The Mortgage Free Roll Of Honour

mitchg

Well done Sparklmessygirl, great feeling isnt it, now i guess soon that shopping bug will come back just try not to give in to it too often but once in a while is good.

gocat

Dithering_Dad wrote: »

Welcome to the Mortgage-Free Roll of Honour.

This is for Mortgage-Free Wannabees who are no longer Wannabees.

Please report

a. The date you decided to become a MFW
b. Mortgage Debt at its highest
c. Mortgage-Free Date
d. Your one perl of wisdom.
e. And if you had a mortgage freedom diary on MFW, a link to it.

And huge congratulations

(I thought that we MFW's deserved a roll of honour too )

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a. Could have been MF a few years back but two kiddies in Uni, thought would wait till that's been and done just in case, and kept savings in ISA's and esavers.

b. £68000 back in 1990. Reduced to £48000 sometime in the 90's .

c. 24-5-08

d. Er just chuck a bit in the ISA's and esavers whenever I could.

:beer:

JIMBOBC

Reduced mine to £65k from £120,000 last week

M-People

a. The date you decided to become a MFW
May 2004

b. Mortgage Debt at its highest
£802.000

c. Mortgage-Free Date
29/05/05

d. Your one perl of wisdom
Get a £70,000 promotion :rotfl:

Everyone else, GOOD LUCK, hope you join us here soon!
:T :T :T :T :T :T

Nobby1974

sparklymessygirl wrote: »

Happy Bank Holiday!

Somewhere over the last 5 years I seem to have lost the shopping bug and now it just irritates me so it has not been difficult to divert money to the mortgage.

Sparkly

I was exactly the same. Just didn't want anything, didn't need it. I too was obsessed about it, It's now been 8 months since becoming Mortgage Free but I still don't really want for anything, DOH! So now I am into saving and helping friends out. I now treat my friends more than I treat myself.

The feeling has been amazing not watching hundreds go out the account every month. On top of that I just had a big increase in salary so may extend the house to add to the value.

Go for it one and all! It was worth the sacrifices.

toffeepennys

Hi, this is a random question. our mortgage was finally paid off in full in april and as of yet we have still not received our deeds back from the bank of scotland.

does anyone know how long it takes for them to fianlly sort the paperwork?


i made sure to cancel the direct debit etc with the banks and contact the bank by phone and writing to confirm that it was paid off.


baby no2 now due and im thrilled that at 33 im mortgage free

donnfors

Date I decided to become a MFW - 1.3.05

Mortgage Debt at its highest - £83,000

Mortgage free date - 1.3.08:j

Pearl of wisdom
The most powerful invention is compound interest. Those that understand it, earn it. Those that don't, pay it. - Albert Einstein

Tips
Set up an Amortisation table and a Personal finances spreadsheet and pour over them several times a week to monitor transactions and work out what you can do next to make or save money.

Constantly set yourself mini goals:-
- Overpay a little more each month than you did the month before
- What else could you do to knock yet another month off the overall term?

Be single minded - It’s just for the short term and it’s so worth it!!

How it was for me
Received letters advising that my two endowment policies would massively fail to pay off my mortgage as expected … and as promised!

Read an article entitled ‘Pay off your mortgage in 5 years’

Decided I needed to do something ...

- Transferred from a standard, variable rate to a flexible, offset mortgage.
- Discovered a mortgage overpayment calculator which REALLY motivated me
- Began making overpayments each month by throwing everything I could possibly afford at it.
- Took out 0% balance transfers on credit cards. (Before balance transfer fees were introduced.) Wherever possible, I transferred the entire balance into my current account to offset my mortgage. Otherwise I transferred sums to pay of existing credit card balances and avoid having to spend from my mortgage/current account. (At one point I was ‘borrowing’ £46,500 free of charge on credit cards, to offset my mortgage.)
- I couldn’t get around to claiming endowment mis-selling so I commissioned a third party specialist to do this for me and (eventually) won both cases.
- Calculated that it was worth selling my endowment policies on and ploughing the money into paying off my mortgage too. (This was a complicated calculation, as I had to make sure I'd included everything)
- When balance transfer fees were introduced, I took out credit cards offering 0% on spending rather than on balance transfers and spent up to the limit, keeping very close tabs on credit limits and expiry dates of deals.

The above process ruined my credit rating, but I figured it was worth it to reach my objective - and I could always rebuild my rating again once I’d paid off my mortgage.

In Feb 2008, I handed over my last mortgage payment and closed the account with glee. :rotfl:

By this time, however, I couldn’t stop! I immediately opened a better current account paying interest on balances in credit, and began looking into the best ways to invest the spare money I have each month, now I don’t have to pay it into my mortgage account … Albert Einstein was so right!

PisceanPet

a. The date you decided to become a MFW
Don't think there was an exact date, just an ambition that was always at the back of our minds. Might have been the day we read MSE tips and realised we had a really bad savings account as well as a mortgage with the Halifax which is a really stupid position to be in!

b. Mortgage Debt at its highest
£40,000

c. Mortgage-Free Date
1st March 2008
We claimed compensation for a mis-sold endowment, and they also gave us a price to buy back the endowment. It then dawned on us that if we sold the endowment to a broker for a better price, and used the compensation, it wouldn't even take all of our savings to pay the rest off - quite a revelation!! And it feels fantastic!!!!!!!!

d. Your one (or more!) pearl of wisdom.
Keep an eye on your finances - we thought we were quite savvy with money but we missed things like interest rates that 'hook you in' and then drop. Always check tie-in periods with mortgages, we always moved it to get better deals and NEVER took out a mortgage with a tie-in period.
Claim your compensation if you were mis-sold an endowment!

e. And if you had a mortgage freedom diary on MFW, a link to it.
We didn't, it all happened too quickly!

Must admit though, we haven't actually told many people we've done it as it feels like bragging in front of other friends that we know are heavily in debt - have other people felt like that? Great to talk about it here! :T

hostertlady

[[[I was just told i should add myself to this Mortgage Free Role of Honour, as today my balance is now showing 0.
So here i am Mitchg mortgage free.
Yehhhhh]]]

Same here too Mitch, after 25 years and numerous extra borrowing for improvements etc.. my Balance is 0 too:beer: :beer:
Now what shall I do with the 'mortgage' money :j I know ... SPEND IT!!!

Pisceanpet
{Must admit though, we haven't actually told many people we've done it as it feels like bragging in front of other friends that we know are heavily in debt - have other people felt like that? Great to talk about it here! :T}}
yep totally agree with you, I haven't anyone...

SimonD_3

I am mortgage free and have been for 5 years... Its wonderful...