The Mortgage Free Roll Of Honour

boudiyax · 24 August 2007 at 8:44PM

a. June 2006 when decided to "emigrate"
b. £125000
c. January 2007
d. Clear any debt you can, it does wonders for the psyche!

If as we did, you live in an area which saw massive growth in house prices, consider selling up and relocating.
We moved to an area with much lower house prices so now debt free! No it's not a dump either, there are places out there, it just might take a bit of research.

A_Nice_Englishman · 11 September 2007 at 10:44PM

a. The date you decided to become a MFW

September 1989 (when I bought the house)

b. Mortgage Debt at its highest

£43,500 (the original amount)

c. Mortgage-Free Date

1 October 2004

d. Your one perl of wisdom.

Focus on how good it will to own your home, that you can never be made to move out whatever happens and what you will be able to do once you are mortgage free whether that is saving up to retire early, taking a job you really enjoy but is low-paid, helping your family out or buying the things you want without worrying about the cost.

e. And if you had a mortgage freedom diary on MFW, a link to it.

No, didn't discover this site until it was 'too late'!

mademoiselle_2 · 11 September 2007 at 10:47PM

The date you decided to become a MFW:
September 2004...when my tosspot ex-partner walked out of yet another job, having added another £4000 to MY OWN personal debt, by persuading me to take out the loan because he needed "clothes and stuff" to impress in his new job (which lasted twelve weeks). I decided right then and there that a mortgage-free future was for me...but as a single person!

Mortgage Debt at its highest: About £90,000...plus personal debts of £25,000.

Mortgage-Free Date: September 2006. I used my half of the equity from the sale of the shared home, to buy a smaller but perfectly decent property outright.
Downsizing could be the answer to your problems, too. I was sick of watching a huge proportion of my hard-won income just flowing away into interest payments. Too often, we make judgements about where we live based on status, instead of what we really need. You can only live in one room at a time!

Your one pearl of wisdom: When there are two of you, it's easy to be irresponsible about owing a lot of money - the debt doesn't feel like it 'belongs' to you. Shift that feeling!! Don't let others influence you - All money borrowed must eventually be paid back -once you accept this, you can concentrate on doing just that, and start living within your means.

A nice footnote: The house I 'downsized' to is already valued at £50,000 more than I paid for it. And that's £50,000 that I don't have to worry about the mortgage lender snatching, in fees and charges, should I not manage to meet a few payments; it's £50,000 that belongs solely to me, and not a bragging jerk who would spend money on flash suits before securing the roof above his head.

Feels good!

thriftmonster · 25 September 2007 at 10:11PM

We became mortgage free in Jan this year - dh had always wanted to do it before he was 40 and in the end he was 37. Actually we still owe £1 but that was to keep the buildings insurance running over a very wet and windy weekend.

Our debt at max was £36,500 which I know doesn't sound a lot - but we bought cheap as the house was structurally unsound in bits and Belfast wasn;t as expensive then for obvious reasons. However, we have NEVER remortgaged to do any work to the house but have always paid cash and saved up to do anything, including new windows etc.

MFW moment was seeing an Oprah Winfrey show when ds1 was a baby about how much interest you could save by overpaying even £10 a month and about how much money people waste eg the example they gave was buying one cappuccino a day.

So we started by overpaying £15 a month - all we could afford - we always had a standard repayment mortgage from Nationwide that allowed up to £500 a month o/p.

Then each time dh had a payrise we would review if we needed any for cost of living and if not, increase the o/p. Then I got a p/t job and when ds2 went to school, childcare costs could be thrown at it. Then I gave up, but dh got a promotion, so somehow we carried on making the same o/p. Eventually we were up to £500 pcm.

Feeling now - FANTASTIC - we still put all the extra into savings incl the orig payments and have been using them to do a lot of work to the house that we couldn't before - and took the kids on their first holiday - a weeks s/catering in Donegal - old habits die hard.:D

It took us 11.5 years which isn't very fast for such a small amount I know, but especially at the beginning it was hard.

~daisy~_2 · 25 September 2007 at 10:18PM

well done - thats fantastic !!

dannimac · 21 October 2007 at 5:48PM

a. The date you decided to become a MFW
This was in November 2003 when we switched to a One Account

b. Mortgage Debt at its highest
£72000 which included loans and credit cards that we had consolidated in to the mortgage

c. Mortgage-Free Date
July 2007

d. Your one perl of wisdom.
Ever since watching Our Friends in the North, our financial mantra has been Tosker's cry of "make wur money work for we". Make sure that you are getting the best deal for everything. Better for the pennies to work for you than anyone else.

Oh and if I'm allowed a second pearl of wisdom, what made a huge difference to us was stoozing and using the money to offset against the mortgage but continuing to save what we would have paid in to the mortgage. Hugely cut down the term of our mortgage - remember to always pay back by the end of the 0% term though!

e. And if you had a mortgage freedom diary on MFW, a link to it.
Sorry - only discovered MSE recently!

Good luck everyone who isa DFW and a MFW - it is such a high when you get there!

D

groatie_queen · 22 October 2007 at 7:11PM

Mortgage Free as of today!! 22 Oct 07 :j :j

a. The date you decided to become a MFW
When I took out the offset mortgage in Aug 2003 - a re-mortgage to stay in the house following separation and divorce. The Woolwich mortgage adviser said that she was overpaying on her own mortgage, and that the amount of interest saved would be considerable. Until then I didn't realise that you could overpay on your mortgage - I believed that the term of the mortgage was unalterable... wish I'd known that years before.... initially I was on a fixed rate for two years, could overpay 10%. Initially didn't offset - nothing to offset with! But in 2005 sadly my dear father died, and was left about £15,000 which came through just as my fix ended. Split the money between offsetting and part redemption.

b. Mortgage Debt at its highest
£30,700 with a 15-year term - I know compared to many it's not that big, but it's a lot when you're on a small salary! and single again. I know I've been incredibly fortunate. I paid back a total of £34,643. The £4,643 was the effect of not having any savings to offset in the first two years or so.

c. Mortgage-Free Date
22 October 2007 - 4 years and 2 months

d. Your one pearl of wisdom.
If you can, take in a lodger, live frugally but enjoyably and save as much as you can of the tax free money! so that if the brown stuff hits your life, you're better prepared - use offset /savings / pay into your pension, whichever suits you best, then when the time is right for you, pay off the mortgage and enjoy the relief of knowing you own 100% of your home and have covered the other bases as well.

GQ xxx

NobbyMFW · 23 October 2007 at 5:11AM

The date you decided to become a MFW
Jan 2005

b. Mortgage Debt at its highest
£240,000

c. Mortgage-Free Date
Sept 2007

d. Your one pearl of wisdom.
Throw anything at your mortgage, lumps of £500+ to make a difference and treat it as a game. Have the end date written on a calender or in OUTLOOK on the PC.

The Woolwich was a great Mortgage. Had been on a fixed rate for 2 years with no ability to over pay. Not a problem. I just put the money I would have over paid with into a high interest savings account. At the end of the fixed period I paid all my savings into my mortgage which reduced my monthly payments massively.

The tuff bit? Whilst everytime I overpaid it was fun to watch the statement come in with a revised monthly repayment figure. The down side is paying £5000 knocked just £24 off the repayments. It's easy to look at that and say stuff that I could get the bathroom done up instead.

I was strong and bit the bullet. I worked 2 jobs for 2 years with my goal in mind. Night work and day work. Putting in 70 - 80 hours a week. I know that can have an impact on health but I changed my lifestyle to cope with it.

Easy to say I maybe lost 2 years of my life working so hard but when Sept 2007 arrived and I paid the last lump sum into the account and the £218 fee to close it and breathed a big sigh of relief. I have had to push The Woolwich to return my deeds which they haven't yet though.

I read somewhere that it was worth keeping the mortgage low to have the bank store the deeds but I rang my solicitor and he said he would look after them. How much? He said, don't worry about it. no charge. Cool!

So, thats it. It was funny looking at this months statement and not seeing the word Woolwich. 3 years ago they were taking around £900 a month from me. Now nothing.

I feel so good now and kick the bricks on the outside of the house saying "Your ALL MINE!" ha ha.

Paid off 17 years early.
GO FOR IT!
:beer:

lisathompson · 8 November 2007 at 9:24PM

Well I just wanted to celebrate what a huge relief it is to be free of most of my mortgages - I never realised how much strain & tension it caused until it was gone, having said that all the hard work has been worth it. :beer:

date I decided to become a MFW:
I would take out mortgages on investment / rental properties as it seemed like a good investment, but then once I had the mortage my long-standing discomfort with debt would kick in and I would always throw extra money at the mortgages whenever I could, on the basis that if there wasn't so much left in my bank account then I couldn't spend it.

Mortgage debt at its highest:
Well I'm breaking all the records so far on this thread: £1.3 million!!!
Ouch!

Mortgage-free date:
I am now 36 years old and have paid off 5 mortgages in full. I have 2 left. One is completely offset (so I pay no interest) and I plan to kill the other one within a year. There's about £230,000 left to go in total......

My pearl of wisdom:
No matter how well off I am I still buy my clothes from charity shops, collect points & vouchers, buy reduced food and 2 for 1's at the supermarket. It's just so easy to waste money once you have it. I question the value of everything - is it really worth the price? So my pearl of wisdom is this: never forget the value of money, even when you have plenty of it. And remember - once you have paid off your own debts, the real pleasure comes not from sitting on a stash of money, but from being in a position to help others. It's a very privileged place to be.

sheffieldeagle · 13 November 2007 at 9:53PM

I started on the road to mortgage freedom when I first visited this site in 2004. Thanks to the forum I got the bug for freedom and have wiped out £25,000 in 3 years and 8 months. My tip is to put every spare pound left at the end of the month into your mortgage account, if you must spend use the sales and overpay, overpay, overpay.
Question: I've jus received my deeds am I correct in thinking that since the Land Registry Act of 2002 I don't have to keep my deeds secure? I'm told the documents are available online.

Cheers

The Mortgage Free Roll Of Honour

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