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

black_taxi_2

paid off a £100 a month loan this feb

canceled £50 a month into an investment trust
stopped £50 a month into instant saving account

leaving me an extra £200 a month towards o/p mortgage

which will mean a year faster till MF

12/12/14

gallygirl

black_taxi wrote: »

which will mean a year faster till MF

12/12/14

:T, great BT, the end is in sight :T

RosieTiger

Just updated signature, we continue to progress downwards but it does seem to ever more frustrating the closer we get.
Was that the same for those that have made it?

black_taxi_2

yeah--rosie---1st two years seem to fly---then it seems to slow----thats dangerous territory--you think no progress--give up----but in reality it isnt your still reducing mortgage---

just think when you reach 2018 an look back

black_taxi_2

or even 2013

TheAllanCadenhead

I just want to say well done to everyone. You all sound like you're doing a really amazing job. Just one thing though, mistake me if i'm wrong, but from the list on the first page of people saying they will get their mortgages from £150,000 down to £100,000 by december 2012.... what salary are people on??? over £50k ayear? I mean people are saying they are paying £40,000 a year towards their mortgages.. How is that? is everyone on this forum a investment bankers or directors of their own businesses ? hehe just interested that's all. please inform as i'm really interested to know. thank you keep up the good work (fingers crossed i'll be on the property ladder soon )

Kaz2904

Hi Allan; This a 3 year challenge hence the reason why some peoples targets are so high.
I've pledged £46000 for this challenge as I managed to clear just over £43000 on the last 3 year challenge.
There are many different ways in which people raise the money to clear their mortgages; the main tip is to just take it one step at a time and not to run headlong at it. If you tackle one area at a time, you can find yourself saving lots of money.
Personally, I have found the challenge much harder this time around than I did last time. The economic climate is much, much tougher so it's harder to pick up really good glitches on things, savings rates are really low, food is very expensive, fuel and utilities even more so. None of the supermarkets seem to accept each others coupons any more and Mr T's don't ccept any coupons even for items you haven't bought. This means a big drop in shopping savings. I have also got 2 children who are older this time round (err, obviously! ) so they are much more expensive than they were on the first challenge. They seem to be trying to bankrupt me with their clubs, school contributions, eating everything which isn't nailed down and really expensive to clothe and shoe. Darn hobbit feet that they have! I'm horrified that my DD is now into shoes which cost around £40 a time since she turned 9 :eek:. I feel that we should be given a way of proving that the clothes we are buying are for our children- it's not our fault or teirs that they are size 4 feet and verging on adult clothing sizes too. Actually, it really bugs me that DD has to pay VAT on shoes and her God Mother doesn't because she's short. She also buys childrens clothes for herself.

Anyway, I can't possibly put all the information in one post but it's worth trying to overpay, every £10 overpaid at the beginning is worth £15 from the end (or thereabouts- all dependant on your APR etc etc!

I highly recommend https://www.whatsthecost.com to see how much time and money you could save on the term of your mortgage just by overpaying a little each month!

curlygirl1971

TheAllanCadenhead wrote: »

I just want to say well done to everyone. You all sound like you're doing a really amazing job. Just one thing though, mistake me if i'm wrong, but from the list on the first page of people saying they will get their mortgages from £150,000 down to £100,000 by december 2012.... what salary are people on??? over £50k ayear? I mean people are saying they are paying £40,000 a year towards their mortgages.. How is that? is everyone on this forum a investment bankers or directors of their own businesses ? hehe just interested that's all. please inform as i'm really interested to know. thank you keep up the good work (fingers crossed i'll be on the property ladder soon )

There are people from all walks of life on this challenge. Some of us are single income households (me), some of us have children (not me), some of us earn average salaries (me), some of us benefit from already low mortgage repayments thus freeing up more of our monthly budgets (me), some of us go to a lot of effort to bring in extra income (not me) or sacrifice a lot (not me).

My 3 year target was to reduce the value of my mortgage by £20k which will be achieved by my regular payments and also over payments. I've made some large-ish OP's from my Bonus and existing Savings but mostly I make regular OP's of an average of £220. This amount is achieved by 1) being careful 2) being savvy 3) The magic of spreadsheet accounting; but I can't ignore the fact that I'm also very lucky to have a standard OP of only £290, and to be benefitting from an incredibly low BOE base rate......although the economic climate is whipping my !!! in other respects.

When you get your mortgage you should come back and join one of the yearly challenges or maybe it will coincide with the birth of a new MFiT challenge. Every penny counts!

black_taxi_2

TheAllanCadenhead

there are many ways to reduce mortgage---sell move into a smaller property---endowment matured.

you will also see those that have stated what there going to do---but actualy havent started on 1st page

im on around 20k a year--but hav no children/single.also i have bought and sold property at the right time.even so i see property as a debt i owe to lender.

at start i thought 3 years was easily acheivable---i soon found out with known/unknown bills its a slower process---should hav about 60% paid off 12/12/12

but those who hav stuck with this an only paid off15%--thats good enough for me---lowering debt is always a good thing

g/l all the best

greent

We kept our payments thee same (or even increased) when our fix ended. We put any extra money on the mtge - cashback, ebay, sales on amazon/ at nct sales/ free ads etc. We also save £2 coins and anything 20p or below.

We moved to this house 6 years ago and borrowed £160k in total. Since then we've had 2 more children, i've stopped working, husband has been made redundant twice and been unemployed for 6 months in total. We've gone from 2 incomes and a company car to one lower income and personal cars - and our borrowing is now under 73k. It can be done - you find a way to make it happen