Our question of the month comes in from Mike: Andy, I saw the Business Insider article about you paying off your mortgage early. We’re in a similar situation. With $228,000 left on our mortgage, our plan is to pay it off in 6 years. We’re looking for advice and shortcuts! That’s awesome to hear you want to pay off your mortgage early, Mike! You’re looking for steps, shortcuts, and advice on how to pay off your $228,000 mortgage in 6 years … Let’s do this! 1. Make a Goal This is something that you have already started! Nice work.  Let’s make it a SMART Goal. That's a goal that is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Based. Specific: You're not saying, “My goal is to be more financially fit.” You're saying “I want to be mortgage-free!” That's specific. Measurable: You have $228,000 left on your mortgage and it’s easily measured by the number decreasing to $0 overtime.  Achievable: That is something you'll have to answer, Mike. Do you have enough money, time and will-power to make this happen in 6 years? Relevant: These are good questions to ask before you move forward because it’s going to be a lot of work. Does this pair up with your overall financial goals? Does becoming mortgage-free help you to get where you want to go in life? Time-Based: You have determined that 6 years is a good time-frame for your mortgage-free date. Your goal is time-based. 2. Use a Mortgage Payoff Calculator Take some time playing around with this mortgage payoff calculator. By using this calculator, you can insert: Original loan amount Loan term (15-year, 30-year, etc) Interest rate Additional principal payments you'd make each month Let’s plug in some fictitious numbers for Mike: Original loan amount: $250,000 Loan term: 15-year mortgage Interest rate: 3.5% Additional principal payments: $1,000 on average each month That will reduce your 15-year mortgage to around a 9-year mortgage. And you’ll save around $31,000 in interest!  Now those numbers may not match your situation but see what you can do, by using the calculator, to get close to your 6-year goal. And if it seems a bit crazy to pay it all off in 6 years, maybe look at 7 or 8 years instead. Have fun with the calculator and adjust your plan accordingly.  3. Reduce Expenses Let’s say, you’ve played around with that calculator and it doesn’t seem like 6 years is feasible but you still want to make it happen. The first thing you can do is look into reducing your expenses so you have available cash to throw at your mortgage principal.  Here are 5 areas to consider when it comes to reducing your expenses: Negotiate recurring bills It's amazing how much you can save by calling up your cable, cell phone, and insurance providers and asking for a deal. There is high competition within these industries and they are looking to retain their customers. If they don't make it easy for you to save, find competitiv offers and ask your current provider to match the offer. Look into MVNO cell phone plans By pre-paying your bill you can save quite a bit more money. We recently did this with Verizon and saved around $30 per month. Shop at a lower cost grocery store We're big fans of Aldi in our house. They helped us to save around $300/month when we switched over from Kroger. Eating out at restaurants less All the dinners, drinks and lunches start to add up. See if you can cut back and save by packing your lunch for work and making more meals at home. This could be a much healthier choice as well! Look into high deductible insurance options If you're able to take on more of the risk today with a higher deductible, you could pay much lower premiums today. Make sure you have adequate savings to cover the deductibles before switching. If you do, signing up for a high deductible health plan with an HSA would be a great way to save for your future health care expenses and save you money today. 4. Increase Income