The Mortgage Free Roll Of Honour

Suffolk_lass

We are no longer Wannabees.

a. The date you decided to become a MFW - That was when I joined the MSE Forums, back in 2009

b. Mortgage Debt at its highest - £230,000.00

c. Mortgage-Free Date - 14th October 2020

d. Your one perl of wisdom - Don't worry about whether your repayment is too small - just keep doing it - every single repayment reduces the interest you pay and makes that magic snowball get bigger and faster

e. The MSE Mortgage guides and others that helped you - Lots! - @julicorn and @trix-a-belle are the mortgage thread organisers, both in the mortgage free wannabee area of the forum, but also to everyone whose stories I have read over the years, whose advice or mistakes I have learned from and whose journeys continue to inspire me. I want to make a special call out to @Karmacat who has consistently and constantly kept my diary going by encouraging me and reinforcing. Finally @beanielou  - thank you for your endless positive comments - you are so close to your own post like this - we know you can do it

f. And if you had a mortgage freedom diary on MFW, a link to it - When I started my diary I accidentally put it in the debt free wannabees diary area - and that is where it has stayed, while I cleared my expensive debt first and then even the 0% debt, and finally our mortgage. When I met my husband we owed more on our credit cards, loans and overdraft than we did on his home - and it has all gone (over £500,000 over the years). My diary is here 

MrsCD

👏👏👏👏👏 Well done, Suffolk lass.

notaskyofearth

a. The date you decided to become a MFW: January 2013
b. Mortgage Debt at its highest: 120K
c. Mortgage-Free Date: Wednesday 28th October 2020, 6.30pm. 
d. Your one perl of wisdom: Combine reducing mortgage term with overpaying / saving. Allows flexibility + motivation.  
e. The MSE Mortgage guides and others that helped you: Everything to do with remortgaging. 
Thank you to all for the help and advice on this site and this forum and most of all for the inspiration!

FrugalYorkshireman

Hi all 
First time post ! 
A bit about my Mortgage, it was with Platform (bought through a Mortgage Broker, monthly payments were £520 fixed interest for 5 years @ 2.69% for 35 year term. Over payments were limited to £1000 each month, with a 5% early repayment charge on anything over the £1000  per month in year 1, 4% in year 2, 3% in year 3 until the end of the 5 year fixed term. 
Have paid the mortgage off early in the 5th year and so had to pay the 1% early repayment fee on the outstanding balance, but with savings interest rates so low it worked out better than the offset of interest on savings. 

a. The date you decided to become a MFW -  June 2016- as soon as I go the mortgage and saw the interest I would be paying!
b. Mortgage Debt at its highest - £145K June 2016
c. Mortgage-Free Date - 29th Oct 2020
d. Your one pearl of wisdom- set up a tracker that shows the amount of interest accrued each month and your over payments, if you are savvy with excel also ofset you interest from savings. Any time you waver in doing an over payment just look at the interest being paid to the bank compared to what they pay you for saving as the best motivation 
e. The MSE mortgage guides and others that helped you - The mortgage repayment calculator, was nice to see the impact of the over payments, the MFW forum is always fun to see how others have been doing and their hints and tips for those extra pennies

f. And if you had a mortgage freedom diary on MFW, a link to it. - I never got round to doing one as it was quote boring my story, just paying off each month drawing awn from salary/ savings

ElmoR

Hi all

It hardly seems real, the mortgage has gone Good riddance. Do I feel different? Oh yes! It's a weight lifted. After a good bit of upheaval, I completely changed my approach to money and the mortgage. Having to sort out a remortgage after divorce was the catalyst I needed, all that scrutiny of where my wages went every month. In 2014 I went on a frugality mission and then in 2018 started to attack the mortgage in earnest with all the other savings we had been making.

a. The date you decided to become a MFW -  post divorce ~ 2014
b. Mortgage Debt at its highest - £160K in 2003ish
c. Mortgage-Free Date - 2nd Nov 2020
d. Your one pearl of wisdom- set up a spreadsheet and see how the daily/monthly interest goes down even with the smallest of overpayments
e. The MSE mortgage guides and others that helped you - The mortgage repayment calculator, the MFW forum, the MFW Challenge run by julicorn, and being able to learn from others, seeing them succeed in their goals after a determined slog. They showed that it was an achievable dream.
f. And if you had a mortgage freedom diary on MFW, a link to it. - never worked out how to add a link (doh). May well start a new one soon on FIRE goals...watch this space...

ElmoR xx

Mort

a. The date you decided to become a MFW - 02/08/2014
b. Mortgage Debt at its highest when decision made - £21,230
c. Mortgage-Free Date - October 2019, yes last year! I failed to remember to post at the time.
d. Your one pearl of wisdom - Budget sensibly, learnt the hard way when on a Debt Management Plan, and put an affordable amount into overpayments. Even small amounts help.
e. The MSE Mortgage guides and others that helped you - I can't remember which one specifically but I used a recommended spreadsheet to show the effects of overpaying.
f. And if you had a mortgage freedom diary on MFW, a link to it.- It's here but it's not of much interest. I made 2 posts in 6 years and 3 months, they are very good posts though .

Northernsaver18

a. The date you decided to become a MFW the day we took out the mortgage, we wanted to be mortgage free before we were 50! and we have done it!
b. Mortgage Debt at its highest 300k via a few upwards house moves
c. Mortgage-Free Date 1st Dec 2020
d. Your one perl of wisdom. every pound saved takes you forward
enjoyed reading others diaries, and feel really blessed/lucky to be in this position, time for some new goals!

good luck to all still on your journeys, you will get there, dont sweat it if life gets in the way a bit.

Martinslovechild

Northernsaver18 said:

a. The date you decided to become a MFW the day we took out the mortgage, we wanted to be mortgage free before we were 50! and we have done it!
b. Mortgage Debt at its highest 300k via a few upwards house moves
c. Mortgage-Free Date 1st Dec 2020
d. Your one perl of wisdom. every pound saved takes you forward
enjoyed reading others diaries, and feel really blessed/lucky to be in this position, time for some new goals!

good luck to all still on your journeys, you will get there, dont sweat it if life gets in the way a bit.

Congratulations Northernsaver18!!  That's a huge mortgage to pay down and a big achievement to do it before the age of 50.  Enjoy your new found mortgage-free freedom.

Northernsaver18

Martinslovechild said:

Northernsaver18 said:

a. The date you decided to become a MFW the day we took out the mortgage, we wanted to be mortgage free before we were 50! and we have done it!
b. Mortgage Debt at its highest 300k via a few upwards house moves
c. Mortgage-Free Date 1st Dec 2020
d. Your one perl of wisdom. every pound saved takes you forward
enjoyed reading others diaries, and feel really blessed/lucky to be in this position, time for some new goals!

good luck to all still on your journeys, you will get there, dont sweat it if life gets in the way a bit.

Congratulations Northernsaver18!!  That's a huge mortgage to pay down and a big achievement to do it before the age of 50.  Enjoy your new found mortgage-free freedom.

What a nice thing to say, we are very lucky to have both been working in well paid private sector professions (both having survived reasonably well so far during the pandemic), although Mrs Northernsaver has gone part time, for her own sanity! (that said we started out with nothing, so its all of our own backs) we are not flash, but never really done without.. 5-10yr plan to semi retirement, need to get our pension pots up!  kids becoming adults soon with all that entails!. just feel very very lucky.

Vikipollard

 a. The date you decided to become a MFW - probably the exact same time I had my LBM about my level of debt (2006)
b. Mortgage Debt at its highest - £59,000, but that was in my husband's name until Jan 2017, when I put my big girl pants on and tried going for a joint mortgage with him for £33,250 over 6 years.  I'd been debt free for 5 years then, so I was pretty sure there was nothing nasty to show on either of our credit reports.  I know it's only small compared to many people's but I was terrified!
c. Mortgage-Free Date  1st December 2020 - a whole two years ahead of schedule.
d. Your one pearl of wisdom - overpay!  Although it was a relatively short term mortgage, I am sooooo glad with everything that this year has dropped on the world that we decided to go for it, and forego holidays and new cars.  We're so lucky in that we both have been in work all year, but  if I didn't recognise it before, there are no guarantees even in "safe" jobs.
e. The MSE Mortgage guides and others that helped you - I pathologically played with the mortgage overpayment calculator.  We were, from the start, overpaying by £200/month, and then as things got less tight with money, any salary increases were thrown at the mortgage.  We ended up paying £300/month over the required payment.  This was not at the expense of general savings though - which was lucky as one of the cars cost £2500 in repairs in the summer.  .  Still cheaper than forking out £10000 for a comparable replacement though.