The Debt Free Roll Of Honour

12_month_challenge

Congratulations and Well done to all who have succeeded in your debt free battles.
I am in a situation where I am just starting out but having read through all of your success stories it proves that it is achievable. I cant wait for my debt free day.

I am just starting my vehicle for a long journey ahead
Wish me luck

Deadbeat

Hi all, just found this, several years after destroying my non-mortgage debt!

Lightbulb moment: August 2010

Debts at highest: £11,000

Debt-Free Date: Not completely sure now, but think it was 15 October 2008

Pearl of wisdom: Never stop trying, always look for ways to reduce your expenses and the interest rate(s) on debt, and treat every repayment as an investment in your future self.

lisa110rry

Never seen this thread before, but I guess it includes me. No mortgage since 2012, no credit card debt since ever, no loans since 2006 when my 4wd was paid for, my two (ancient but excellent) cars are both fully paid for, I feel great. Having said that, I have a terrible fear of any debt...

[Deleted User]

I've finally done it, I thought this day would never come. Tonight I've paid the final payment to an unsecured loan taken out with our mortgage. I had my lightbulb moment in 2012 but wasn't able to start making overpayments to the loan until July 2013 so it's taken just over two years to get the £25,400 loan down to £0.00! At the same time I've managed to build up and emergency fund as I felt I needed this security to keep us out of debt when the debt free date finally arrived.

Lightbulb moment: February 2012
Debts at their highest: Circa £30,000
Debt-Free Date: 26.08.15
One pearl of wisdom: To help keep you out of debt, if you can, have an emergency fund in place for when you've made your last payment or get one together asap after the debt is gone. Because you can guarantee something unexpected will come up.
Which forum threads helped you: Quite a few on the DWF board but this thread kept me going in my darkest moments.
Sorry no diary, I'm not disciplined enough to keep one up.

Now to hang about on the MFW board. Mortgage is now £75,697. This is obviously a much higher amount to tackle and I find it very daunting. I'm aiming to have it gone in 5 years or less but I'm very impatient and I'm sure I'll get very disheartened along the way. I wish I could throw all the spare cash at it but must be sensible and continue with savings and building up our pension pots at the same time. Wish me luck!

12_month_challenge

Pearl of wisdom: Never stop trying, always look for ways to reduce your expenses and the interest rate(s) on debt, and treat every repayment as an investment in your future self.[/QUOTE]

A good piece of advice, thankyou and well done

Good luck all and me

NeverAgain2

Lightbulb moment: Hmmm several over a period of 5 years.

Debts at highest: Just over £12k on credit cards & overdrafts

Debt-Free Date: 27th August 2015 :j

Pearl of wisdom: Stick with it! Have holidays, buy a new laptop but keep in your mind these things aren't yours until you're debt free and right now...I feel flipping fantastic!!!!

OWAIN

The date of your lightbulb moment
Never had a light bulb moment as I've always been of the thinking that if I can't afford it in cash I will usually do without it.
b. Debts at their highest
5k (+mortgage of 17k)
c. Debt-Free Date
Jan 2013
d. Your one perl of wisdom.
Do you really need it?
e. Links to the MSE guides that helped you
Only just joined site so no MSE guide, sorry.
f. Which forum threads helped you
Only just joined site so not applicable.
g. And if you had a debt diary on the Debt-Free Wannabe board (DFW), a link to it
no diary

Bluefire

Facebook has just informed me that it's 6 years to the day since I celebrated becoming debt free! :beer:

The date of your lightbulb moment: Around May 2007 after leaving university & starting to get treatment for depression.

Debts at their highest: 7k+

Debt-Free Date: 28/08/2009

Pearl of wisdom: Throw everything at the debt that you possibly can. I paid pennies off my credit card if they were 'spare' in my bank account. It all adds up in the end!

Former_MSE_Andrea

Oh my goodness, so many of you are clearing your debts! I'm so happy for you all!

I probably sound totally silly on this thread but I love seeing all your debt free posts.

I have a subscription set up to this thread so I get an email in my inbox when someone posts on it and I can see who's the latest to clear their debt, how much, how long they've been working on it, how long they've been using the Forum and main site to clear their debts. I love it!

My own personal challenge is that we beat last year's record of 94 debts cleared in 2015. Personally I think we can beat 100 though!

Please keep telling everyone about it and get them to post on here when they have to tell their stories.

We always get great feedback from people when we tweet it saying how inspiring it is!

dazzaofdagenham

Personally I hate debt, or even credit and I try most of the time to avoid it.

However sometimes it can be useful for the offers they give, example of the American Express for avios points.

I did build up a debt of 8k on my card trying to get all the points I could, then is realised I was paying nearly 100 quid a month in interest... Which wiped out the usefulness of the points

So after a long struggle I paid it ALL off....

Only thing I pay interest in now is my mortgage, but I keep throwing money at that all the time

Sorry for the ramble !!!!!!