Congratulations!!

Well done

how on earth did you manage to keep quiet about your journey

The story starts in May 2012 when we got the mortgage for our current house - we started at £79k. I pay the mortgage and we, my partner and I, split the bills, food shopping etc. During the first nine months in our current house we still had our old house which was proving difficult to sell but, eventually, it did and we could start overpaying on our mortgage, not by much, about £100 per month. We could have taken a large chunk off the mortgage (£40k or so), but we had other plans.

We needed a new roof on our current house so that was sorted, then we decided to extend into an adjoining outbuilding, which was an adventure as I did the majority of the drawings and project management. So that's where the majority of our remaining cask went, gaining us around 30m2 of living area. Whilst we were doing this I was splitting whatever was left at the end of the month between savings (25%), overpayments (60%) and having fun / treats (15%).

Sadly, a relative died and my brother and I came into some money as an inheritance, which I took of the mortgage, then I got my unexpected bonus which meant I could pay everything off last Friday - that was the best lunchbreak I've ever had!

So, I think the best advice I could give anyone is be disciplined and overpay, but leave something to treat yourself with each month and even the little overpayments quickly add up.

Good luck to everyone on the MFW path, it's hard but well worth it!