Paying down your home mortgage faster than the loan contract requires is hardly a new idea, but it could offer homeowners some particularly valuable advantages right now. But accelerating your mortgage pay-down works only if you have positive cash flow and available cash, and you're looking for a risk-free way to invest surplus funds.

Say you're 45 years old and still in good financial shape. You have cash on hand and positive monthly cash flow, and you expect to be in the same position for the foreseeable future.

You have a remaining balance of $400,000 on your 30-year 6% fixed-rate mortgage. Your monthly principal and interest payment is $2,460. If you keep making your scheduled monthly payments, you'll be 73 years old when the mortgage is finally paid off. At age 65, you'll still have eight years to go.

But say you start paying $4,500 a month. You'd pay off the $400,000 mortgage balance in about nine years and 10 months, finishing off at age 55. You'd also earn a guaranteed 6% return, because that's the interest rate you avoid by making accelerated payments. If after the mortgage is paid off, you continue the program for another 10 years by putting $4,500 a month into a retirement savings account that earns 5% after taxes, you'll accumulate about $699,000 by age 65.

Even a less ambitious plan could pay off. Assume you pay $3,500 a month under the accelerated pay-down program, requiring an extra $1,040 a month. You'd pay off your $400,000 mortgage balance in about 14 years and two months (at age 59).

If you have great credit and can refinance your mortgage, the accelerated pay-down strategy is still a good idea as long as you're satisfied with earning a guaranteed, risk-free return equal to the interest rate on the refinanced loan.

—Bill Bischoff, SmartMoney.com

Too Intimate Interviews

Prepping for job interviews is the subject of plenty of coaching and advice. But when job interviews turn to the work-life balance, some questions can catch interviewees completely unprepared.

Some women say they have been asked about their child-care arrangements or plans to start families. Author Bob Rosner identifies other "toxic questions" in his book, "The Boss's Survival Guide": "I love your accent; where are you from?" (This one suggests ethnic or racial discrimination.) "When did you graduate from high school?" (This one smacks of age discrimination.) "Are you currently using birth control?" (Again, implies pregnancy discrimination.)

To avoid appearing to discriminate based on sex, bosses should stick strictly to job-related queries. Employers with 15 or more employees are covered by federal anti-discrimination law, which makes sex and pregnancy discrimination illegal; a few states, including New York, New Jersey and California, have anti-bias laws covering smaller employers.

—Sue Shellenbarger, WSJ.com

Digital Dining Deals

Avoiding a lengthy wait for a table is reason enough for many diners to reserve tables in advance. New restaurant-reservation websites offer more reasons to plan ahead, including discounts, extra credit-card rebates and reward points.

Many sites cater specifically to city dwellers. VillageVines.com, which offers discounts of up to 30% at partner restaurants in exchange for a $10 fee per reservation, is offering deals in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago.

Another reservation site, DinnerBroker.com, aims to re-launch later this month with an offer to reimburse American Express cardholders as much as 15% of the cost of their meal. Diners will receive a statement credit for making reservations through the free site to dine at partner restaurants and paying with their registered Amex.

—Kelli B. Grant, SmartMoney.com

—The Aggregator features news and commentary from The Wall Street Journal and other publications. Email: nikki.waller@wsj.com