I've got the DFW bug

owen_money

I've just managed to pay off my finial debt that was on a payment plan, so in effect I have no more debts where people can chase me and I can actually save.
I do have a first and a small second mortgage, but by having the DFW mindset for the last 9 years I still feel in debt with the mortgages. I now plan to pay the second mortgage off in one year, 18 months early then chuck a load at the main mortgage and plan to pay it off in six years, six years early. At todays money I will then only have out-goings, including food of about £700 pm, leaving £2300 for savings, what am I going to do with all that, I'm not used to spending?
My point is for the people who have been down the debt free road, when do you feel debt free? Are you happy to call the mortgage a manageable debt and you are debt free, or like me are you not going to call yourself debt free until you dont owe anything to anyone? Its just after finishing a DMP it feels an anticlimax and I am still in debt.

sourcrates

Well I have just finished an IVA this year, not yet had my certificate of completion but should have it soon, thing is there's always something comes up that needs to be paid for, you think your going to have x amount of cash to save then the car needs new tyres or the washing machine breaks etc point being im approaching middle age and still have not been able to save any money at all, I don't have a mega well paid job, I used to work 60hrs a week as a courier but after our depot relocated 60 miles north most staff had to take redundancy, I live on the coast and good jobs are rare, the price we pay for living here, I was lucky and got a new job straight away, only half the hours but nearly twice the hourly rate, so in a way im happy but been able to save more would be nice.

owen_money

Well done on completing your IVA. Like you I had to pay my DMP but now I've got extra cash its easy to spend. I just use my DMP money to pay towards the mortgage, but my wages have gone up by £15k since I started my DMP so I have cash of emergencies. I'm just obsessed in pay off the mortgage, forever looking at my master plan' spreadsheet, although there is always something to come along and mess it up.

Mort

owen_money wrote: »

My point is for the people who have been down the debt free road, when do you feel debt free? Are you happy to call the mortgage a manageable debt and you are debt free, or like me are you not going to call yourself debt free until you dont owe anything to anyone? Its just after finishing a DMP it feels an anticlimax and I am still in debt.

I agree with you about the feeling of an anticlimax, for me it was because of the focus upon clearing the debts for so long and then losing that target. It sounds daft but that's what happened.

Our debt free date was 03/11/2011 and I do now feel debt free but I would be hard pushed to say when I felt that.

We are left with a small second mortgage which is manageable and have been working on catching up with several years of lack of house maintenance.

Our overall situation has been hampered by a drop in income but, and this is the important bit, we have cleared the bad debts and are debt free and our finances are the best they have been for a long time.