The Mortgage Free Roll Of Honour

Djangoman · 19 April 2012 at 6:28PM

Hi,

We took out a mortgage on a non-standard construction property and the conditions would not allow overpayments. Our solution was to budget carefully, keep a spending diary and put all spare cash into ISAS.
Finally accumulated the redemption amount and sent the CHAPS out today.

a. Decided to become MFW the day we signed the contract - 4 years ago.

b. Mortgage at it's highest £50.000

c. Mortgage free date 19/04/12

d. Pearl of wisdom (many ways to flay a feline but this worked for us)

Keep a spending diary - if you can't account for your daily spending - how can you maximise your savings?

Use excel or financial software to graph the monthly progress of your savings/reduction in principal - actually seeing your progress is a great motivator.

Make room to live throughout the project :beer: (within reason!) - treat it as a game - not an obsession.

Best of Luck!

HelenDaveKids · 29 April 2012 at 9:31PM

I was morgage free about 4 years ago (aged 35), highest 39000 but also reborrowed large sum back (from what what we'd overpaid) to extend the property which we also paid off. Had 2 years free which we continued to save in the same way (as well as some very nice holidays) which gave us a nice pile of cash in the bank, then saw a house really wanted. Just finished renovating (November) and owed 100,000, (spent 85,000 on renovation and large extension) now owe 95,000 (aged 39). The term has 19 years to go but already desperately want to reclaim MF status and plan is 7 yrs. Plan as before set amount of money extra goes automatically and i don't think of it as mine to spend. Never ever had a credit card (yes I know but they make me nervous!) and moto is only have what we can afford.
Feels a long way off but have done it before so can do it again!

wiseguy80 - When we were morgage free we carried on owing £1 so the bank would look after the deeds but I seem to think when we bought this house deeds have become electronic. HTH.

vellum · 30 April 2012 at 1:03AM

just for an update.

the bank sent me a letter to confirm paying back mortgage, also i requested the bank to remove their charge of my house deed from the land registry, it is free service so they confirmed they are doing it.

after 2003, land registry keeps all deeds electronically. i bought the house after that so that means i won't receive a paper deed. however, i can request a Title Information Document if wish.

did my life change after becoming MF? certainly not, it is less than a month, extra few hundred quids is not going to make me a rich person; however, the change on me mentally is already huge. i am not worrying that much (still a bit) of being made redundant; i started to buy food from waitrose (mostly discount stuff, can't get the MSE out of the girl); i had a lovely holiday and planning for more; first time i feel happy when i have so little cash because i also know i have no debt; start thinking should i save up to buy another house for investment (pension)?

seven-day-weekend · 9 May 2012 at 2:18PM

We took out a mortgage on our UK house (after having been mortgage-free) to help us out with some large expenses and the idea was to pay it off when our Spanish house sale completed - which it did on April 25th, 2012.

a. The date you decided to become a MFW -
As soon as we took out the new mortgage in October 2011

b. Mortgage Debt at its highest
£30,000

c. Mortgage-Free Date
9th May 2012

d. Your pearls of wisdom.
Every little helps! We became mortgage-free the first time in the 90s, just by paying a little extra each month.

hammer68 · 14 May 2012 at 5:34PM

Hi everyone, hopefully i can post here

first motgage at 23 for 45000, 12 months later house in negative equity only valued at 30000 , stayed this way for 5 years. 3 redundancies and 1x divorce later manged to sell the house for 43000. second house purchased for 60000 with a 6000 deposit, 8grand spent renovating over 3 years then sold for 137500. next mortgage 25,000 over 15 years and term gradually reduced when mortgage re arranged. so now as of last week mortgage stands at £7852, over paying by £300 per month .this time next year mortgage free cant wait and if my ppi pays out it could be even quicker.

annielyn · 22 May 2012 at 1:59PM

After lurking for ages can finally post on here today:j

Mortgage free as of yesterday - knocking 11.5 years off our 20 year term.

Mortgage at it's highest in 2003 at £65,000.

Decided to try and cut the length of our term when we first took out the mortgage in 2003 but didn't start seriously overpaying until 3 years later in 2006.

My one pearl of wisdom would be to keep a balance between overpaying and living your life, If you deprive yourself of all lifes little luxuries it will become a chore and your more likely to lose heart and give up. Reward yourself with little treats and it'll ease your journey.

I would say to anyone thinking of making a bid to be mortgage free, go for it at your own pace - whatever you're comfortable with.

adamall · 30 May 2012 at 11:38AM

date 2008

amount about 40000

words of wisdom , just believe you can do it , trust me the feeling i have now is priceless.

time 14 years and 5months

today it was paid 30th may 2012

thankyou all , and good luck

setmefree2 · 31 May 2012 at 9:30AM

a. The date you decided to become a MFW
When we took out our mortgage in 2003

b. Mortgage Debt at its highest
£250,000

c. Mortgage-Free Date
25th May 2012

d. Your one pearl of wisdom.
The journey was actually quite fun.The whole family were in on it and it was great having something to work on together. Hopefully our kids will have learned some tricks and their lives will be better for it.

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

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=561864

PS I've looked forward to making this post for years

ladydisco · 3 June 2012 at 12:32AM

:j

a. The date you decided to become a MFW
When we took out our mortgage in October 2008

b. Mortgage Debt at its highest
£100,000

c. Mortgage-Free Date
31st May 2012

d. Your one pearl of wisdom.
stop buying stuff you really don't need.. and overpay as much as possible

Kelvin01 · 13 June 2012 at 3:46PM

Can't believe we can finally post here!

From DF Wannabe to MF Wannabe, to MF...

a. Date you decide to become MFW

Our light bulb moment was about 5 years ago and finding this website, and realising that outgoings could be reduced and that a mortgage wasn't so much a rite of passage but a bill that gets smaller, the quicker its repaid. My husband believes it was last October...

b. Mortgage Debt at its hightest

£70,000

c. Mortgage-Free Date

Today 13th June 2012, 12 years and 3 months and 13 days early...

d. One pearl of wisdom

My husband says let your wife take the helm

but its been a joint effort... We've got a few common elements here with other posts, so become part of the MSE community! There's so much wise and useful advice in here.

What worked for us:
My husband says question every purchase: Do I need it? Will I actually use it?
Motivating slogans on the fridge, "Make every penny a prisoner" etc
Make your own lunches for work, some colleagues pay £10/day+!
Work out what you need, what you can afford and include mini treats (DFW and MFW can seem a slog, so plan for little rewards for all your on-going hard work) and cover emergencies (boilers and cars etc can and do breakdown and its frustrating to redirect an overpayment towards an unexpected bill)

Live life realistically, with a balanced frugality - at one point we had c£10k of c/c debt, two loans and the mortgage but believe in yourself, you can do it, day by day, month by month, year by year - it starts with just one little step.

The best of luck to everyone else there on their journey towards a healthier financial future!

The Mortgage Free Roll Of Honour

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