An easy way to knock years off your mortgage and save thousands of dollars in mortgage interest is to make bi-weekly payments. You take your full monthly payment, divide it by two, and make that half-payment every other week.

Here's an example:

A regular mortgage is made up of twelve monthly payments a year. Let's say the total amount of your mortgage loan is $95,000 and your interest rate is 8%. The monthly payment would be $697 principal and interest, which adds up to payments of $8,364 per year. If you cut that $697 monthly payment in half, you get $348.50. If you make a payment of $348.50 every two weeks, you'll be making 26 payments a year.

That will add up to $9,061 per year, and the difference between that and the $8,364 you were paying monthly is $697.

It's like a painless way of making a 13th payment every year, and that's going to reduce your mortgage by 5-7 years, saving you thousands of dollars.

The one major difference between monthly payments and bi-weekly payments is your lender will probably want a direct withdrawal from your checking account. This is because the paperwork turns so quickly, it's hard to process checks through the mail.

Even if you're making monthly payments now, talk with your lender about bi-weekly payments. It can save you thousands of dollars.