The Mortgage Free Roll Of Honour

black_taxi_2

nice one FG :T

hope i can join you in 3 years

jetfighter

a. The date you decided to become a MFW
Probably around March 2007 when I decided to really take control of our finances.

b. Mortgage Debt at its highest
£40,844

c. Mortgage-Free Date December 2009
6th February 2010

d. Your one pearl of wisdom
On payday, look at your bank balance, grab a calculator, and put that figure into it, rounded down to whole pounds. Subtract (rounding up to whole pounds) every bill that'll be coming out of your bank account until the next payday. Subtract what you think you'll use in cash or pay for by cheque/debit card. Give yourself £50 or £100 leeway if you like. Pay whatever's left off the balance of your mortgage as an overpayment. (Make sure you've got a flexible deal before doing this and are actually able to make overpayments without penalty.) I was able to put my entire salary into our mortgage every single month and we managed to live on my partner's salary - we're not huge earners either.

Also, keep £1 on your mortgage until such a time that the redemption fee period runs out. OK so you won't be technically "mortgage-free" but this may not be such a bad thing anyway as it means that if you get into dire straits and want to borrow more further down the line, it'll be easier. Don't pay the mortgage off in full until you're sure you won't encounter any early repayment fees.

Mortgage-free and loving it. :T

Henry_C

I've not been around this forum long but find the 'vibe' very useful and a great motivator for those who really do take a grip of their financial situation


a. The date you decided to become a MFW
Jan 2007

b. Mortgage Debt at its highest
£220,000

c. Mortgage-Free Date
November 2009

d. Your one pearl of wisdom
If you think you think you can't afford it............. then you can't !!!

Scarum

Hi

a. The date you decided to become a MFW
January 2007.

b. Mortgage Debt at its highest
£32000 (the original mortgage in 1997)

c. Mortgage-Free Date
March 2010

d. Your one pearl of wisdom (two pearls)
Plan all finances, I use Microsoft Money 2003 and this predicts cash flow so you can see more or less how you can make overpayments.

Keep the mortgage at £1 so you can borrow back any overpayments if you need to (e.g. moving house) because a new mortgage will cost you lender and admin fees.

black_taxi_2

congrats scar on being MF

are you upgrading to a bigger property?

Butterflymind

Hello all

I hope this inspires others to follow in our footsteps and see it can be done!

a) Date decided to be mf: end of 1999 when had literally nothing, no savings, no financial cushion, just bought bungalow with OH, looking for a job!

b) Mortgage at highest: £57,000 (includes re-mortgage for improvements)

c) Mortgage free date: June 2008

d) Pearl of wisdom: be persistant and focused. It's surprising what you can do if you and OH are both concentrating on this.

e) MFW diary: none. Started this before found Martin's book on the 'Money Diet', and before I found this site (about 2 years ago), when it was near to being paid off.

How you did it: The hard way! Wish I'd found the book & site sooner. But I was doing some of the MSEing myself without realising others were doing it too.

1. V. important to get OH on board, so both focused on it. It would've been v. hard to do if he was intent on spending at same rate, so it needs both of you to want to reach the same goal.

2. We both worked full-time for at least half of the years we were saving, so put in for as much o/t as we could stand.

3.Used direct debits to take money from current into good savings account, saving as much as £1,000 in some months. (Used to increase savings d/d in line with raises, put any extra left in account in savings too).

4. Decluttered and sold stuff we didn't need, put this in savings.

5. Overpayments on mortgage, when any extra, over and above monthly d.d's.

6. Help from family - given bits of furniture, curtains, etc, to help furnish the place, so kept costs down when we had a lot of modernisation to do.

7. Shopped around for quotes for work needing doing, word of mouth reccomendations, and did as much as we could ourselves.

8. Cheap holidays like the dreaded camping experiences! Or 'holidays at home' with days out locally, nothing cheaper than walking round local beauty spots.

9. Car maintenance - as much as OH could do himself, using it less for work, etc.

10. Presents from charity shops, jumbles, car boots, and auctions - you can find some amazing stuff, and sometimes brand new, which give family, etc. just as much pleasure, especially if you buy something for their special interest, collection habit, hobby.

11. Moving lumps of savings into paying off mortgage when you have got the interest paid in the savings account first.

12. Cooking from scratch and growing your own, menu planning, setting a shopping budget, and restraining myself from those naughty impulse buys!

I think that just about covers it! I never thought that we could do it, but, just simply sitting down, talking about it, making that decision as a goal, and then going for it, and encouraging each other, can get you there. Good luck to everyone else out there who are on the same journey. Top tip: make it as fun as possible else you can get fed up, e.g. challenge your OH to see who can save the most each month, the winner gets a reward like OH promising to do dishes for a week, it's amazing what an incentive that one was! :rotfl:

EDIT: BTW I forgot to include the mortgage facts:

1999 Repayment mortgage of £44,000 (used capital from selling last house as deposit for total cost of £56,000 semi-bungalow)
- note, no repayment penalties etc, as we had in mind paying off early
2002 Additional mortgage of £12,000 for improvements/conservatory

Total mortgage in 2003 = £56,000 (still repayment, no penalties, but didn't start overpaying at this stage)
Initially saved for renovations from 2000 when I also found a job.

PLEASE NOTE: it took us longer than a lot of others because also saving ISA's (although not to full limit), husbands private pension, always had holiday each year, and Xmas/Birthday presents splurged a bit. Important to live & enjoy lives, think of future, and still keep on filling that mortgage over-payment pot. Decided to sacrifice ISA's to pay a chunk off mortgage in 2006, as interest on savings less than interest payments on mortgage. Real big push in 2007 when got ML's money diet book, but had been chipping away at it beforehand.

black_taxi_2

butterfly---i see your point making it fun

you can burn-out----over do it then give up

Butterflymind

Hi Black Taxi

Yes, it can get to be a grind, especially when you are facing things like Xmas or want a holiday. Putting the 'fun' into funding the mortgage pay-off was hard. You just have to both be on board and encourage each other. If you are on your own, it might help to get a friend as a 'mortgage buddy', so you can swop/brag about what you've achieved? Like maybe this MSE thread does?

Top tip: if you are doing the camping holiday: don't pitch your tent on a slope like we did the first time. Left a gap wide enough for a hedgehog to walk in. Picture me petrified digging OH in the ribs to see who was burglarising the tent, and then him getting up at 3am in his undies to turf out the unwanted guest! I think our giggling made the neighbours wonder what on earth we were doing!!:rotfl:

Glamazon

Well, I'm in :beer:

a. The date you decided to become a MFW

I paniced on Tuesday 16th March 2010 that we wouldn't be able to afford the mortgage when the fixed rate ended because I had been told by our mortgage advisor that I couldn't get a mortgage as I was on Maternity Leave and only receiving SMP.
I phoned current provider to find that I would be paying £222 less a month on their SVR. :j
I have spurred OH into action and we plan to get as much paid off as we can before we have another baby so that I don't have to go back full-time!

b. Mortgage Debt at its highest

£172,000 :eek:

(now £160K)

c. Mortgage-Free Date

Not really set one but realistically 2022

d. Your one pearl of wisdom

Use the MSE budget planner!

e. And if you had a mortgage freedom diary on MFW, a link to it.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2347505


My plan is to try & climb the ladder in work, continue Mystery Shopping, Daily Clicks and eBay. The main thing will be paying off the little extra each month and not let OH try to build it up into a lump sum to pay off - get rid of that interest!

Thanks for listening

NJW69

Mortgage taken in 2003 £115,000

Mortgage free - today - only realised when I opened my bank statement

Now 2k in credit

Done it by having a rapid repay current account mortgage, left any extra money in at the end of the month, paid a savings bond in that matured, got 0% cc transfers into account and paid off over the 0% period by SO.

Should owe £95,000 today.

Well pleased.