What is your mortgage-free inspiration?

MallyGirl

gosh I am so sorry. That would certainly make you think very clearly about life and the future.

curtis122

I have read through all of the responses and I can relate to so many things said.

I hope to be MF in 4 years we will then carry on paying our mortgage (with overpayment) for another 2/3 years and pile it into savings.

This for us will mean greater freedom, and choice. Like others have said I do not want to be having to work till I retire full time week in week out. Some of the things we are looking forward to having the choice to do -

Working less and it being more when we want to
Wake up and if its a nice day just be able to go out and enjoy it.
Go camping in the week (less traffic, lower price, more availability)
Be able to go for a meal and make use of the deals that run up until 5pm
Start some hobbies which normally we have no time for
Shop in the week (quieter, calmer and quite nice)
Go away more make use of late last minute deals.
Lie in when we want!
Do nothing all day if we want to.
Have time to make lots of proper nice meals.
I could go on and on and on an on and on..........................

castlelough

I'm so glad that people are enjoying the thread. I was a bit hesitant to bump it up, as nobody had replied to the post originally, and I wondered if I had been a bit cheeky!

Twiggy, my father passed away almost a fortnight ago two days before his 65th birthday. He had taken a redundancy package at 52 and had been so busy chasing his dreams and hobbies and volunteering work that it gave us some consolation that he had had the chance to retire early. Although we had all thought he was too young to be retired when he first retired.... thank God he had the chance. I hadn't thought about early retirement as a serious option before reading all of the posts here...

And LauraJo...! I love your plans! Another horse and a horsebox are on my list too!!!

Andy_WSM

For me it's about securing my home, to ensure it's mine and no one can take it away from me. I have an illness (well, a disability) that will only get worse with time and is treatable but not curable, so I need security for the future. I couldn't rely on the state to provide that - I can't even get DLA, that's another story, so I'll do it myself!

I'm on a five year countdown to freedom, unless the illness knocks me off the rails first.

Andy_WSM

Love this thread by the way!

QB_Wolf

My main initial motivation was to get my mortgage standard payment to a more reasonable level. At first I wanted more expendable cash, now I use that extra cash to overpay more, now my motivation is to get more equity into the house so we can move into our forever home.

ixia

I would like mine paid off as soon as possible to take some pressure of my OH. He works really hard in a manual job but his health isn't the greatest. I would like to get it paid off and then get more savings behind us so he doesn't have to worry about working to retirement age.

If we were able to I would love to be mortgage free so we could take a year out and do a round the word trip. something we would both love to do but it has always been a pipe dream.

We will stay in this house as our family will fly the nest soon so there is no point in us buying a bigger house. We have 10 years left on the mortgage OH is 50 in 7 years so definitely want it cleared by then. However, I would like it gone before that.

Bufger

For me its just the ability to have options and being able to react to whatever life throws our way.

I like the idea of semi retirement at 55. I have a stressful job and i'm quite a relaxed person. I've been approached about lecturing in my chosen field before and that appeals but the wage hit is too much with my mortgage and plans for an upgrade.

I also want to be able to help out my two boys in their early 20's. Either by reducing their uni debt or paying for it all straight off or for a house deposit each.

So yeah, a house upgrade to a house of about £250k and £10-£20k each for my boys (20 years to save that as they're only tiny now!). 25 years until my semi retirement plan - easily doable

southportguy

Oh to be less stressed over debts.
Not worrying about CC payments and making just over the minimum payment and to see the total hardly move.
To see my yearly mortgage statement crash down instead of the few thousands it would come down having paid treble that over the year.
And to be able to relax more. Plan for fun. Take holidays when I want. Love the idea of short Europe city breaks. See them regular now for great prices but until I get the debt down and retire they are just a dream.
To be able to offer help with youngsters driving lessons, Uni fees and just being a good Dad.

All things I love doing. And plan on doing more of in the future.

Mortgage free in 18 months if all goes well!

Twiggy_34

castlelough wrote: »

Twiggy, my father passed away almost a fortnight ago two days before his 65th birthday. He had taken a redundancy package at 52 and had been so busy chasing his dreams and hobbies and volunteering work that it gave us some consolation that he had had the chance to retire early. Although we had all thought he was too young to be retired when he first retired.... thank God he had the chance. I hadn't thought about early retirement as a serious option before reading all of the posts here...

Hi Castlelough, firstly sorry to hear about your dad. I find this type of scenario really heartbreaking as I think a lot of us look forward to being free of the ties that bind us until later in life. It's really nice to hear that your dad retired early though, I think that, like you, it was great that he got to pursue activities that he wanted to do, as opposed to those things he had no choice but to do, if that makes sense?

My dad was always fretting about being able to leave us a decent inheritance, and he achieved this in many ways. He was debt free and had good savings. I only wish he had used these savings to retire early and had been able to enjoy a bit of freedom. That said, he was a hard worker and I think he might have been at a loss for what to do with so much free time.

In the 3 months before he became ill he'd helped my partner and I turn our new home into a lovely place to live, whilst saving us a ton of money at the same time (e.g. re-tiling the kitchen with me and helping me to lay the new vinyl flooring). I will be forever grateful for that opportunity which lead to us spending time with him almost every day for those 3 months, and without a doubt DIY and home improvements were some of the things he really enjoyed doing. It's just such a shame he didn't get to see the final results, and he would have absolutely revelled in the fact that the valuation I got on the property (out of curiosity) less than a year after moving in was in excess of £40k over what we purchased it for and cost us less than £3k to achieve.