6 Tips
To Own Your
Home Sooner

Homeowners can benefit from paying off their mortgage as quickly as possible. By paying down extra principal at the beginning of your mortgage, you can significantly reduce the amount of interest you'll pay. Once you pay off your mortgage, you'll have additional funds available for investing, so instead of paying interest you can be earning interest. Here are 6 tips for reducing your mortgage interest costs.

Round your payments up. By increasing your monthly payment by even $10 per payment, the amount of interest you can save will be substantial and well worth the relatively painless increase.

Double-up whenever possible. When it's absolutely necessary you can always skip the extra payment.

Pay a lump sum at least once a year. Applying a tax refund is a great way to decrease the principal. You can also save all of your pocket change and put that towards reducing the principal.

Mortgage Rates. Keep your payments the same regardless of any decrease in mortgage rates. If the monthly payment has not been a problem to maintain, maintain that and pay down the principle faster.

Increased income. When your after-tax income increases, increase your mortgage payment proportionally. Paying off your mortgage early is an investment worth making.

Automatic Payments. Have your mortgage payments come out of your bank account automatically. Maybe one of the easiest strategies of all â€“ if you never see it, you never miss it.

You can calculate your mortgage interest savings with our mortgage calculator, go to
http://www.capitaldirect.ca/financialtips/mortgage_loan.php

The Plastic Brain

As we know, our brains are not made of plastic, but they do have plasticity, which refers to our brain's ability to change. The average human brain has about 100 billion neurons and every time you learn something new or challenge it with memory recall, new connections are formed between the neurons.

Mental exercise will improve the overall health of your brain. Here's a great memory recall game that you can play with the family.

Total Recall You need 20 â€“ 40 different objects, small enough they can fit in your hand. Objects such as different coloured and sized marbles, hair clips, coins, jewelry, watches and keys are perfect and not hard to find around the house. You will also need a box, such as a shoebox, which has a lid so that you can't see inside and is large enough to fit all the objects.

Here's how you play:

The person playing looks away while another player places 5 â€“ 10 objects inside the box.
The player opens the box and looks inside.
With a time limit of 1 â€“ 2 minutes (longer for younger players) try to commit to memory everything that you see inside.
When the time is up, close the box and recall the contents.
The other player will remove each object correctly recalled.
Score 1 point for each correct recall.
Alternate turns.

As you get better you can increase the number of objects or decrease the time you have to memorize them, or both!

The Home We'd Always Wanted

Dennis M. of Trail, British Columbia learned of Capital Direct Lending through a mortgage broker that he'd previously done business with. After speaking with John D'Andrea at the Vancouver office, Dennis knew Capital Direct was the right fit for his situation.

“We wanted to renovate the basement so that my wife could start her business,” Dennis explains. “We also knew that we wanted to finish some remodeling to the main floor.”

Dennis says, “We were very well treated and I would recommend Capital Direct to friends and family.”
Dennis is now able to start the process of renovating and remodeling
to create the home they had always wanted.

Every month, Capital Direct helps Canadians just like you to realize their dreams.
What about you? Your home equity is something you've worked hard to build,
so why not 'let your house lend a hand'© when you
need it most! Contact a Capital Direct mortgage specialist to discover your options.

“We were very well treated and I would
recommend Capital Direct to friends and family.”

Spring Forth!

For the Northern Hemisphere, Spring starts on March 20th and is a most welcome change of seasons. Along with the increased daylight hours, Spring is a time when we finally see the snow start to melt away and the air and ground temperature start to increase. In many parts of Canada we begin to see flowering plants bloom - always a delightful sight.

March is a great month to start thinking about your yard care for the Spring. A little planning now will maximize enjoyment of your garden oasis during the coming summer months.

Tips for a Healthy Lawn:

Fertilizing:

Mowing:

Watering:

Capital Direct's Eco-friendly Calculator

Do you know how large your home's eco-footprint is? Under the ecoEnergy Retrofit program, homeowners can take advantage of available grants when improving the energy efficiency of their home. Not only will you be reducing your home's energy consumption but you can receive money back through available grants.

Visit Capital Direct's Eco-friendly Calculator online at, http://www.capitaldirect.ca/eco-calculator. Calculate the environmental impact of your household and find out ways of reducing it, then give us a call to learn how we can help you apply for available retrofit grants.

March Super Puzzle

First unscramble the letters, then find the words below. Good luck!

TPULIS
OGIBLOMN
OADIFLFD
LBRUFYTTE
NRBIO
AGEDRN
ONFRLIGSHIU
VLRNAE
INQOUXE
RGSINP
MCHAR

G R E Z J A G T I L L K D I L

R N N V M X N C S V Z O A H A

G F I A J E Z H B R R P F N N

R Y R H D Q K J Z G G V F B R

N C C R S A I V Y U F E O O E

H R A O F I L H T C A Z D B V

J G N I B O R J F C X P I Y U

Y L F R E T T U B M V K L T B

E D W Z N H X F O P C Y G L O

G Q U T U L I P S L X R O W A

Z N U R K U P Y T I F O P F T

C O I
I Z G F Z F C M B F O M

R T I R N V R K J I O U P U A

G A Z L P O T V N X V V K H I

U G S U K S X G J H A D Y O W