The Mortgage Free Roll Of Honour

seven-day-weekend

Well done to everyone who has become mortgage-free!

alanobrien

We moved exactly 5 yrs 11 months ago from a rough area into a very nice area and took on a further 136k mortgage to achieve it. Now i reflect on it, it was worth every penny for the kids to grow up in a nicer environment.

Paid it off today 15th Oct 2010. Six months ahead of schedule as my personal target was my 50th birthday. :j

As if to prove everthing is circular, the person that took the final payment was the same person who organised the mortgage for me nearly 6 years ago. I like the symmetry in that.

The sense of relief is astounding, no more reliance on the banks and building society's and no more of their horrendous fees :mad:

My one pearl of wisdom is use regular automatic overpayments where you can. You soon get used to it and the effect it has on reducing the term is staggering.
That and every little helps towards reducing the capital owed.

I am now off to book a cruise as a suprise for her indoors and the kids, they deserve a treat after all the hard saving.

The best of luck to all of you still on the journey, keep at it you will get there in the end !

seven-day-weekend

alanobrien wrote: »

We moved exactly 5 yrs 11 months ago from a rough area into a very nice area and took on a further 136k mortgage to achieve it. Now i reflect on it, it was worth every penny for the kids to grow up in a nicer environment.

Paid it off today 15th Oct 2010. Six months ahead of schedule as my personal target was my 50th birthday. :j

As if to prove everthing is circular, the person that took the final payment was the same person who organised the mortgage for me nearly 6 years ago. I like the symmetry in that.

The sense of relief is astounding, no more reliance on the banks and building society's and no more of their horrendous fees :mad:

My one pearl of wisdom is use regular automatic overpayments where you can. You soon get used to it and the effect it has on reducing the term is staggering.
That and every little helps towards reducing the capital owed.

I am now off to book a cruise as a suprise for her indoors and the kids, they deserve a treat after all the hard saving.

The best of luck to all of you still on the journey, keep at it you will get there in the end !

Well done and Happy Birthday!

Charliec45

Hey just wanted to say well done to everyone who has managed to pay their mortgage off early you are truly inspiring! I think the advice that 'its a marathon not a sprint' really hit home as I was trying to juggle money round to pay the mortgage as soon as possible! But have learnt that its more about a little and often rather than trying to cripple yourself paying it off! I have only been in my first home for 18 months now but have already been overpaying for 6 months so hopefully I will be mortgage free sometime in my 40's (currently 25 yo)! I will probably move house several times in this time but I am glad that I have got the overpaying mindset early to reap the benefits later on in life!! Thanks again guys and gals!

wynnvegas

Afternoon All,

I've long admired this thread and am pleased to finally count myself in the ranks of the mortgage free so I will casually meander in here and submit my application for membership of the smugasyoulike club! Seriously, it's a major life achievement to unshackle the burden that a mortgage can be and I'm so pleased that we've managed it at a relatively young age which will give us a lot of options going forward. In the short-term, I'll settle for a lot of flexibility and impulse purchases mind!

As the first of a few to follow in the coming days, I would like to congratulate all those who have gone before us and all those who are nearing the end. For everyone else - keep up the good work and good intentions and a happy mortgage freedom, whenever that may be, to you!

I'll follow the necessary template in telling my story:

a. The date you decided to become a MFW

Pretty much from the off. I have a strange relationship with debt in that I've never struggled with it but neither have I ever been comfortable with having it. From that aspect, we wanted rid of the mortgage well before we got it but as soon as we took it out on 01/04/2004, we aimed to be rid of it as soon as possible.

b. Mortgage Debt at its highest

£105,000 on the dot. A handy 105% mortgage from Northern Rock.

c. Mortgage-Free Date

28/10/10 - 19 years, 5 months and 2 days ahead of schedule with us both aged 29.

d. Your one pearl of wisdom.

I'll keep this to one as it has been well received throughout my many rants on these boards. Take a scientific approach to your mortgage freedom aspirations and complete a full SOA as available from the debt free wannabe board. Obviously don't go too mad with the frugality but cut out everything that you feel comfortable with and account for every single other thing. With what's left, divide the surplus into your outstanding mortgage, set the number of months on a clock and start counting down and, if possible, doing this, that and the other to get ahead of the game.

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

Much neglected for a bit but it came good in the end with a lot of help from my friends. https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1892947

Cheers,

Billy

pencekeeper

Afernoon All,

Like Billy’s post yesterday (which made a number of good points) I’ve been a big fan of this thread for a long time, and those that have gone before have paved the way to me joining today. Honoured to be posting here.

My journey has taken 8 years and 10 months from the start (Dec 2001), though living with my housemate who had different financial priorities meant I could really only defeat the mortgage aggressively 4 years ago (Nov 2006) when I bought his half. This is a big thing for me as 3 years ago I developed some health problems which make working quite difficult and uncomfortable, and my time in my current job is likely pretty limited. Paying it all back by myself has been hard. But today I own my house outright save for 1 pound I've left to keep the product open - in a year I doubt I'll have a well paid job anymore so I'd never get a new mortgage.

I’ve had several MF targets, initially sometime in 2015, then June 2011, and finally 29 October 2010. It’s involved using 75%+ of my takehome pay to overpay each month, and sacrificing most of my savings. Luckily I’m a pretty frugal chap by nature so saving is pretty easy for me, and I’ll hopefully have time left in my job to build up a bit more – though I’ve not let my savings fall below what I’d need for 4-5 months of living expenses. I’ve also got around £75K of overpayment reserve so can borrow that back if I have to, which is comforting.

Whilst I wouldn’t say my plans have been affected by the MSE board, thanks very much for a place to talk to like minded people who don’t want to be saddled with a mortgage any longer than necessary.

a. The date you decided to become a MFW

Right at the start I’ve been aware of how much interest I was paying, and the interest/capital ratio over the lifetime of the initial 25 year mortgage. I've always been very debt averse.

b. Mortgage Debt at its highest

4 years ago when I bought out my housemate - £127,000.

c. Mortgage-Free Date

Today – 29 October 2010. 8 years 10 months from buying the first 50% of the house, 4 years 0 months from buying the other half.

d. Your one pearl of wisdom.

Hmm, tricky. Know your mortgage product as sometimes some of the limitations can be overcome (changing the term to overpay more without penalty, leaving £1 in the account to avoid redemption charge etc). Keep a spreadsheet of your progress and come up with a plan even if it needs to be over 25 years. Remember that if you pay tax (especially as a higher rate payer) you might be better off having much of your savings in your mortgage as you’d get taxed on the interest on the savings anyway – especially if you can borrow back without charge.

Don’t get discouraged by how long/how much is left – even climbing Everest starts with a single step.


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

Nope – though for the last year I’ve been posting on the MFW 2010 thread – thanks to all those in there for their support. It’s been a long journey, and to be honest it hasn’t quite sunk in yet.

I posted some stats in my last post in the thread for anyone who is interested:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=37885084&postcount=1400

An extra stat I found interesting:

Average daily capital repaid (from Dec 2001 to Nov 2006): £4.74
Average daily interest paid (from Dec 2001 to Nov 2006): £7.28
Average daily capital repaid (from Nov 2006 to now): £88.07
Average daily interest paid (from Nov 2006 to now): £10.15

It took me 5 years to pay the first £7K, and 4 years to pay the last £127K. Each day of the first 5 years I paid £12 to the mortgage, and each day of the last 4 years I've paid £98 to the mortgage - big difference. £100 a day is a fair bit more than my takehome pay (RIP savings).

I’ll also have a go a linking a couple of spreadsheet screen shots – apologies in advance if this doesn’t work/against forum etiquette in anyway:





And the result of all the hard work (first time in a long while the left side accounts outweight the right side!):



Thanks again for all the warm wishes I've got from some good people - good luck with your journeys.

Cheers,

Pencekeeper

skaps

Well done pencekeeper and billy. You have both done amazingly well.

Please if possible pencekeeper can we can have links to the two spreadsheets you use. These look very motivating.
Thanks and enjoy the mortgage free party

JonnyBravo

I became MF yesterday when I paid the last £13,577 off my balance.
Whilst I'm mortgage free for budgeting purposes I'm not in practice. It'll become clear(ish) as I relate the details.

Bought first house in 1998 (£52k), significantly improved it in 2000 (a Victorian terrace changed from 2 bed to 4 bed, by spending another £22k) and got close to being MF in 2004 when we had under £30k owing. (Started the effort to pay off mortgage in 2000).

However as we approached MF status the mrs spotted a house down the road from us with even more potential, (for "potential" read unimproved since construction in 1930's). Bought that house late in 2004 (£205k) and spent another £110k doubling its size and completely updating it. (Needed everything done).
We continued to live in the first house as work was done with the intention of selling it once the second was completed but as we didn't find a buyer quickly once it was finished we decided to rent it out.

In short we now live in the second house (MF as of yesterday) and have the other house with over £120k owing on it.... (but this is actually a mortgage on our second MF house it is actually a debt on the first house for tax purposes).

The key difference for us is we're now paying back one debt and not two. It makes no difference where the debt is attached for our monthly budgeting purposes.

:beer:

Well I think thats kind of clear!
Now the questions....
a. The date you decided to become a MFW
Some time in 2000. The original mortgage was an endowment and I switched to repayment after a couple of years (kept the investment going though)
b. Mortgage Debt at its highest
Sept 2004. Principle primary residence mortgage of £165k
(If I add in BTL it was c.£300k)
c. Mortgage-Free Date
Nov 2010
d. Your one perl (sic) of wisdom.
It's easy to stay motivated to start. It comes and goes as you continue. It's a long quest. Many are much longer than my 10 yrs. Go in with your eyes open. Little and often rather than burn out after 2 years as it gets "boring".
Keep a spreadsheet to track progress. I use Locoblades. Excellent stuff with everything you ever need once you learn how to operate it!
Good luck all!

webdesigncomapny

An unsecured personal loan paid off over 3 years has the end in sight at the time of taking it out but who knows what life may bring over a 25 year period!
Homeowners will be paying off their mortgage for about 1/3 of their life and over half their working lives.
People who borrower over longer periods of time such as 30 or 35 years may even find themselves putting off retirement in the final years of their mortgage just to get it paid off.

Lugh_Chronain

webdesigncomapny wrote: »

An unsecured personal loan paid off over 3 years has the end in sight at the time of taking it out but who knows what life may bring over a 25 year period!
Homeowners will be paying off their mortgage for about 1/3 of their life and over half their working lives.
People who borrower over longer periods of time such as 30 or 35 years may even find themselves putting off retirement in the final years of their mortgage just to get it paid off.

savemoney wrote: »

He appears to be bumping up his post count today soon after joining.


Maybe he has a motive seem to recall similar user did this a few days back using exact same profile they are using now

Biography
I am online marketing executiveLocation London
Interests sports
Occupation SEO

This guy has been busy doing the rounds.

:spam: