The Mortgage Free Roll Of Honour

black_taxi_2

brilliant someday soon,I joined MFIT-2,nov 2009,I'm now only days away MF

my journey was the same as yours,debt,to mortgage free

financial bliss and others kept my motovation

black_taxi_2

a. The date you decided to become a MFW


01-11-2009


financial bliss thread
(MFiT-T2)


b. Mortgage Debt at its highest


£48,515


c. Mortgage-Free Date


28/11/2014


d. Your one pearl of wisdom.


1k/3k yearly bank loans mean you never clear debt or mortgage capital

tootallulah

I have been waiting for this post, many, many congratulations.

RosieTiger

Black taxi - great to see you make it another one from the MFITT2 !!!

enthusiasticsaver

A) The date you decided to become a MFW


I cant remember the exact date but it was when interest rates were ridiculously high in the 90s and we were considering moving to a bigger house as our daughters were teenagers and hogging the bathroom and taking over the living room with their friends and watching Friends and Buffy the vampire slayer on our TV. We said either we move to a bigger house taking on more debt and becoming wage slaves for ever after or we stay put and make adjustments. Needless to say basins in their bedroom and a conservatory were a cheaper option and from then on we concentrated on paying down our mortgage whenever possible.


b) Mortgage debt at it's highest was £60,000. After paying off our mortgage in 2004 we then took out another one to buy a flat in the Midlands for our eldest daughter to live in while she was studying for a PhD. It was cheaper than her paying private rent.


c) Eventual mortgage free date 28.10.14


d) Pearl of wisdom - it is always cheaper to borrow your own money. Save for everything unless on interest free credit. I am proud to say that apart from our mortgage we have never paid a penny in credit card or personal loan or overdraft interest.

Wentthedaywell?

Well, here I am at long last (29 years) , it's a pleasure being here and I am looking forward to my badge of honour!

a. The date you decided to become a MFW
2006. Each time I had moved up the ladder I had kept the term of the new mortgage at another 25 years as that was the only way I could afford the mortgage (expensive part of the country and single income). But my job was looking increasingly insecure so I thought I'd make inroads into it.

At the time it was £68k, so I visualised it as a chessboard and each grand I paid off was another square crossed off. It was a while into doing this that I realised 8 x 8 is 64, not 68! :embarasse

b. Mortgage Debt at its highest
£90,000, 15 years ago.

c. Mortgage-Free Date
21st November 2014 (10 years 1 month early)

d. Your one pearl of wisdom.
Paying down is important, but don't become so obsessed with it that you:

1) miss out on life - you only have one.
2) neglect other financial areas. In retrospect, in a time of low interest rates (I was on a 0.5% tracker for years) I should have left my mortgage ticking over and poured that money into AVCs etc. But what's done is done, and it is so great to think my home is now 100% mine.

e. The MSE Mortgage guides and others that helped you
I was late to this site so never really used these. Shame, as there's lots of brilliant advice and encouragement there.

Funny thing is, after years of overpaying and waiting for that golden day, there's a vague feeling of anticlimax. I wasn't expecting the back office at the bank to burst out with party poppers and champagne, but there was a hassle with the payment, no acknowledgment etc.

Great to be here though, and good luck to anyone else still with a mortgage reading this - you'll get there! :beer:

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

I've just been looking round this Board for the first time. I've seen the name before but never thought it applied to me so never peered inside. I see a few people posting their stories from the past so here's mine in the hope it may provide some encouragement to others.

a. The date you decided to become a MFW
This would be the day after we got our first mortgage, so sometime in 1979.

b. Mortgage Debt at its highest
Embarrassingly low by today's standards - £30k
We started off at £16k; I don't know how today's youngsters manage.

c. Mortgage-Free Date
October 2003, when I took early retirement.

d. Your one pearl of wisdom.
Never give up.

e. The MSE Mortgage guides and others that helped you
It all happened before I joined the Forum so I wasn't able to use any of the great advice.

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

black_taxi_2

http://www.whatsthecost.com/cpi.aspx

GrandmaStar

I became mortgage free by overpaying each month & then paying off using lump sums from insurances etc
31st Dec 2006

Old_Git

I became mortgage free yesterday .
At its peak I was paying 11.5% interest .
At it highest I owed £61000.
I cleared a lot of debt with inheritance .

I am not a high flyer and have a low income but now I own three properties with no mortgages.
Yes I know the interest in tax deductable on rented properties but I would rather have no mortgage and keep whatever is left after tax.

It really helped to have a woolwich mortgage rate of 0.68% ,made it easier to overpay as the rent came in