What is your mortgage-free inspiration?

Scotgirl_2

This is my first post as a MFW and it's a good question to start with! My mortgage is tiny compared to most people on here, but their reasons still apply - security, not worrying about mortgage into old age etc. I guess another good reason for me is just the challenge of it, the feeling of control and satisfaction it will bring to watch the mortgage go down (oh, I hope so!)

Mipmop

We are overpaying for a lot of the same reasons as others; mainly freedom and choice. To be able to wake up in the morning and know you own the roof over your head, that you are making the choice to work rather than needing to etc.

I am fairly young (about to turn 31) and have only owned a house for the last 3 years - have moved once in that time. Overpaying on our first house assisted (plus a redundancy payment) our move into our current home which is sufficient for us long term - that means once it's paid off we are done. The current term of our mortgage would see it paid off when i'm 52 but I'm aiming for 39 at the latest (unless a baby arrives in the interim!). To know that from the age of 40 I can work part time, currently 1.5 days of my working week 'pays' the mortgage which I could stop. I would then have 1.5 days a week to pursue my hobbies and possible business ventures - working for me rather than someone else. The option to increase savings and be able to go on holiday every year knowing you have no debt, weekends away, meals out - I suppose memory making to all intents and purposes. I suppose I see the mortgage as something of a weight around the neck which I would like to lift as soon as i'm able! Travel too would be high on my list - not the kind you can fit into 2 weeks but the ability to take unpaid leave for a couple of months and properly explore countries would be amazing.

I'm lucky in that I am on a good pension scheme, as is OH, so our retirement income should about match our income now (less mortgage payments) so our nest egg savings would be there to support the house - knowing if I want a new kitchen at age 60 we can buy it and not have to take loans etc.

We have also begun tentative discussions on a buy-to-let to further fund our future plans with the intention to have saved a deposit big enough that the mortgage would immediately be covered by the rental income - subject to having tennants of course. The hope being that that house would then be something we can use/sell in the future to provide my step-children with a deposit for their own houses. Although as said above I would hate them to grow up thinking they will be handed everything without the need to push themselves. One thing I am enourmously proud of is my parents weren't in the position to buy us cars or provide cash desposits etc so everything I now have is because I worked hard and was sensible with money - and that in itself has taught me not only to respect what I have but enjoy it all the more.

A very thought provoking post - and having read all the other responses one that really cements the decisions to overpay. :-)

CRISPIANNE3

20 months to go and will be mortgage free. Well to be honest I could have been earlier but my money is tied up in fixed rate savings and the amount I get is higher than the apr on the mortgage.

Once it is paid off my first port of call will be New York and beyond.

Gillybean

Getting MF is part of a long term plan. We want to be MF on the house we're in, stay put for as long as possible and continue to save. As the boys get older we'll outgrow this house, it's a small place as it is.

So when we're finally ready to move to our forever home, we'll be able to do so just taking out a small mortgage, or possibly none at all.

Dh is self employed and his job is quite physically demanding. He works all hours at the moment and we've already had the conversation that he wont be able to work his current pace and intensity forever. Getting MF will mean he can take his foot off the throttle somewhat and work at a steadier pace or poss move into training/lecturing on his profession.

But aside from all that, the big drive is the security of knowing that this home is ours and no one can take it away from us.

pollyanna24

I just keep overpaying as much as I can as you never know where you are going to be in a few years' time and if I lose my job or whatever, then at least I'll know I've done my hardest to try and make things easier for myself financially.

My boss is 56 and even though I can see him retiring, if he does, he would probably sell his business and I don't really want to work for anyone else (that's if they'd want me!)

Another thing that keeps me going is that when the house is paid off, I won't need to live so close to London anymore. So I can sell the house, move further away for less money and also might have some money in the bank to live off!

lamarsi

hi, my motivation are my dreams to buy a canal boat and spend some time living on it, and be in a position to rent my home home then save save save to retire abroad, and after spending (both time and money) at my families in London were they rent a flat but have a wonderful live for now lifestyle it's made me more sure of this is what I want to do!! it's so expensive here in the smoke!

Alion

This is such a fabulous thread. Thank you all for sharing your stories.

For us our MF journey has been about moving to a bigger house. We wanted to be able to do that, and to be able to survive on single salary whilst we had pre-school children. We also dreamed of staying in the area, but our little 2-bed was half the price of 3-bed family houses in the area due to the good schools.

So we paid down the mortgage as much as we could so that we'd have a massive stake in a new house and our mortgage repayments wouldn't increase when we moved. It was a fantastic driver for us and we made the move about 9 months ago, we currently have our first child on the way.

We need to find a new driver as we haven't overpaid the new mortgage yet, partly because we're renovating and partly because conception wasn't easy for us so we're saving to conceive a sibling via IVF (NHS kindly paid for our first). But once we're over that hurdle I'm hoping we can knuckle back down to get our mortgage down so that inevitable interest rate rises in the future don't impact what we've worked so hard to achieve.

RevolvingDoor

This is interesting to read as I am starting to lose focus on being MF at the moment as it is feeling a struggle at the moment.:(

kitjos wrote: »

Also another thought is it upgrade and move house, we currently have a detached house worth around £170k, but there's some gorgeous £300k+ houses around us. All a pipe dream .

Xx

I am thinking the same thing as the house I would like is about double the price of the one we are in.

MallyGirl

It can be done. I know prices aren't rising that much at the moment compared to pre-crash but if you can buy a do-er up-er then you can climb the ladder if you want. The house that sorted us was the last one - we paid £165k for something our friends described as a 'hard hat zone'. It took 8 years and some cash but more effort and we sold it for 417k and were mortgage free by then. This gave us the ability to buy the current one at £615k. Although not in need of restoration this time we have replaced bathrooms, converted a coach house to a granny annexe/home office and are about to put a big orangery/ garden room on the back. We won't get all that money back when we finally sell but it makes it more marketable.

Twiggy_34

For me it's definitely about being able to work toward an early retirement.

We were lucky enough to get a great property at a cheap price so our mortgage is only £500pm (including overpayments) and is only a 20 year term. Having only secured the mortgage (our first) last year, without counting overpayments the mortgage would have been settled by the time we reached the ages of 52/51, taking the overpayments into account, we have the potential to settle up to 5 years earlier. We fixed our mortgage for 5 years so, if we can, we'd like to save up some extra cash so that we can reduce the term even further by clearing a lump sum at the point of mortgage renewal.

This has become particularly poignant to me after my dad was admitted to hospital on his 65th birthday and spent the whole month of his retirement in a hospital bed prior to passing away.