PSA :: How to pay off your mortgage in 7-10 years (without paying someone $3,000 for a seminar)
TLDR: There’s no magic trick. Most “pay your mortgage off fast” strategies are just a combination of paying more (extra repayments), reducing interest (via offset or redraw), using equity intelligently (debt-recycling to buy an investment property) and staying disciplined for a long time. That’s basically it.
We've all seen online the companies that charge a fee to attend a course or seminar that so you can “beat the bank” or “pay off your mortgage in 7-10 years”.
In my opinion... most of the core concepts are pretty simple and should be freely available - so, here they are. If you're considering making a big change and want expert guidance and support, then maybe talk to a professional if you want help navigating it.
First I'll give a graph and summary that explains the benefit-over-time of four different combinations, so you can see what they each look like. Then I'll explain each of the methods in a bit more detail.
1. Switch from monthly to fortnightly repayments (deliberately scheduled extra repayments)
If your repayment is $3,000/month, then “true fortnightly” repayments would be $1,500 every 2 weeks. Because there are 26 fortnights in a year, you effectively make 26 x $1,500 = $39,000 in repayments. When compared to the monthly, which is 12 x $3,000 = $36,000 in repayments - it's like you're paying for 13 months instead of 12.
That extra repayment each year attacks the principal earlier, which reduces future interest calculations. On a normal 30-year mortgage, this alone can shave roughly 4 to 6 years off the loan and save a massive amount of interest.
Not because the bank changed your rate, but because you paid extra earlier.
2. Build redraw or offset aggressively (making repayments more effective)
I did a post recently (here) that explains how every dollar sitting in offset (or paid early into redraw) makes each repayment you make allocate more of your dollars to paying down the principal loan amount, rather than the interest. This starts compounding on itself over time and effectively snowballs.
Some people (like me) build up the offset, or redraw, by dumping in savings from tax returns, deliberately directing salary into the offset account, paying bonuses into redraw or offset, and in general just trying to keep minimal cash outside the loan.
The more consistently you do this, the faster things move. If you’re disciplined enough, this can take another 5 - 10 years off the loan, depending on how aggressive you are.
3. If you struggle to save, force the discipline (refinance deliberately to a shorter loan term)
Not everyone is naturally good with offset, redraw or general savings behaviours. Some people see $40k sitting there and slowly spend it - holidays, toys, home upgrades, cars... we've all done it. No judgement here.
But if you are worried about your discipline and discretionary spending, one option is to refinance to a much shorter loan term. The traditional timeframe for a loan is around 30 years, but you could refinance to maybe 20, 15, or even 10 years.
This massively increases the minimum repayment and kind of forces you to smash down principal whether you feel motivated or not.
WARNING: This is not suitable for everyone, as many people may need a savings buffer in their lives to be ready to handle emergencies and if they're on lower incomes it might be tough - but for high-income earners who are prone to discretional or impulse spending it can work very well.
4. The “investment property accelerator” strategy
A lot of those companies who 'sell the cource' also recommend or are involved in the purchase of an investment property. Sometimes they get a benefit (i.e. commission or referral payment) from this, sometimes they don't - you should probably ask that question when you speak to them.
The strategy can work very well in the right circumstances, but here's a simplified version:
- Buy investment property
- Wait for growth
- Sell in 7-10 years time after a 'doubling' cycle
- Use proceeds to wipe down PPOR debt
But you need to consider the holding costs over that 7-10 years and whether or not it'll get in the way of the first two ideas mentioned above. This is not a “2-year hack”, it's a long-term committment (like any investment strategy should be) and it it really only works if you bought well, held long enough, and your cashflow survives the ride.
5. Some people go even harder (and sell off assets)
Some companies like to recommend that people sell unnecessary cars, liquidate non-income producing assets (or toys that absorb a lot of cash - like boats), strip spending right back with disciplined budgets, and then throw every spare dollar (including sale proceed) into the mortgage.
And yes - mathematically, smashing principal early works incredibly well. Obviously.
But personally, I think there’s a balance and an element of not wanting to sacrifice your whole lifestyle... unless you really, really want to. A lot of my clients say they still want, or need, things like emergency savings, quality of life (especially with kids), flexibility, breathing room, etc.
IN SUMMARY, my views on this are...
The basics of it aren't too difficult (I hope, after this explanation), but you just need to combine them all together in the way that suits you best. Being mortgage-free at 40 sounds great, but being completely burnt out in the process of getting there maybe isn’t. Make sure that when you're planning this out with your partner (if you have one) that everyone's on board and they agree that the benefits are worth the changes/sacrifices.
Adding an investment property into the mix can help you go from ~19 years to <10 years, but you need careful planning, a solid expert, and reflection on how the property might impact your other strategies - because if it absorbs the cash you're putting towards fortnightly + offset/redraw, then you're becoming increasingly reliant on the investment paying off.
>Disclaimer: This post is being written on 15 May 2026, only 3 days after proposed government announcements around negative gearing, CGT changes, and incentives around investment property and favouring new builds. As I write this, these are proposals/discussions and not final law. Treasury, Parliament, the Senate, etc. still need to determine what is actually going to happens. So if you’re considering the investment property as part of a debt-reduction strategy, keep an eye on policy changes carefully so you know how to measure your 'exit point' based on costs.