And if you find yourself selling your home before you've fully repaid your loan, you'll end up with more cash in hand because of the lower amount you owed. Photo by Mike Hensen/The London Free Press/Postmedia files

Being mortgage free can seem like a distant goal when the outstanding balance is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and most of your regular payments are going toward paying interest .

But if you can afford it , financial experts say making additional lump-sum payments can help speed your path to being debt free .

“Making lump sum payments on your mortgage is a pretty powerful strategy to save on your interest and become mortgage free a lot sooner,” says Patty Hopper, a mobile mortgage specialist at Vancity in North Vancouver, B.C.

By making a lump-sum payme

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