Do you really want to pay off your home mortgage? Here is our recommended strategy:

1. Make sure you have a proper emergency savings fund for 2010. We recommend that you have 15 to 18 months of expenses in actual savings (money market savings and certificates of deposit). It’s not 1977 anymore. Having paid your house mortgage down will not save your house from foreclosure if you lose your job and can’t find re-employment at the same level (or it takes you 15 months to do it).

2. Are you putting money into a 401k and Roth IRA or Traditional IRA? If not, you should make sure you are doing this before proceeding with step 3 below.

3. So, you’re ready to use our plan for paying off your mortgage early? Get your amortization schedule on your mortgage and meet us at step 5.

4. Does your mortgage lender allow you to make two half payments per month (instead of one payment a month)? If so, you should look at your spending to see if you can reduce spending enough to switch to the two smaller payments per month. This will equal about one additional payment per year and is a great start to shrinking the mortgage.

5. Look at your payment, principal, interest and balance on your amortization schedule. Focus on the PRINCIPAL. Look at the amounts you are actually paying each month. Do you see how much smaller those amounts are each month?

6. Try to shift your spending and bill paying so that you can add a SECOND payment each month (a third if you are splitting the big payment in half and already paying two smaller amounts each month). Write a separate check each month only for an amount equal to the PRINCIPAL. Write a letter that goes with this check and make sure you tell them this is an ADDITIONAL PRINCIPAL ONLY PAYMENT on top of your regular mortgage payment. Each one of these payments you make will drop an additional month off of your mortgage. With some focus and sacrifice, you can PAY OFF YOUR MORTGAGE faster than you think. Try it.

It all starts with focusing on the smaller principal amounts each month as an additional payment. This will get you along FASTER than you think.

If you have not purchased your home yet but are considering it now, check out additional ways to save on the FRONT END of your mortgage by reading HOW TO SURVIVE ANY FINANCIAL CRISIS at www.middleclassmoney.com.

HELPING YOUR KIDS GET AHEAD

In this country we don’t do enough to teach our children about money, managing money, saving regularly (and automatically), compound interest and steady investing for a long-term future. As a parent, we are always concerned that they get a good education and go to a good college so they can make a lot of money or have a valued career path. The truth is that we could do our children the biggest favor and one of the best things by sharing with them sound saving and investing principles.

You can join our free Facebook group (or have your children do it, too) by searching in the Facebook bar on your “wall” for “Live The Lifestyle Your Family Deserves.” Click on “become a fan.” It’s free and it ties our free blogs into that group.

If you want to give your children the same information we are giving ours, you can purchase the only thing we sell on any of our blogs or groups. It’s called “How To Survive Any Financial Crisis” and you can get it for only $4.95 at www.middleclassmoney.com.

Thank you for reading our blog and good luck!

Loyd Ford
www.stickyasset.com/blog
www.middleclassmoney.com
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