Mortgage accelerators come in differing shapes and sizes, and perform at different levels. The bottom line is this: If you want to pay off your mortgage, you simply must apply more money to the loan. Preferably, we want to do this in the fastest manner with the smallest amount of risk and the least impact on our lifestyle and monthly payment structure.

Some acceleration programs provide you with a plan to make small additional payments each month. This is effective in shortening your mortgage term, because additional payments (made to principle only) will lower the overall balance that you owe. That means less interest due. Interest is the enemy. Paying an extra $100 per month can have the effect of shortening your loan term by as much as 4-5 years. The only way to go faster is to apply more money to your principle balance. But how? Most of us simply do not have much "extra" cash hanging around. If only there were a way to find extra money in our bank accounts, we could really accelerate our payoffs.

So, comes to market a whole new selection of options. It turns out that for over 15 years, folks in Australia, New Zealand, and parts of Europe have been using a system that squeezes more money out of their labors and applies it to their home loans. These people are paying an average of $150,000 less in interest for their homes than the average American. How do they do that?

What these Aussies, Kiwis and Euros are doing is combining their home loans, checking accounts, savings accounts, and lines of credit to create a new scenario in cash flow. The mathematics are sound and the results are undeniable. It works.

If you combine your primary checking account with a Home Equity Line of Credit, or HELOC, you can basically use your income to cancel interest in your heloc. This interest cancellation creates cash flow in a sense. This new cash flow creates opportunity for that "extra" money. You can actually use the bank's money "interest free" much like you would a credit card.

It is easy to see how, with a little bit of poor planning and bad math, you could get your self in financial hot water here. You need help. So here is where you must be wary. Help means involving someone else. Uh Oh! Red Flag! "Other people" usually means high fees or possible scams. That is a matter of record, after all. And when it comes to your money?.well, these other people had better be squeaky clean.

So, who can help without busting your budget? Wealthy people have financial planners who they pay very well to watch their bottom line. The typical middle class member can't afford their fees. So we just throw up our hands, go to work, and live paycheck to paycheck. But we still would like to be debt free and reach financial freedom. So let's explore the options again.

Do a search on Google for mortgage accelerators and you will find some interesting things. You will find the Big Boys there?Countrywide, Lending Tree, Quicken, Eloan, GMAC, DiTech, etc. These are the big mortgage companies who already have you in bondage, and now they want to ease your pain a bit with a bi-weekly pay plan or perhaps a nice re-finance package. Refinancing will only make your problems worse in the long run. The extra payment plan was already discussed. We want more.

Dig a little deeper and you will begin to see other companies there offering other options such as the Australian idea. Investigate these carefully. You want to find the option that is safest and offers the best results. And as for me, I don't have the time to learn advanced math and theoretical quantum financial physics. I need something that will make it easy. Let's peel back some onion skin.

Equity Accelerator is a bi-weekly plan. For one thing, that's not fast enough for me. They also charge monthly fees and THEY make your payments. Do you want "somebody else" accessing your money? That is a little scary.

CMG/ Macquarie/ Home Ownership Accelerator: These guys are using the interest cancellation effect of a line of credit. This is good stuff. You can cut a mortgage in half using this system. You have to refinance to their accounts, which may be an expensive endeavor. The way I understand it, your checking, mortgage, and credit line all get mixed together at a variable rate of interest. There are recurring annual fees. If you are saving years and thousands, then those fees are negligible in the end. I still don't like the idea of someone else being that much in control of my financial situation. This is good. Is there anything better?

Sydney Financial Group has a program that claims to pay off a mortgage in half the time or less. The same concept of using a HELOC instead of a regular checking account is used. They have online software that instructs you to make additional payments every month to your first mortgage company. This rapidly begins chipping away at your principle balance and eliminates very large amounts of interest. Sydney will set up your heloc themselves, and then their $3500 fee is taken out of that heloc to get you started. When I asked them about guarantees, they told me that if I follow the program it will work, but no guarantees.

United First Financial has brought to market a similar program that is beginning to catch on. They have reportedly spent 4 years and millions of dollars creating intuitive software that combines the best of ideas from Australia and Europe and the American banking industry. Their product, called The Money Merge Account, is a remarkable tool that provides a customized and flexible plan for each user. The user is guided by the software to pay off their 30 year mortgage and other debts in an average of 8-11 years. United First claims that there is no refinancing needed, no increase in monthly payments, and no change in lifestyle. They ran a beta test on 400 homes in Denver, Colorado with a 97.4% success rate. Everybody seems to be very happy with the product. The MMA also costs $3500, and that fee is also suggested to be paid from your heloc, where interest cancellation and cashflow pay for it without any additional monthly payments.

The MMA does not touch your money and it does not pay your bills for you. The MMA provides a real time financial "dashboard" that shows you where you are headed and also the real cost of miscellaneous purchases and deposits. Your payoff date goes up or down with each deposit or withdrawal. The MMA is transferable to your next property, and all updates are automatic and free of charge. U1st makes a projection of every year until payoff for you, and they guarantee that performance (if you follow the software) or your money is 100% refundable.

These are all good tools presented by reputable companies. They all have the ability to pay your mortgage off faster, and put you on the road to financial freedom at a faster pace. You will, of course, have to decide which program is right for you, and I am sure that more programs will be coming onto the stage as these ideas move more to the forefront of public knowledge. I will be sure to keep an eye on things, and report on new companies and plans as they develop in this exciting category.

Finally regular people can have access to a level of financial wisdom that was not available to them before. So, don't refinance or fall victim to scams that want to have access to your accounts. It's time to take control yourself. These ideas and products are literally transforming families from a pattern of debt to a new paradigm of wealth building.

Just think about what you can do with your monthly payments when they no longer are required to pay debts. Even a conservative investment strategy will amass huge amounts of cash when supplied with a steady flow of capital, like the flow going out to pay the interest on your home loan this month, and the next, and the next, and the???.Don't let the banks make all of the money. After all, you are the one who works for it.

Copyright (c) 2007 Marc Rosenbaum