uno.

Regardless of the idiosyncrasies of the English language, financial independence may depend upon a clear understanding of how these heteronyms work together. For example, one success principle is to reduce your mortgage principal as quickly as possible. The faster you reduce your mortgage principal, the shorter the time you will need to make payments on your loan. The next principle is, the shorter the term of your loan, the less interest you will pay on the loan. Following that, the less interest you pay on your loan, the more money you have to spend on yourself and your family - your principal concerns.

So, even if you get the spelling confused, use them together to accelerate your mortgage payoff. The interest you save will be principal to you!