Those obsessed with becoming mortgage free...

violetblue

Yep... another totally obsessed MFW here...

But I certainly don't deny myself everything I want to do/buy just to make another overpayment - I just "shop smarter" and try to find the cheapest way of getting what I want so that I've got the best value for money!

It really is addictive watching that balance come down though...

Thriftyknickers

I'm getting addicted to those letters Nationwide send me everytime I made a £500+ overpayment to adjust my Direct Debit. I've recently opened a Barclays regular saver (paying 6%) and one of their Golden ISAs (paying 3.55% - fortunately I opened prior to the bonus removal on 1/6). My mortgage is only 2.5% at the moment so I know it makes financial sense to stash what I can in these accounts instead/first. But I am going to miss those letters for the time being!

So I think I'm fairly balanced about how I come up with the 'extra' cash but its definitely affected my brain in that I still want the buzz of making an overpayment even though I know it makes more financial sense to put the money elsewhere. I'm fighting it but yep, I'm an addict!!

[Deleted User]

If you are with someone who is as committed to it as you are, you will find the obsession with becoming mortgage free grows as you get nearer your goal. If you're a long way off at the moment keep the goal in mind but don't let it run your life. You still need to live NOW and ENJOY life.

Floxxie

I think it depends on your financial situation and your attitude towards it.
In our case, the mortgage takes up most of our income so to get rid of it will actually give us freedom to live. In order for us to achieve this I have to look at alternative means of earning money which takes up a substantial amount of my time and means that I currently have very little free time so I am obsessed with getting rid of the mortgage.

I'm not quite at the 'frugal living' stage but hope that I shall be by the time the MFiT II challenge starts in December. My problem is is that I don't have a great attention span and so lack the focus that some folks on here have.

littlemrtinkle

i have never had a mortgage adjustment letter after overpaying? :-)

btw i have sent two online messages (first one over two weeks ago) asking nationwide for a mortgage term change form, still haven't had a reply!

I guess i will have to phone them and ask them for another form to change term. :-)

Kaz2904

We are not obsessed to the point of excluding other things from our lives because it's going to take us too long to pay it off. We will be debt free 22/5/2013. That's 8 years after we moved here. No way could we go without anything new for that amount of time.
Actually I had a bit of an epiphany a while back and realised that there was no point buying cheap clothes all the time. I now buy designer clothes either in the sales or from ebay. I'm quite tall and I found that French connection tops fit me really well. So I buy them at 1/4 of the price they should be. I have also found that they last better.
We aren't shopping all the time and buying bits for the house so I have more time to clear all of the parp out of my house. This has the effect of my house looking larger.
I am happy to buy second hand items too and have free holidays when we have enough CC points saved.
Our house needed tons of work doing to it and we spend however much it costs to get it done properly. Again we pay for quality but shop around to get it as cheaply as we possibly can.

dark^knight

This is an old thread, but I wanted to add my comment. I have to admit after working through how much I could save on interest, I am slowly becoming obsessed with paying off my mortgage. Although, will still hope to maintain an emergency fund as well just in case.

originalmiscellany

Well said Dark Knight. Just to chip in too, clearing our mortgage down to a manageable amount makes such a difference to everyday things, knowing that a huge chunk of my salary is going out now, but in a few years it won't any more, and we will be mortgage free. It's the freedom to travel or just sit back and not try for that promotion at work or to spend more time with family as I don't need to put aside say 900 a month for the mortgage as we've cut back and cleared it early. That's what it's about - the freedom to live without a 100k debt around my neck.

RS_Clio

Another one pretty much obsessed with overpaying here, ever since I worked out how much interest we'd pay if we didn't overpay it's been a prime focus. Not life absorbing, but not too far off it if I am totally honest!

Reduced holidays. Cutting back spends in all areas. Less going out. Love F1 and Touring Cars / Superbikes but not been for years and years. Only buy essentials, no treats etc. Get annoyed with unforseen bills coming out of the blue.

However, soooooo close to MF now I can see it and taste it, and for me it's the financial security for my family going forwards that makes it all very worthwhile. Have zero emergency fund right now, but know that once the mortgage burden has gone I can build up that fund and buy some of the treats i've missed out on for the last 5 years.

oldtractor

paying the mortgage off too quickly can mean that inflation never gets to eat into the payments eg 500 might be a lot to start with but in 15 years time it might only be equivalent to 200 IYSWIM