Anyone else a closet MFW?

runmartin

I have been hanging around for the past two months and have learnt quite a lot about money. I have been overpaying the mortgage for the past 6 years. At present my normal monthly mortgage payment is £170 and my overpayments are £330. The outstanding mortgage is £7800 and I have an under performing Standard Life endowment with a cash in value of £6800. The endowment should be for £17000 and matures in 2014. It is only in the last few months that I have begun to realise the I am almost there. My current job is not very secure at the moment and it would be nice to be mortgage free soon.

The initial reason for using the forum was to find information about under performing endowments and as to whether to cash the endowment in and be mortgage free or keep paying the into the endowment. I do not pay any interest on my mortgage now as I have a Woolwich offset mortgage which is offset by some savings and my current account and joint current account.

I have four things I can do at present:-

1) carry on my monthly payments and I will be mortgage free in 16 months (keeping the endowment life cover)
2) cash in my Standard Life endowment and be mortgage free in two months
3) cash in my Standard Life endowment and free Standard Life shares (£1000 approx) and be mortgage free now. I know it is woth keeping the shares for the 5% extra shares in July.
4) Keep the endowment going and pay the mortgage off with other savings. (ISAs, Nationwide bonus saver etc)

Thanks to everyone who contributes to this forum

Martin

mudmole

hi minimoocow, I think wanting to be mf is a state of mind, for me and other like minded people, like yourself, the same as spending money on cc seems to be the norm for the rest of my family, I so much dont want to live like that I have done the opposite,I have a 10yr old car, 1 holiday in 17 yrs, I am aiming to be mf in 17 months 14 if I save hard. good luck to you I know all the hard work will be worth it. one day maybe I can have the mini I'm dreaming of.

Aliss

Us too...

I'm really proud of the fact we're on target for paying off our mortgage in 3 years. (We have been paying off for a few years already!)

We want to build our own house after we've paid off this one and finished our commitments in this area (I am a full-time weekday carer for a lady with Alzheimers and have commited to staying with her for as long as necessary)

Even if the housing market crashes, as long as we've paid off we should be ok. However we both have fairly low incomes- in fact the person who pays my wage for looking after the elderly lady is a relative of mine. We are quite close yet I'm hesistant to tell her how we're doing, even when we pass a financial milestone and I'm feeling really proud.

I can't help thinking people will just look down on us/make assumptions that we rip people off (me a carer, him a driving instructor) so I tend to hold back from talking to people.

It's not our incomes that mean we're paying off the mortgage, it's the fact we don't buy CDs, DVDs or clothes! We had a week's holiday recently- £500 all in, and I noticed the people we told seemed more congratulatory of the fact that we'd gone away than if we told them we'd paid an extra £1000 off the mortgage that month!

It's not a competition and yet I can't help but feel that low-income people who make an effort to overpay are sometimes viewed with suspicion- like we must be running some undercover drugs gang!

misspenny

i dont acctully have a mortgage as it is in dp's name and he pays for it as im only on a student income so his wages pay for mortgage/bills and i tend to pay for groceries and things for bambino.

i'm desperate to be a mfw how sad am i - then again i aways wanted to be part of the alternative crowd in school, college, uni.... i just dont want to be like the rest of the sheep in the flock

oh and im 22

cupid_s

I am proud to be a MFW but I still pick and choose who I tell. My mom knows my plans and her and my dad are so impressed they're giving us 10k to help us on our way!

I feel like a cheat though! I always say we can't afford this and that and if some of our friends knew the reason we can't afford (yet another) meal out/cinema visit is because we're overpaying our mortgage by an extra 120% so we can be mortgage free in 3 they wouldn't be very sympathetic.

I did tell our close friends to try to spur them into a lightbulb moment as they get more and more into debt each year despite earning loads more than us and having much lower basic outgoings. Didn't work sadly

MUSTBEFUNNY_2

Hi

I'm 44 and a MFW. The only regret I have is that I didn't see the light earlier.:rolleyes: Our financial position is strong but it could be even stronger if only I hadn't wasted money on clothes, Drink;) , food, etc.....Don't see hols as waste of money though, only have one a year but love it! Wish I could have back all the money I've wasted.:cool:

GreenNinja

Aliss, I can identify with you on this one being a low earner and living alone and wanting to pay off my mortgage.
I work with a woman who earns double what I earn and who wastes endless amounts of money everyday on lunches from posh sandwich shops or sainsburys then whinges about how hard up she is! She also has at least 3 take aways a week and buys all her groceries etc from waitrose or m&s. She proudly showed me a pasta salad from Sainsburys yesterday and when I pointed out that she could have made it for pence got the hump and said she didn't have the time! (she has no kids so not sure why she has no time!)
I get laughed at for wanting to live a bit more frugally and get that mortgage paid but since I have been coming onto this website around 2 months ago, I have already paid off most of my credit card, stopping buying unncessary things, sold lots of stuff on ebay, started saving coppers, done a car boot sale and drawn up a plan of how I am going to budget for the rest of the year in order to pay £3000 off my mortgage.
:rotfl:

Tesco_points_addict

I am a MFW, however as we only moved last year and the morgage was 100k...ekk, took it out over 20 years but I would to pay it off in 10 years..or less! We save what can and do not overspend on take aways and lunches however i'm sure we could do more, after all every penny helps.

We also get jibes when we say we cannot afford something, but I would rather live like this than be up to our eyes in debt, I'm always amazed that people buy on cedit cards etc. then pay the extra interest. Surely if they sat down and worked out how much the item cost WITH the interest included they would think twice...or not?

TallGirl

HI Gang
I agree with you people do think you are strange if you say you want to clear your mortgage. I get it from my DH which is quite sad. We are not doing badly both have nice incomes but I too have become obsessive about saving money and getting the best deal since finding MSE.

We have spent quite a bit of money in the last 3 years but it has all been from savings to the next 3 is for clearing the mortgage as well as having a life. We had a nice big wedding (did wait 11 years to get married), build an extension on the house and had a new car (downsized) so now it is MFiT for me and DH...

Keep going is all I can say....

CCCele

I bought my house at 30, paid off the mortgage by the time I was 35 (last year). I was paying 40% of my salary into the mortgage, and every time I had £2000 in my account, £1000 of it went to the mortgage.

I just don't tell anyone I know.