Do you know what trailing commissions are? If you sign up with a mortgage broker, they get a commission for handling your sale. But do you know they also get a percentage of your total loan for the life of the loan? This means that each and every year, they get a cheque from your home loan company. Do you know you can get some of this money back? There are companies out there like www.yourshare.com.au who will help you find a cheaper home loan. They act just like a mortgage broker. Now this company – Your Share – starts getting paid the trailing commission. But these companies don't keep them; they pass a big percentage of them back to you, each and every year. You get a check for basically doing nothing. Not only do you get a cheaper home loan rate, but you also get money back each and every year. They can look into trailing commissions for all sorts of products, including superannuation accounts and personal loans.

Don't forget to bank the money! We often get emails from people who say through changing their eating habits, they are saving $50 a week. This is great, but I point out if you are not saving this money, you might as well be spending it on food. Otherwise you are just wasting it elsewhere. A great way to make sure you save money is each time you make a saving, put the saved amount (e.g. $50) in a piggy bank. At the end of the month deposit all this saved money into your home loan. Now you can truly call this saved money.

There is no harm in calling your bank and asking for a lower interest rate. You never know where this might get you. A friend of mine was put permanently on a 0.25% discount just for calling and asking. Just remember, if you have a $350,000 loan at 7% over 25 years, you will pay $392,118 in interest. But if this same loan is at an interest rate of 6.75%, you will pay $375,457 in interest over 25 years. That's a total saving of $16,661. This money is far better off in your pocket than someone else's and it's just for asking the question.

How often do you compare your home loan? Mortgage brokers can easily check your home loan against dozens of others to see if by switching, you can save money on your interest costs. A word of warning here; you need to take all things into account if you intend on switching your mortgage. It's all very well to find a cheaper rate, however if your changeover fees are too high or the new home loan has annual fees, then it might outweigh any benefit of swapping. Make sure you do your sums on getting a better deal.