The Mortgage Free Roll Of Honour

Former_MSE_Andrea

Well done Gizmo247

suki1964

Ha. I've only just noticed this
a. The date you decided to become a MFW

Was in 2010 The recession was biting hard. Hubby was on short time work and I was on casual hours. Savings were doing nothing, interest rates had dropped. Our mortgage payments had dropped to below 300 a month

B mortgage debt at highest
Only 35k as we had moved to a cheaper area

C mortgage free date
Sept 2012

We threw all we had at the mortgage. Every spare penny went to the mortgage rather then savings Expenditure was cut to the bone. Every penny spent had to be accounted for. The old style board was/is my hangout.

Even though our mortgage payments weren't crippling, it was the uncertainty of not having a set income that spurred us into action. Now the house is paid off we don't worry so much about how to make ends meet, even though we have had a drop of income again this past year. Now every penny we have spare is going into saving for the future

Gem-gem

A. The date you decided to become a MFW

From the moment that I took out my first mortgage. Every time I got a pay increase I use to over pay- use 50% of my pay increase on this. Years before coupons become fashionable I use to use them and my family use to groan at me when I presented them at the table or till ( they don't anymore!)
My husband has also been extremely careful with money and cleared his mortgage. I sold my house two years ago and moved in with my husband and have been saving as much as possible. This August we sold his house and bought a bigger house together morgage free.

b. Mortgage Debt at its highest

115k

c. Mortgage-Free Date

Aug 2014

d. Your one perl of wisdom.

Overpay on your morgage as much as you can

You don't need to have everything new.

Try not to pay full price for anything.

e. The MSE Mortgage guides and others that helped you

Influence of my Dad and then my husband plus the support of the Mse site and others on the debt free wannabe diaries forum.

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

ernie_3

mortgage free as from 04/10/14 £126 left if or when our daughters need help..

our story thread https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/894767

initial start..

Hi to all, this is my 1st thread , i have been an avid reader and had MSE on my favourites for a year.

I live in plymouth with my "angel maid" we have been together for 21 years married since 1990. We have another 2 younger "angel maids" 15 and 13.

We got our first flat in 1988 and then moved to a 2 bed terrace in 1992 and then settled in our present house in 1994.

Like most of the poeple in the 1980's we had 3 endowments running on all 3 properties. Then the endowment fiasco started, we were getting letters saying that the endowments were going to short fall of the amount of £65,000. These companies then had the brass neck to ask to make extra payments to meet the amount.."yeah right"

So we decided in september 2002 to go complete repayment on £65,000

cashed in endowments £11,000.{poeple thought we were mad..live for today and all that}
compensation for the above £1,500
made overpayements of £50 a month, more if i had done overtime
In august 2005 £10,000 from savings and proceeds of selling my 2 classic cars !! vw golf mk1 covertable and vw golf mk2 gti}..again people thought we were mad.. i must say that this was the advice from a friend who is a financial advisor to use this money as an overpayment.
In june 2007 £14,000 .... but all of a sudden poeple didnt think that we were mad...spooky that
In september 2007 balance £21,500 took out a 5 year fixed rate 6.09% with YBS..£343 a month with a £75 overpayment should see us mortgage free september 2012.
May 2008 current balance £18,800 {£1,000 fee to clear balance}
Current value £190,000 of house

This has been a team effort with the "angel maid" who has been an avid charity shopper for 12 years.She used to work in fashion and can spot bargins at 200m {eye sight like a sh/t house rat}.When it comes to shopping the wife is an avid LIDL shopper, she discovered them about 2 years ago and gets most of the food shopping there, she reckons she saves the family budget about 25%

Like other people on this forum i would of liked to pay it off quicker, but like other followers/readers we have growing family. We have to get the balance right, we have a motto "spend a bit...save a bit".

When we are mortgage free we want to get a VW TRANSPORTER T5 and convert it to a campervan and go touring in u.k. and then over to europe.

cant wait..to all of the readers/contributers thanks for the continuing "motivation"

comping_cat

The date you decided to become a MFW - Jan/Feb 2006 - after watching the BBC show 'Pay your mortgage off in 2 years'.

Mortgage Debt at its highest - £99,000

Mortgage-Free Date - Oct 2013 Was able to pay mortgage off Dec 2012, but didn't want to pay the early repayment fees.

Your one perl of wisdom - I have a few

1 - Set a target and stick to it - but also be realistic. Dont try to save £200 a month if you will only have £100 spare.

2 - Be organised. At first, i had a mortgage that let me pay what i wanted, when i wanted. If i had a spare £5, it went straight into the mortgage (cant spend what you dont have). When i re-mortgaged, it would only let me overpay in £500 lumps. I opened a new bank account and paid all the little extras i had into that (make sure you do not borrow from it!) and when it hit £500, i transfered it into my mortgage.

3 - Look/plan for your future. When i started over paying my mortgage, it was because of the tv show i had seen, I knew there was no way i could pay it off in 2 years, but by using mortgage calculators, i felt confident i could pay it off in 10 years (and i beat my target!). It was also around this time that i became aware that as a single mum on low wages, at some point i would stop receiving the help i had for my children (CSA, tax credits, child benefit) and that without that, i could not afford my mortgage, bills and food on the wages i was on. With this in mind, and the fact that if i could pay it off before my children left college, we would have money available to maybe do something special as a family. So, we have now had some fabulous family holidays, are about to welcome 2 new puppies to our family, and i'm hoping to replace my old knackered car for a shiny new/er one next year, things that would never have happened if we still had mortgage payments to make.

4 - Learn from people on this board and do not take any notice of other people who do not share the same aim as you. I've lost count of the amount of times friends have said 'aren't you lucky'. Luck has nothing to do with it- while i was staying home, scrimping, saving etc they were going out, buying new things for their homes or themselves, buying takeaways etc. They are now looking at what i have done, what i now have and what we have been able to do recently and probably feel they wish they had listened to me all those years back.

5 - Don't go without. Yes, instead of £30-40 for a takeaway, i paid that money into the mortgage, the £5/6 for a bottle of wine went there too but for special occasions like a birthday, we still had those treats. We went on holiday every 3 years instead of every year (making use of things like Tesco clubcard deals etc) and as my children were young, i don't feel they missed out, they cant remember our first ever holiday! They are enjoying our holidays a lot more now they are older and able to do things when we go away. I must admit, i would go without to make sure my children still had everything they needed (i have always tried to make sure they had what their friends but will ad ive never been someone who bought them expensive brand named clothes, even before the dream of being mortgage free), after all, i'm not growing anymore and i bought what i needed, not what i wanted. Shop savvy, use forums like this one for ideas (you want a takeaway, try the old style board for home made recipes that are as good, if not better!) buy treats when you have a voucher, or if its on special offer.

Finally GOOD LUCK - trawl this board for ideas, as i mentioned before, old style for recipes, the voucher board for obviously vouchers, but also other special deals, up your income for other ways to make a little extra - and know that it can be done and when it is you look forward to a future where you have a home that no one can take away from you, and extra money in your pocket for you and your family xxx

Former_MSE_Andrea

Huge congratulations comping cat. So lovely to hear you doing so well

It looks like you need a Debt Free and Proud badge too?

SAHD_Jim

I haven't "technically" become Mortgage Free yet because I am earning significantly more from my savings (3-5%) than I would by repaying the remaining 28K of mortgage (thanks to the Nationwide BMR).

However as I have been "net Mortgage Free" and rising now for 12 months, I felt it only fair to myself to post, given that it is in my power to close the mortgage officially whenever I want.

a. The date you decided to become a MFW
When I was made redundant in January 2009

b. Mortgage Debt at its highest
A tad over £120K at about the same time

c. (Net) Mortgage-Free Date
31st October 2013 - we now have a growing net worth! :T

d. Your one pearl of wisdom.
Rather than simply overpay, and as the BoE was keeping rates low, I managed my own offset whereby I was earning higher interest from various current and savings accounts (Lloyds, Nationwide, Santander etc) than the interest on my mortgage. Whenever our savings exceeded an amount that I could comfortably manage a decent return on then I would overpay. Effectively every penny extra interest is an extra penny in ultimate overpayment. I also benefit being a non taxpayer and (as my wife trusts me) all left over lolly goes into my name to maximise return.

*Robin*

Only just found this section..

a. The date you decided to become a MFW
1981 (when first mortgage was taken out).

b. Mortgage Debt at its highest
£65K

c. Mortgage-Free Date
2007

d. Your one pearl of wisdom.
Don't really have one, except keep plodding!

Teacher2

a. The date you decided to become a MFW

This was well over ten years ago but I can't remeber the exact date. In fact we were paying down the mortgage until it hit about £13,000 and we added to it to fund a large extension (rather than move which was too costly) and then to pay some fees for our youngest child's last two years of education at junior level.

b. Mortgage Debt at its highest

The mortgage had crept up to over £50 grand again (after paying it down and then re-borrowing) before we started to 'blitz' it. It wasn't a vast sum compared to mortgages today as we bought our house 28 years ago for £84,000.

c. Mortgage-Free Date

Can't remember the exact date but about eight years ago.

d. Your one pearl of wisdom.

We had a Virgin One flexible mortgage which allowed overpayments and also allowed us to borrow against the mortgage. We effectively used our mortgage as a chequebook account but were able to get away with it as we were both frugal and disciplined. One thing which helped us was that every time we had some extra money we paid off the mortgage with it instead of blowing it on holidays or 'stuff'. Bonuses, redundancy payments, an inheritance all helped along the way. In addition, whenever my OH or I had a payrise, however small, we did not spend it but carried on living our frugal lives and used the money to pay the debt down.

Once we paid off the mortgage we decided to continue to live economically though we could have enjoyed a bit of 'fast lane' living. When I was heading for a burnout as a teacher this policy allowed me to retire a few years early.

Freedom from debt and free time are the ultimate luxuries and beat fancy cars and holidays any time. Choice, security and independence are what 'MFL' offer and they are gold plated.

someday_soon

Hi All,

I always looked forward to the day when I could post on this thread, and when mortgage freedom came it took me 2 months to do it:rotfl: I graduated from the debt free wannabe forum in April 2009 where I had cleared all of the credit cards and loans that had built up just living life as it was then. Everything was credit, the payments going out each month were getting bigger, and it took a huge effort to clear it all. I calculated that I had formerly been paying out £540 in loans and interest every month at the highest point, so started to overpay the mortgage by this exact amount with good progress for a few months. I then stumbled on the mortgage free in 3 challenge, the calculator came out, and I threw myself at it. At that stage my mortgage debt was £60,000.
I also joined the 1 year challenge which reported monthly. Without these two forums I wouldn't have done it. Not a chance. There is something special about sharing a journey with like minded people. I watched people come and go. Some burned bright for a short time and faded, others who didn't post so often but made me smile when they did. The posters who update in $, the posters who chip away stoically each month not allowing adversity to deflect them from their course. And then there are the stalwarts FB, Gally, BT and so many others. It's been a great journey.

a. The date you decided to become a MFW
April 2009

b. Mortgage Debt at its highest
£91,000

c. Mortgage-Free Date
5th September 2014

d. Your one pearl of wisdom.
It's not for everyone, but for me taking massive action and setting targets at the top end of possible works in really focusing the mind on what needs to be done.

Good Luck Everyone
Someday Soon