Be Smart With Your Money - Pay off your Mortgage Faster! - By: Sabina Montgomery-Swan

Ever wondered why it takes so long to pay off your mortgage? That amazing time of burning the mortgage papers that your parents (or maybe even grand parents) talk about with a huge smile on their faces doesn't seem to become reality for the majority of people owning a home anymore. When I grew up in Germany about 40 years ago, it was the norm that mom stayed at home to raise the kids while daddy went to work. Nowadays it takes two people bringing home a paycheque. More and more people are getting 2nd and 3rd jobs, just to make ends meet! In many countries it's now the mortgage that gets inherited...in Japan they talk of "Multi-Generation-Loans"... I know it wouldn't sit right with me signing a document and knowing you basically signing away your children's and grandchildren's future and freedom.

Is it that we spend too much? Not save enough? Maybe it's that we never had enough money to begin with. You have to ask yourself the question: What do you like most about paying your mortgage? Is it the huge amount that goes toward interest or is it the little amount that goes to pay off the principal? If you look at what the government takes off your paycheque before it even hits your account, and then the enormous amount of interest we pay on mortgages with after tax dollars (even at low interest rates), it works out that Canadians these days work for less then 20 cents on the dollar. I invite you to do your own math: on a $250,000 mortgage with an average interest rate of 5%, amortized over 25 years the monthly payment works out to be $1,454. If you are in a 40% tax bracket, you will need to earn $2,423 just to pay for the mortgage alone. If you look at an amortization schedule you will notice with shock, that on the first payment of that mortgage, more than $1000 ($1,051) goes to interest, while only $403 goes to pay off the principal. So in a nutshell, you had to earn $2,423 just to pay off $403 off your principal. Doesn't that make you sick? Oh, did I mention that you haven't earned money for groceries, transportation, kid's education or - god forbid - a vacation yet? And then there's still the debts payments... credit card, line of credit, car loan, student loan, they all want to be serviced too. No wonder families have to buy groceries with their credit cards and go to local food banks.

I guess there is some good news too: it's only money! They haven't taken your first-born (yet)...

If you own your home and are burdened with too much debt and can't seem to get out of the circle of "living" from paycheque to paycheque, I urge you to contact Moneysmart Consultants in British Columbia. Go to http://www.moneysmart.info, see if you qualify and then submit your confidential questionnaire. Only if they can improve your situation and achieve substantial savings for you will their program be offered to you.
No up-front, out-of-pocket expenses - guaranteed.

About the Author

Moneysmart Consultants have been offering the Financial Equalization Program since 2001, saving their clients in excess of 12,000,000. They are not brokers, lenders or financiers, but facilitate a program that puts their clients in charge of their financial life. Finances are handled by licensed brokers and cases are closed by lawyers.

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