[sweeps]

Hi yster,

What you might have heard is if you pay your mortgage every 2 weeks, you can pay it off faster. But the only reason for that is that you end up making 13 months of payments instead of 12. You can pay more toward the principal whenever you want. Most important, DO NOT pay the mortgage company for this "privilege". Simply pay more toward the principal as you come by extra money.

Regarding your real estate tax. Since you own a home now (congratulations, by the way), you will probably be itemizing your deductions on your income tax. You'll have to confirm this, but you can potentially save on taxes by pre-paying your 2006 real estate tax.