The Mortgage Free Roll Of Honour

Crisps74

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Good evening everyone, I am an awful MSE user, as I hardly ever posted, but I have followed and read all of your adventures and exploits.

I HAVE TODAY MADE MY LAST PAYMENT / CLEARED MY MORTGAGE!!

I have basically saved as much as possible since 2011 - without completely going without - but kind of have...

This sounds funny for a 6ft tattooed bearded rocker, but when H**ifax said to me on the phone "Congratulations Sir..." my eyes filled with tears...It has been a long tough journey, but that dedication, overpayments of whether they were £10 or £100, and the support from my beautiful and inspirational wife - it has worked......

Tips,

1) Stick to your guns
2) Do everything you can to help, yougov's, miss nights out, do a car boot a cpl f times a year, overtime at work that does not affect home
life too much...Pick up that 1p coin you see on the floor and put it in a tin until it makes a £1's worth.
3) Ebaying anything that moves
4) Dreaming of that one day it is all done and dusted.
5) Breath, have a cup of tea.


Answers to questions.........


a. The date you decided to become a MFW

2/12/11 I started a thread (Crisps Mortgage Free Quest), but had been making overpayments for a couple of years prior.

b. Mortgage Debt at its highest

£126,000

c. Mortgage-Free Date

Originally 2024

d. Your one pearl of wisdom.

Love your wife to bits and share all thoughts and ideas - despite repetition or annoyance - its a goal/dream.

e. The MSE Mortgage guides and others that helped you

MFW forum + Site in general.



Goodbye thread - and good luck to everyone.

mavvymoo

Today we finished our Mortgage :j
Borrowed £75k over 10 years as even then I knew it would save us loads.Had a big deposit as had sold another house.
We have paid it back 2 years 9 months early.
We overpaid £1k a month and it was a struggle but I was determined to cut back and just get it paid.(had to stop a couple of times but started again the minute we could)

My pearl of wisdom would be keep reading this forum and take advice and inspiration from others.
And overpay overpay overpay !!! Keep chipping away and watch that Mortgage come down and it will eventually I promise.
We are now £1600 a month better off and can start living again

Mav x

Please can I have a badge well 2 pretty please as I became debt free 2 years ago sad but it means a lot ! x

commandomum

We are mortgage free as of the 31 January 2014. My original mortgage was only £82500.00 which is not a great deal by today's standards and managed to clear that in 13 years.


We originally took out an endowment mortgage against my better judgement as I worked for a financial institution at that time and knew all the pitfalls. We couldn't afford a repayment mortgage at the time and the endowment saved us about a £100.00 a month. As soon as our two year fixed period was up we changed to a repayment mortgage. We still kept the endowment and have continued to pay into it as this was our life cover as well. I price checked and we couldn't get life cover for the same amount as we were paying on the endowment so we kept the endowment going. We still have the endowment going but have drawn some money out of it so it won't be worth as much as it was.

Every time that the mortgage interest rate went down, I phoned the mortgage company and told them that I wanted to keep paying the same amount each month.

My kids have left home, no longer need a three bedroom house so have downsized and the equity in my house allowed me to buy a two bedroom house outright.


My pearl of wisdom is don't waste money on things that you are never going to use, pay a bit off your mortgage. Your house is your biggest asset

happyshopper

Hello,

a. The date you decided to become a MFW - beginning of 2007
b. Mortgage Debt at its highest - £60,000
c. Mortgage-Free Date - 14 April 2014 but it's really only sunk in since I received my deeds back from the building society last week.
d. Two pearls of wisdom - Getting a lodger and setting up a standing order to overpay did it for me, reducing the original mortgage term by 10 years. If you set up a S/O, the money just disappears out and you don't think about it.

All the best everybody.

HS

Rrushi_Shqiptar

Does paying your mortgage off in full after bankruptcy count?

£420,000 paid off in full after forced sale ???????

Mrs.T20

a. The date you decided to become a MFW - 2010 when I joined this forum and read the success stories

b. Mortgage Debt at its highest - £125,000

c. Mortgage-Free Date - 8th April 2014! It still doesn't seem real even though we have passed another mortgage 'payment' date and the money is sitting in the account!

d. Two pearls of wisdom -
We were not disciplined savers, so instead of overpaying on a regular basis, we reduced the term of the mortgage significantly, which meant that our payments went up by £700 per month. This worked for us because the money was always there but we spent it!

Never pay full price for things. Retailers are very consistent when they have offers on. I stock up at these times and use the glitches and codes that I find on the boards to maximize on the deal. I also shop online using cash back sites and this reduces my spending in comparison to physically shopping in the high street shops.

ic

a. The date you decided to become a MFW

Around New Year 2005 when signing up to my first mortgage - it had an overpayment facility and I started off at £50 per month.

b. Mortgage Debt at its highest

£97500 at the beginning, 22nd Jan 2006

c. Mortgage-Free Date

Today - 29th May 2014. Mortgage free - technically - I'm now entirely offset. The mortgage is fixed for another 18 months so I can't clear it. However I'm now on a payment holiday. I actually quite like this situation, I've access to £40,000 - so if I withdraw I'm "borrowing" at my mortgage rate of 2.8% - much cheaper than a credit card or personal loan. Hopefully this won't happen - but its my safety net whilst I now build my savings.

d. Your one perl of wisdom.

Every little counts, but don't over do it - still enjoy life, and look after yourself. In the time I've lived in the house I've done loads to it - driveway, gardens, windows, heating, decorating. I also enjoy multiple holidays per year. If I'd done nothing, I'd have paid the mortgage off years ago - but I'd've been bored in the mean time!

e. The MSE Mortgage guides and others that helped you

I've used the overpayment calculator a million times, forever using it as a guide to how long was left, and how much I was saving.

Imma_Number

a. The date you decided to become a MFW
Sometime before June 2003 when I bought this house. I made £10 overpayment before they took the first proper payment.

b. Mortgage Debt at its highest
£147,000

c. Mortgage-Free Date
2014-05-28: Transferred the final payment
2014-06-05(ish): Mortgage account gone from online banking
2014-06-12: Letter from land registry to say charge removed.

d. Your one perl of wisdom.
The sooner the better. Like all things Compound Interest related.

Gr33ng1ng3r

Date we decided to become mortgage free.
It was always the plan to pay it off as soon as possible so from buying the house in 1999.

Mortgage debt at its highest
£125000.

Mortgage free date
11th June 2014

One pearl of wisdom
Overpay as much as you can afford! Sometimes this was £10 a month from the change pot but as we progressed in our careers and had salary increases we tended to overpay much of the increase. I have learnt much from the contributors to this site and will continue to lurk as a saver!

misscousinitt

Very late posting this...I thought that as I was saving for another house after becoming mortgage free that it didn't count - but have now decided to post.

Officially began my mortgage free journey on 01.03.2011 (though I had toyed with the idea before and paid a little off before).

My mortgage at its highest was £34,500 (when I borrowed extra to get windows etc... done) - this is low compared to others, but when I took the mortgage out in 1997 this was huge for me.

My mortgage Free date was 03.11.2012.

My pearl of wisdom is Old Style - Meal Planning especially...

The forums were a great source of inspiration and support. My final payment was made on 03 Nov 2012 from an inheritance I received - so I am forever in debt to our family friend who left me the money.

My mortgage free diary is still on-going as we are saving for a deposit on another house with a view to keeping the existing house and it rent out:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3083828

MCI