The Mortgage Free in Three - Take 2 challenge (MFiT-T2)

mummyofonechild

Well Done Jock. Heres to seeing the end soon :j

pandora205

I'm not registered with the challenge but have been dipping in and out now and again. I just wanted to say that today I finished paying off my mortgage - hooray! It's been quite a challenge as a started again (on my own) with a 90k mortgage in 2001 and increased it a couple of years later to do a garage conversion... I was lucky to come into some money which I put towards it midway (rather than going for a new car etc.) As I was on a fixed rate at the time I was limited to the amount I could pay off without penalty but I discovered I could increase payments so I doubled them. When the fixed rate ended, I paid off another small amount but also continued with the larger payments.

Now I'm mortgage free I plan to keep putting this money away: a third savings (ISA), a third for home improvements/furniture and a third for family (holidays etc.) rather than to let the spending creep up. Of course, that's after the increase in NI, LGPS, tax threshold, petrol, etc. so I might be a bit ambitious!

RosieTiger

Well done you!

RosieTiger

Figures for inputting 12th March will be a mortgage balance of £63,604 and a nett debt position of £39,173. The latter figure keeps jumping due to share price changes. Big plans ove rthe next few months when we have a few things coming our way to make a big impact on these figures.

spidystrider

Just about to update, as I have just got my statement through. I paid a lump sum of £5300 off this month and mortgage is now at £123,153 with 15 years & 5 months to go. Not bad when it only started in November 2009, as a 20 year mortgage and was £150,000 :j

uzubairu

March overpayments of £1,950 have been made.
Mortgage has been reduced by £26K since the start of the challenge and OH is fully onboard now.

March 12th mortgage balance:- £54,966

gerbiljo

Wow great to see some amazing positive messages on here. Good the support everyone gets when times are tough but great to see the good stories too.

I guess we all know the base rate will go up, I personally try not to worry as I believe the low base rate has given us a once in a lifetime opportunity to do something I never would have thought was achievable before, we are on 0.96 above BR, I think if it goes up by 1% it will cost us about £30 a month. I don't know when tax bands are changing etc (or even if they are) but I do suspect we may experience some income reduction at some point I think. I try as much as possible to look at every month as a bonus rather than being down when it goes up but easier said than done I guess!

Our current balance is £65000, I'm not sure where we should be at this point but we are a bit ahead. We have paid £41800 since the challenge, it still seems that time goes slow in some ways tho! Our plan was to get down to £15k for 12/12/12 although we now aim to clear it by then, maybe a month or so earlier if we are lucky we shall see. Life is tough tho and so I for one will be glad when its done, were doing it the extreme way and life feels high pressured but I believe we are turning a negative situation (having to work full time post baby)into a positive one (being able to give up all together if part time work options are rejected).

I wish everyone good luck and its great to have this challenge to keep on track. Congratulations to everyone also nearing the end of their journey!

Kaz2904

Just been on and updated my snowball. It worked that I owed £34047.67 so I just had to go in and pay off that little extra to make it a nice flat £34000 . I have used the extra from council tax, water rates nd have made some moneyfrom selling on ebay this month. I was very chuffed actually, I managed to make over £100 and have cleared a nice lot of stuff. It has also paid for us to very cheaply decorate our dining room. We've never been in the position before of being able to just paint/ paper a room, it's usually major work. It's dead easy to just decorate .
Off to update my signature now.

ETA: Have spent a little time analysing my figures. I will be in the yellow this month with a short fall of £310.41. This shortfall won't be made up until next years council tax free months so I expect to be in the yellow for a year now. That's a little disheartening but I know I will reach my target at the end of the challenge. I worked it out quite precisely at the outset using my snowball. I shall just keep plodding on and paying the bills each month.
I'm really pleased that we started the original challenge and this one. We have been in the lucky position of realising that I won't be eligible for my pension until I'm 68. DH may or may not qualify for a state pension and I don't know if I will. I don't think I'll be physically capable of doing my job at 68, I'll probably struggle past 60 tbh so I want to be in position where we can choose to retire when DH turns 60 if we want to. That means having to live for a few years on savings.
Oh, excitingly enough, I'll be able to draw my pension on Will and Kates 35th wedding anniversary. Eurgh, how depressing is that!

twinklie

#130 signing in....current total of £35,566.86.

It's pretty much where I need to be, but not where I want to be. Patience I know...

abouttimetoo

Hello all, some very depressing news from me I'm afraid; I appear to be one of the many people caught up in the tax problems that the new HMRC system has found going back some years. To cut a long story short I think I owe just short of £6,000; I say think as I've got one more small thing to check but to be honest after spending a several hours on it this week I'm now 99% sure that what they are saying is correct.

The communication has been an absolute disgrace and I'm supposed to pay £4700 in two weeks time and have to repay another £1100 via change of tax code and reduced salary.

Gutted is not usually a word in my vocabulalry but at this moment in time that is exactly what I am.

This will not stop me making approx £500 pm OP's but it serioulsy hurts my plans to ramp them up.

I'll update when I know more. The whole thing just feels so unjust when I believed in good conscience that all was well...