Building wealth should be a two-pronged effort; the accumulation of money and the reduction of needless expense. You’re far better off spending a portion of your money on something you love.. Rather than a debt obligation. Here are four simple ways you can cut down your mortgage. In doing so you can increase your available equity and reduce your debt.

Focus

It’s likely that you have a number of debts – credit cards, car loans, overdue phone bills…

Many of these have to be paid by a certain date… Some require a minimum amount to avoid unpleasant and increasingly aggressive reminder letters. And some are automatically paid out of your bank account each month.

As part of your budgeting process, create an Excel spreadsheet that lists all of your recurring debt payments each month. Alongside each column, put the date and the amount to be paid. Include your mortgage at the top of the list. Now, starting with your most expensive debt.. Most likely the 19% interest you are paying on your credit card.. Work out how quickly you can pay off a single obligation by focusing on it. Can you double your credit card payment? Triple it?

Once this debt is paid off.. Transfer the monthly amount you are paying off your credit card to your next most expensive debt, and so forth. Once you reach your mortgage… A substantial amount of money will be available to pay down your debt faster.

Build Your Property Portfolio

Building a property portfolio that can contribute towards debt reduction is one of the most effective ways to pay off your mortgage faster. Although some of the steps may seem counterintuitive, the end result can be a self-sustaining investment ecosystem.

Part of your investment discipline should be the analysis of your available equity and how it is allocated. Any available equity should be assigned to cash flow positive investments. They can contribute to debt reduction the same way that you paid off the high-interest debt in point one. As your property portfolio grows.. So too does your cash flow and once you reach a critical mass. Your debt shrinks to a certain level. Momentum will increase exponentially. Which will put you in a powerful position.

Negotiate

When it comes to financial arrangements, loyalty is sometimes rewarded..and sometimes isn’t. Make sure that your current financial arrangements are beneficial for your circumstances, and benchmark them against competitive offerings. Maintain relationships with your financial institutions. You need to make sure that you are in a position to have hard conversations when need be. Or to ask for a review of your existing financial products.

Remember, it’s your responsibility to make sure you are paying the least amount of money to maintain your investment portfolio.

Watch Your Spending

It’s not exciting, but it is certainly effective. Add up all of your spendings on a weekly basis.. Including coffee, lunches, small items of clothing and anything else that could potentially be removed. That amount of money, or a portion of it, can then be allocated to your mortgage repayments. Watching your spending is more about discipline than anything else, so take care to have accountability measures in place.

Small and incremental improvements can make a massive difference to your mortgage over time. Remember, when you are talking about 20 or 30 years worth of repayments. The savings you can make over time can be in the tens of thousands.