The Mortgage Free Roll Of Honour

Time_to_face_the_music

Hi everyone :hello:

We became mortgage free today and I just want to shout it from the roof tops :j

The date you decided to become a MFW: 27th May 2013

Mortgage Debt at its highest: £33,726 remaining

Mortgage-Free Date: Today, 3rd July 2014

Your one pearl of wisdom: If you have an endowment and it's not going to pay off your mortgage, don't bury your head in the sand, do something about it NOW!

The MSE Mortgage guides and others that helped you: I didn't use any guides but the MFW threads 2013 and 2014 were fantastic :A

And if you had a mortgage freedom diary on MFW, a link to it: No diary, just posts on the threads mentioned above which offer brilliant support and encouragement, eternal thanks for that :T

Now that MSE Badger doesn't seem to have been around here for a while, I hope he/she pops in and gives us all a badge soon .... pretty please

TTFTM x

Former_MSE_Andrea

Hello everyone and huge congratulations to you all for paying off your mortgages. MSE Badger has just caught up on the last few months' of posts.

Please do let us know what you're doing next and link to it if you've started a new savings diary thread! We'd love to see them- we really do like to see the full story all the way through.

Also, some of you have announced you're mortgage-free but haven't posted on the Debt Free roll. If you're now completely debt free don't forget to post on the Debt-Free Roll too to get your Debt-free badge! Badger will *try* to give those badges a little quicker!

Congratulations again!

Andrea

FZwanab

Hi Badger,

Post number #322 explaining my MF journey and how we are now mortgage free.
Could I have a badge please. Hopefully all of us on this page can get one.

catshark88

We paid off out mortgage today and to say that I'm over the moon, is an understatement.

We've had a big mortgage, funded by my husband having a very stressful job.

We hope to use this opportunity, for him to take some time off, take stock and decide what he wants to do in future, hopefully not requiring a daily 4 hour commute...

a. The date you decided to become a MFW
I don't remember the date, but it was 7 or 8 years ago, when I first read Dithering Dad's explanation of how much cash could be saved, with even small ops.

b. Mortgage Debt at its highest
Approx £350k

c. Mortgage-Free Date
31/7/14

d. Your one perl of wisdom.
No matter what your income, overspending happens as soon as you let £20 slip through your fingers unaccounted for. We tracked cash following the good advice on DFW and Old Style.

e. The MSE Mortgage guides and others that helped you
We mainly used the forum advice and took great support from kind people on these boards.

f. And if you had a mortgage freedom diary on MFW, a link to it.
Don't know how to, but it would be under this user name!

LydiaJ

Congratulations catshark! :T:T:T

If anybody wants a link to catshark's diary, it's here: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4383853

want_to_save

Hi All

I became mortgage free yesterday.

a) date decieded to become mortgage free - 4 years ago
b) mortgage debt at its highes 41k
c) mortgage free date 1 August 2014
d) pearl of wisdom - dont give up there is light at the end of the tunnel and its not a train

FlashBarry

a. The date you decided to become a MFW
July 2012 after spending a fortune on 2 big holidays and we still owed £97,000 on the mortgage.

b. Mortgage Debt at its highest
£115,000

c. Mortgage-Free Date
31st July 2014

d. Your one perl of wisdom.
Have a play with the overpayment calculator on MSE. Looking at these figures 2 years ago made a huge difference for us. (Plus, start a WFW diary on MSE.)

Note from MSE Andrea:

Fantastic news FlashBarry - just adding a link to the overpayment calculator

LydiaJ

a. The date you decided to become a MFW

A few years ago. I was lurking on the House Buying, Selling and Renting board, trying to learn everything I was going to need to know to buy a house, and found myself dropping in on the MFW board and getting ideas.

I bought my house in January 2011 and increased my borrowing later that year to put solar panels on the roof.

b. Mortgage Debt at its highest

£75k
I borrowed from my parents rather than from a bank, and we agreed an interest rate that was cheaper than I'd get for a commercial mortgage but higher than my parents could get in a savings account.

c. Mortgage-Free Date
Today! 15 August 2014

d. Your one pearl of wisdom
Make sure your life insurance provisions are adequate. Review them every few years. You don't know what's around the corner.

I bought my house with
1. A life insurance policy that I had on my husband's life
2. The death in service lump sum from his pension scheme
3. The compensation that I received for the accident that killed him

When we took out the life policy in 2000, it was supposed to be enough that I could buy a nice house outright by adding it to the death in service lump sum. We then failed to reassess as house prices rose, and when he died and I claimed it, it didn't actually go as far as we'd intended. I do now have a lovely house outright because he was killed in a preventable accident, for which I've received compensation, but if he'd died of natural causes then I'd either be living somewhere smaller or I'd still have a mortgage. So don't think that these decisions can be made once and forgotten about.

e. The MSE Mortgage guides and others that helped you

I read various things, but they didn't really apply to my situation.

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

Sorry, I didn't have one. I posted a bit on the diaries of various other MFWs - especially Tilly MFW in 6 YRS and nattypants.

Final thought
I'm sure this thread used to be a sticky, didn't it? Could it be sticky again? Seeing it always at the top of the MFW page gives a reminder of what MFWs aspire to.

Secret_Saving_Squirrel

Well done Lydia!

Former_MSE_Andrea

Huge congratulations LydiaJ. Lovely to see you reach your goal despite the difficult circumstances