Your mortgage is by far the largest amount of debt you will ever undertake in your entire life. No matter where you are in the mortgage repayment process, there are ways to pay down your mortgage faster.

When you do not have a mortgage, you are essentially free. You will have so much extra income leftover at the end of the month, and you will not have to work as hard.

With that excellent picture fresh in your mind, here are four ways you can pay off your mortgage faster.

Pay extra to the principal
First, find out what your annual pre-payment allowance is on your mortgage. Then, anytime you get extra money, put it towards your mortgage. If you receive a raise, put the extra money towards your mortgage. If you get a bonus, put it towards your mortgage. You are already accustomed to living without the extra money, so why not continue? You will thank yourself in the end.

Use your tax refund
Similar to the first point, make sure you know what your annual prepayment allowance is. Most mortgages allow you to put a lump sum of 10-20% of the original principal down each year without a penalty. Check your original mortgage documents for this information.

Accelerate the payments
You may have seen the payment option titled “accelerated biweekly.” By switching your payment to every two weeks to align with your pay or even every week, you will cut down your mortgage timeline by as much as five years depending on the size of the mortgage! By paying monthly, you pay twelve times per year, every year. Because there are more biweekly periods in the year than monthly periods, you end up paying extra towards the principal. You should utilize this payment plan with any substantial debt, including a car payment.

Round up the payments
I have this mindset where all of the payments coming out of my account have to be even, whole numbers. My car payment was $285; I made it $300. If your mortgage is $1467.86, make it $1500. That extra $32.14 will make a huge difference in the long-run.

How to Pay Down Your Mortgage Faster by AOL Real Estate