Mortgage Free in Three Yrs

angelavdavis

:T Well done everyone on reaching your milestones! :T

Congratulations on clearing the mortgage jb!!!! It's a fantastic feeling isn't it!?!

:j:j

dexter_fan

well done to everyone on being one step nearer your goals and a BIG congrats to JONESY on making it all the way

:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j

Jonesy_Bonesy

angelavdavis wrote: »

Congratulations on clearing the mortgage jb!!!! It's a fantastic feeling isn't it!?!

:j:j

It certainly is, hasn't quite sunk in yet

The respect we have learned for the money we have will stay with us for life now. We were never in debt, but frittered away everything we earned on "nothing". We are now looking towards ISA's / Pension top ups / and of course an extension and new kitchen.

I am 36 this month, and am so pleased to be in this position, both for my sanity and reduced pressure on myself in work, and also in providing a safe home for my family that can never be taken from us.

Thanks for everyone's kind words :T

Bonesy

DD4

Jonesy_Bonesy wrote: »

Just PM'd Tallgirl with my figures, but would also like to share on here -

I am now completely mortgage free :beer:

Had an outstanding balance of 95K when I joined and wanted to get this down to 25K. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine paying the lot off and earlier than planned. Couldn't have done it without being inspired by this challenge and also being motivated to keep on track - feels like we are a little family all with the same goals and dreams.

Now to start saving for the "extension" fund

Look forward to everyones updates and seeing the chart.

Cheers
Bonesy

Congratulations Bonesy and good luck on that extension fund!! We have done the opposite of you and have effectively just paid off the extension and now have the rest of the house to go

I've just PMed tallgirl with our latest figures and I'm looking forward to seeing the latest chart. Everyone is doing brilliantly, so let's try to push on for the final 6 months!!

chukkychukky

First off Congratulations to Jonesy Bonesy! Well done!

I have a current mortgage of £211 k on repayment at 3.14%. This will stay the same as long as base rate stays below or up to 2%.

Since the variable rate dropped last year I reduced the mortgage term several times and increased payments to as much as I could afford. I changed the term rather than making overpayments as there is no limit or penalty for this.

I'm on track to repay by February 2016 at this rate. My plan is to put any extra cash I have the way of the mortgage, reduce extra expenses (always) - although with a new baby and house constantly needing something or another doing this is difficult.

Does anyone have any suggestions that they may have applied to their strategy? Thanks in advance.

mister_bojangles

I'm VERY jealous of many of you. I wish I were in your shoes. I thought along these lines - paying off early - but I've had marital difficulties, which made financial commitments to an unstable relationship difficult. Things are getting better now, but I can't help feeling that I've missed the boat!

burns_flipper

There's 229 pages to this so far...what are the main tips people have for the debt reduction?

JBFAN

We repayed our mortgage this year. I wanted to get it paid before my 40th birthday, in the end it was paid before my 39th!! We didn't leave ourselves short, but every penny that could go did go to our mortgage. We changed to an ING flexible mortgage which allowed us to pay off any amount at any time, and make monthly overpayments. Any "extra" money, ie expenses claims, the four months that you don't pay water rates by DDM, and the two months of Council tax all went that way. When the interest rates decreased we left our payments the same. We worked out what we could realistically work on then the rest went into the mortgage pot. Being able to long into the ING website and see the figure going down, and also being able to calculate what would be the effect of paying in the contents of our 20p jar (!) was great. And now with all the uncertainty in the unemployment marked we're really glad to have it out of the way, and are now saving the money we used to pay to the mortgage. I really would recommend everyone does this if they can - it's amazing what a few quid here and there will do.

[Deleted User]

burns_flipper wrote: »

There's 229 pages to this so far...what are the main tips people have for the debt reduction?

Don't spend so much!

We've done a few things to keep our outgoings to a minimum. Not as much as some, but it's largely worked. When we started out, we decided that we would stick as far as possible to the means by which we were living - so rather than buying the biggest house we could afford at the time in our ideal area, we opted for a slightly more modest option in a less-than-ideal (but still good) area. Also, any raises or bonuses we had contributed towards the mortgage. Given that living costs have also increased, we have done a couple of other things - like downgrading from "branded" products to own-brand or "basic" alternatives (this hasn't always been successful - we shall never buy Basics Mayonnaise again!), looking out for good offers from the budget supermarkets, switching energy supplier to get a guaranteed rate, and also cutting back on certain luxury expenditures that it turned out we didn't really need (such as cable TV). It hasn't always been one way though - for instance, we adopted a third cat who wouldn't eat anything but JWB, and that raised our overall food costs slightly (as well as increasing our vet's bills). And getting married in 2006 blew a significant hole in our budget.

Our mortgage payments are now more than treble what they were seven years ago.

angelavdavis

burns_flipper wrote: »

There's 229 pages to this so far...what are the main tips people have for the debt reduction?

Hi BF,

Debt Free Wannabees forum have some great tips to be honest.

I would start by keeping a spending diary for a couple of months - its a real eye opener. Look at avoidable spending first, then trying to reduce the unavoidable by shopping around for better deals on insurance, utilities, etc.

Finally, go over to Old Style forum for ideals on reducing the grocery bills. I also changed my working conditions and became freelance (not necessarily something that can be done with economy as it is at the moment), I found I could earn 3x my normal salary this way and threw all the money at the debts and mortgage.

I also worked a couple of evenings minimum a week for an internet based company (usually when I was working away in hotels and would only be either watching tv or in the bar with other members of my team spending money!).

I became quite obsessive about paying off the debts and mortgage. It was quite an anti-climax when it was done as you work so hard to achieve it, but has enabled me to change my lifestyle so I no longer work away from home as we can easily live on my husbands salary.