I am in the process of rapidly eliminating my home mortgage.

It is a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage with a decent interest rate. When someone hears that I am paying off my mortgage early, I am commonly asked two questions. The first question is, “How are you paying it off early?” The second question is “Why are you paying it off early?”

There are various strategies for early payoff. A very common method is to establish biweekly half-payments. This results in one extra monthly payment being applied toward principal each year. This one simple adjustment will reduce a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage by 5.5 years! For a 30-year, 6 percent, fixed-rate $100,000 mortgage, this will save $24,812 in interest. A very similar result can be accomplished by sending in one extra payment each year.

Many people do this with a portion of their tax refund. The key is to have all of the extra money applied to the mortgage principal balance.

One also can send extra money every month and have it applied toward the principal balance. This is the method that works best for my family.

Why am I paying off my mortgage early? There are several reasons. In the mortgage disclosure, I saw the total cost of financing and realized that I would pay more than the entire mortgage loan amount in interest if I followed the 30-year repayment plan. For a 30-year, 6 percent, fixed-rate $100,000 mortgage, the total interest paid is $115,838! That is another house.

The mortgage payment is a substantial drain on my home economy, so I prefer to live with a tight budget for a little while right now than pay a mortgage payment for the next 30 years. When the mortgage is paid off, I will have given myself a tremendous pay raise.

I also am concerned that I have pledged a portion of my income to a bank for the next 30 years. I am positioning my family to be 100 percent debt free within the next couple of years. I have caught a vision of what life is like when there are zero debt payments. I am ready to try it out.

Finally, I am attacking the mortgage because of the Sangl Family Home Pay-Off Spectacular that is on the side of our refrigerator. It is an outline of our house filled with blank squares and works much the same way that a United Way giving thermometer works. As we pay down a portion of the loan, we get to color in more squares.

When I first prepared this chart, I realized that I could no longer answer “Yes” to the question, “Are you a homeowner?” I had to answer honestly, “Nope. Wells Fargo is my homeowner.” God willing and if the creek does not rise, I soon will be able to answer, “Yes, I am a homeowner.”

Joe provides monthly updates to his Sangl

Family Home Pay-Off Spectacular on his

Web site, JosephSangl.com.