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10 years to clear £334K - our FIRE journey
We bought our house late 2014 and have been (very) gradually doing it up. So far we have replaced the roof, oil tank and boiler and completely refurbished the study, living room and one bedroom. We have three bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen and utility still to go. We recently re-mortgaged and have released some equity to do…
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The Mortgage Free in Three - Take 7 challenge (MFiT-T7)
A three-year challenge for all of those who are want to pay down their mortgage (or save for house-related expenses) over a longer time period than MFW. First of all, a huge thank you to trix-a-belle who ran the 4 and 5 iterations of this challenge, inspiring many of us to stay on track (and becoming mortgage-free…
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Rolling Down the Green Hill Towards REtirement 😊🌄💚💜
Happy New Year!!! As our MFW journey finished back in July 2015(wow!) on our family home and Apr 202 on our BTL (because we sold it! :D ) I thought it was time for a new diary (seeing as some others are doing it, I thought I'd also jump on the bandwagon 😉 🚙) and the new year seems a good time to start. Back when I started…
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Five Year Fix, Five Year Plan
I've not even got a mortgage yet, but here I go. I'm finally getting on the housing ladder and settling, after living around the country for the last decade. I've been in a position where "I'm just about to buy" for about 8 years for various reasons, so while I've not spent well, I could have saved better instead of…
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Here’s where the story ends…
And another way of life begins? Another old tune that’s been stuck in my head this week. No more ninety months for me, aiming for four years from now so forty eight months. I have rejigged my budget as food prices and prices in general have gone up. Hopefully giving myself a reasonable amount to spend will stop me…
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🌞 Happy Days in our Golden Years 🌞
Just over a year has passed since the final entry of my last
diary. A whole year of no debts and no
mortgage 😁 We
are semi-retired, using our private pensions to cover the cost of bread and
butter and running our own business part-time to put jam on it. You’d think I could do without a money saving
diary in those…
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Holey Moley!
Today I got the call to say that I have exchanged and completed on the flat I offered on in May this year. I now have a huge amount of debt, £167,000 but nothing other than that. The flat is not actually suitable to live in currently (for me) as it needs to have decoration done and the bath replaced with a shower. I know…
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The second hurdle - Nichelette v the huge mortgage
Hello! I thought I would start a new diary as we attack the second phase of our mortgage... In Jan 2019 we bought our first (lovely, but little) house for 320k with a 10% deposit. South east prices :s . With the fees we began our journey with a mortgage of £289,500 over 30 years. To be honest, whilst it was affordable to…
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+++ Whoops! Here comes the cheese! +++
My original < < < out of cheese error > > > diary started in 2017 and records our journey to be debt free, mortgage neutral and then last year (hurrah!) mortgage free. This new diary is to record our current focus on my efforts to retire early. Lots of cooking, some gardening, many cats and the occasional Pratchett quote.…
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I'm paying how much interest a year??!!
Starting this to keep myself honest and on track. This is the year, well the first one of a few. I've always had the annual mortgage statement come in and put it away, little to no attention paid to it but not this time. If this was a credit card with this much interest per month I would be putting every spare penny…
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Z's MFW journey
As I've been watching the MFW forum for a while, I thought it would be good to start my own thread. We bought our current house in summer 2022 and owe £126,000 on the mortgage. Hoping to pay this off before 2028 as we'll be 40 then. We're on a 2 year fixed deal until Sept 2024 at 2.64% on a 30 year term. Obviously a bit of…
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Lolu's Mortgage Free odyssey
Hello guys and welcome to my mortgage-free wannabe diary! I wanted to start one of these ever since my offer was accepted on a lovely two-bed property in Kent but I thought maybe it was slightly too early. I've always been fiercely independent and want to finally move out of my parents' house where I was paying…
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Alternative living to escape the rat race....
Has anyone here managed to escape the rat race and semi‑retire before 35? I’ve been part of this forum for around 15 years, and it’s been an incredible resource for navigating all things money. But until about six months ago, I was like most people—caught up in the rat race. Constant bills, rising mortgage payments,…
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Apple muncher's number crunching
Time for me to start a diary :j. I work 2 days a week, dd is at school and dh was made redundant in the summer. We are living carefully, although the redundancy money is being nibbled away at of course. We are fortunate to have no debts other than the mortgage, so I would like to get rid of it! We'd also like to have a…
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Beware Mickey Mouse Mortgages from Lloyds Bank
Anyone trying to overpay a mortgage from Lloyds Bank should check every mortgage payment from day one carefully. We have had a roller coaster ride, including our mortgage term unilaterally increasing by 5 years, within a 3 month period, that resulted in 13 years of mortgage under payments. This is not noticeable unless you…
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Halving our income and still aiming for mortgage free!
Hi everyone, A long time lurker of DFW forum, and then here. Finally starting my own diary as I feel it will help keep me on track! As the title suggests we are halving our income as I have resigned my job in order to keep sane and support DD with home educating for the next year. The last two years we have managed to…
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10 years to go .... maybe, with a fair wind
Hi, I've been lurking on here for years, but finally decided I should post a diary - more for my own sake than anyone else's!! So a little about me and my house ... I'm a 40 year old single mum with a lively 7 year old son. We live in a fairly ordinary terraced house on the edge of a large northern city, just a close walk…
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My mortgage clobbering post
Putting this here because I'm an enthusiastic mortgage over payer and I have no one in real life to tell! Single parent for 15 years, left in £35,000 of debt by ex husband. (Paid off over 6 years). No maintenance paid in 15 years. Unable to pay capital for many years as I had to use the old endowment policy to pay off my…
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Mortgage Free now aiming for FIRE
Time to start a new Diary. I have had my old one since Autumn 19 which is when I moved into my forever home after 4 years of renting in London. I am 52 and I live with my DG on the South Coast. I have a well paid job for my sector and was finally made permanent and full time in December 21. DG is self employed which she…
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julicorn's journey 3 - The House on the Hill
Hi all! Long time, no see, at least when it comes to the diaries (I still run the mortgage free challenges, of course). Where do I start? This is my third diary on here, the first talking about our initial mortgage pay off journey for Mr julicorn and my first flat (bought in 2017). If you have too much time on your hands,…
