Owning your own home

You can also get offset mortgages that do a similar thing: take the balance of a savings account off the total owed, while leaving it in place, saving you interest payments. But I imagine the account has to be with the lender, possibly a specific product, perhaps not paying much interest... Still.

They were popular in Oz when I left. A guy I work with now has one as well.

I prefer to keep my mortgage away from my bank.