There are lots of ways to own your home sooner than paying out the full term of years on the contract you signed when you bought the house. One of the first objections to paying off a home early is, "Sure, I'd thrown extra money at it if I had any, but I don't." While I don’t want to neglect sharing other ways you can own your home years sooner, these are so powerful that I’d like to show you some very simple  ways to apply extra money you think you don’t have. 

Found Money

Have you ever put on an old jacket or pulled out a purse you don’t use very often and found $5 in it? If this happy event has occurred to you, I would bet you that fiver and fifty more that you didn’t even think about putting it on your mortgage. But look at this example:

• $5 placed on a 30-year mortgage
• In its first year
• Assuming around an 8% interest rate
• Yields a $50 return.

In other words, you can turn $5 into $50 if you put it on your mortgage instead of on Princess Three White Socks in the fourth.

You might even find money in a parking lot. Who knows? 

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Rebates

Most people love rebates, even though it may be a bit of a scam to pay full price for something the company really wants to put on sale, but they need cash now, so they take full price and after collecting your mailing address (which they will likely sell or rent for a tidy sum), they mail you a few dollars in two or three months. We’re complicitous in the game so it’s all right.

Let’s say you’re able to snag one or more rebates averaging $12 per year and you submit that $12 once a year on your mortgage principal. On a 30-year home loan at 7% interest (per year!), you’ll cut over a month off your payoff on a $100,000 home loan, saving $818.40 in interest alone. The $360 you paid in as extra principal payments you would have had to pay anyway. By paying it early, with as little as $12/year, you saved nearly a thousand dollars. I’d say you’re pretty smart, wouldn’t you? 

Loose Change

If you throw your loose change into a dish or jar, you might be surprised at how quickly it adds up. I used to always carry change, and enjoyed paying exactly for purchases. But something shifted in my life and I started dropping coins into a ceramic  bowl on a table in the living room. I admit, I’ve scavenged quarters there a coup-le of times, and even nickels once, but overall, I’m surprised that I don’t miss having so much change on me.

If you average a couple dollars a week in change, once a month you could put $8.25 on your mortgage principal, and cut a year and two months off your 30 yr mortgage ($100,000 at 7%)! That $6,707.70.

I found $.07 in the washing machine today. That’s part of my financial freedom.

That’s not all…

• Click to read even more easy, painless ways, to own your home years sooner.