It’s not unusual to run across people who have high hopes of paying off a mortgage faster than scheduled. Making an extra payment on the mortgage is an appealing thing to anybody who has run the numbers. Your payment of $1,000 now could reduce the amount of interest you’ll pay in the future by several times that amount, especially if you make your extra payments early in your mortgage. Despite good intentions, many people who plan for an accelerated mortgage payoff don’t actually achieve this goal. Life gets in the way, and other expenses eat up the money that was supposed to go toward an extra mortgage payment. If you have set a goal of paying off a mortgage faster than you have to, you need to take the time now to make a plan you’ll be able to follow through on.

1. Decide on Your Accelerated Mortgage Payoff Goal

Do you want to pay off your loan five years early? Ten years early? Before your kids go to college? Before you retire? If you have a specific goal in mind, you’re much more likely to follow through. If you’re married, talk with your spouse so you can get on the same page with what you’re trying to achieve. Once you’re committed to a payoff date, paying off a mortgage faster will be an exciting process toward that goal.

2. Calculate Your Needed Payments

The amount you will need to pay on your mortgage depends on how quickly you want to pay it off. A biweekly mortgage payment schedule is a good start, but you may need to add some to each payment as well. Use an accelerated mortgage payoff calculator to find out how much needs to go toward your mortgage in each payment. Our calculators here at Half a Payment make it easy to see how long it will take to pay off your mortgage with each extra payment amount.

3. Sign Up for Automated Biweekly Mortgage Payments

Once you know how much you need to pay on your mortgage every two weeks, the implementation is easy. Just sign up for easy automatic biweekly mortgage payments to be taken from your bank account every two weeks, on the days you choose. Set the date for a couple of days after your paycheck hits your account so you don’t have time to spend all of the money before your mortgage payment.

4. Sit Back and Relax

An accelerated mortgage payoff can be easy if you automate it. You don’t have to think about the extra payments, but they happen every two weeks to keep you on track.