Mortgage-Free Wannabe Welcome and Explanation

savingfortravel

Hi
Feel very inspired reading your posts.
Would love to be a MFW:
Mortgage started off at 88, 000
Aim to be a MFW on May 2014-I'll be 42!! but would love for it to be earlier. (All things remaining equal-I keep my job, OH stays unemployed)
After May our Mortgage will come down by £223 so we will add this to the Mortgage savings pot.
Thanks
SFT

sdmitch

Hopefully I'm not missing something here:
I'm fortunate enough to be on a tracker mortgage that is set at 0.06% below Base, therefore my current interest rate is 1.94%. I'm now saving several hundred pounds a month on my mortgage payments. Rather than paying down the mortgage, I'm investing the savings in a regular saver account (HBOS pays 7% fixed for 12 months & allows up to £500 per month, while Barclays (rate closing today) pays 7.75% fixed but only allows up to £250 per month).

I'm a 40% tax rate payer, but even after tax, and when the fixed rate ends, if I pay down my mortgage with a lump sum, I'll be better off.

:j

Radish72

Hi all, this is my first ever post but I have been reading the forums for a while

After leaving uni with a debt of 10K and then needing a car loan of 3K so I could get to work, I happy to report that I am now debt free.

In between never going out (for what felt like for ever) so I could get on the property ladder as well I only have a mortgage left which luckily I got before house prices started going mad

Also in April 2008 I manged to pay 4K of my outstanding mortgage but I'm currently not overpaying

My job could be at risk in the New Year but I have some savings in an emergency fund



Morgage left to pay as off Jan 2009 (I will have to check statement)

CosmicDolphin_2

jammydodger0905 wrote: »

Hi there

Has anyone got or had a One Account mortgage? I have just used the "mortgage shrinker" and it claims I can pay off my mortgage within 4 years! :j :j

Is there a catch?? :eek: :eek: :eek:

Thank you!

Yes , we have one.

I guess it depends on how much you overpay and how much mortgage you have left. We are ahead of the predictions made by the mortgage shrinker, but our circumstances have changed a few times in the 5 years since we opened it.

I guess for some the catch is you can get lower rates elsewhere, as long as you aren't penalised for overpaying.

For others , they can't get head around having everything as one big minus figure or resist the temptaion to spend the equity in their property.

It works for us because my wages/commission vary quite a bit , so it smooths out the peaks and troughs. Seeing it all in one place, and going down is a real motivator. When we went through a bad financial spell 3 years ago it was good not to have to worry in the shortfall immediately and see the long term picture.

We paid just over £6k off during 2008 after our interest payments and all other bills went out , we have about £52k outstanding now.

We also transferred £9k out of the One Account to interest free cards ( stoozing ) which is now down to 3k and shrinking, though the transfer fees & lower mortgage rates might make that redundant next time around.

CD

jadewarrior

Hello I wonder if anyone can help me?

I am left with about £10,000 on my mortgage. Not much I know.

But, I tried to pay off the mortgage with a credit card so that I could then change the card to a 0% for so many months and then change it again until I pay it off.

but my mortgage lender said I can't do that but that I have to send them a cheque to pay it off.

Does anyone know how I can speed up paying off the mortgage but with an interest free credit card.

Many Thanks

co123456

Fast stooze an option? e.g. Take your council tax. Pay them by credit card (assuming they don't levy a handling charge) then send the real money you would have sent to the council, to your mortgage provider. If you're feeling lucky, try inadvertantly overpaying your council tax online, then ask your council for a refund in the form of a cheque. You aint seem me, right?

lovinsavin

Hello everyone. I am new to this sight and have spent the last day or two reading through the posts.

I am not sure where to start but in the Mortgage Free thread seemed appropriate.

My reasons for being on here are many but in brief:

I have a long term degenerative spinal condition which has been getting worse since 2001. I am currently in full time employment which brings a good wage, however I do spend a lot if my income on my care and medical needs, and my DD and DS.

Over the lst year, since my condition has deterioated, had three small operations to try and alleviate some pain and I am on morphine for the pain which is likely to be long term.

I have small debts, which feel managable (have chosen to put two small purchases on my credit card) and two mortgages, one is my domestic mortgage and one is a buy to let (was my domestic property originally but due to my disability I couldn't live there any longer and decided to rent it out). Bought another place which has disabled/wheelchair facilities and one level of the house is fully contained with a bedsit type layout for when I need it.

So with the degeneration getting worse and much sooner than I expected it has brought a bit of perspective into my life. I have some clear focus on what I want/need to achieve in the next few years and certainly by the time I am 40 (8 years and a few months!!!)

So my objectives are the following and in priority order

1)Pay my BTL mortgage off
a)Current balance of £86,000- Loan to Rate Value approx 78%
b)Current term left 23 years
c)On a fixed rate mortgage Yr1 5.49 Yr 2 6.49 Yr3 7.49 (due to go to 7.49 in Sept 09)
d)Current payments £599 per month and have, this month, started to pay an over payment of an additional £200 per month.

2)Pay off or significantly reduce my second mortgage
a)Current balance £131,000 - Loan to Rate Value 59%
b)Current term left 22 years 5 months
c)On a fixed rate mortgage at 5.49 until Sept 2010.
d)Current payments of £878 per month and have arranged, this month, to increase the payments by £50 per month and have paid off a lump sum of £6000 since July 2008

3)Save £550 per month in various saving pots
a)£50 Stocks and Shares ISA
b)£100 Cash ISA (plus any winnings from the PB which has been the odd £50 or this month £25)
c)£200 premium bonds
d)£200 high interest savings 5% when I set it up, have to put in every month or I loose the bonus

4)Spend as little as possible on shopping and stop wasting food.

5)Spend the time I am unable to work (i.e today) making some extra cash. I had my latest operation on Tuesday so am very imobile. Looking at the possible options of
a)Ebay
b)Free credits for things like Bingo (won £50 on a online Bingo a few weeks ago with a free £20.00 stake- had to put in £5.00 to be able to make a withdrawal so banked £48.00)
c)Online money saving/gaining like surveys, etc.
d)Anything else you can suggest.

I think in 8 years or so I will really be struggling to work full time and so need to be as financially secure as possible and for me this means having no mortgage (or as least as possible) and having some savings for emergancy care.

To sum up, I am really on here to look for other ways in which you can suggest I can get the mortgages down and to earn some extra pennies whilst I am unable to move around, therefore I need to utilise the internet.

Can I please have a MFW number and I look forward to hearing some of your suggestions.

Thank you

annieb13

We took our mortgage out a few years ago when the interest rates were high and when they started falling, kept our repayments the same. This was before flexible mortgages were the norm and the bank didn't like it, (kept trying to get us to reduce our monthly payments) but they allowed us to keep repayments the same and therefore over a few years, we paid off quite a bit more (not sure how much as didn't calculate it at the time) then when the final amount got down to a few thousand, we paid it all off (with the help of redundancy money) and have been mortgage free for a couple of years now, although have taken on a new one recently on a rental property but hope to do the same with this.

ashley

like lovinsavin I have a degenerative health condition and wonder if I'll be able to continue in full time work. I have a mortgage of 45,000 but interest only and endownmennts are not doing much. I've recently come into a 30000 windfall. So should I invest this or cash in endownments and use any money from them plus 30k to pay off mortgage,or as much as I can. Moving to part time work then might be do able as mortgage is my biggest outgoing each month

techmax76

The idea of creating this forum is excellent. Many people would benefit from this thread.