Send your mortgage company the equivalent of one additional mortgage payment each year. Just that small investment could shave thousands of dollars in interest payments from your total mortgage cost, leaving you that money to invest or spend on your kids' education or your own vacations.

How much would you save? On a 30-year, fixed-rate $85,000 loan at 7.5 percent interest, you'd end up paying $180,280 in total payments, a $33,679 savings compared with the normal payment total of $213,959. And not only would you save money, but you'd be building equity and paying off your loan much more quickly--in slightly over 23 years rather than the scheduled 30 years.

Wouldn't the extra payment be a little painful, you ask? Not if you spread it out over 12 months.  The normal payment on the aforementioned loan would be $594.33 monthly. Divide that payment by 12 and you arrive at $49.53 that has to be added to each monthly payment in order to pay the equivalent of one extra payment each year.

Not to mention the "investment potential" you gain by prepaying your mortgage.