The Mortgage Free Roll Of Honour

london21

This thread is truly inspirational. If it is thinkable it is truly doable. 

glass_half_full

a. The date you decided to become a MFW
28th June 2018

b. Mortgage Debt at its highest
Originally £145,000 ;  £80,000 when I started my MFW diary.

c. Mortgage-Free Date
28th July 2021

d. Your one pearl of wisdom.

Commit to the goal. What I mean is rather than making OPs as and when possible, at the right time, make those OPs into a regular part of your monthly payment. In my case I made my standing order include my OP. That way the goal moves from being a dream to being a reality. It also makes you take it seriously and make the changes you need to make to achieve the goal.

Start a MFW diary and keep posting. It’s a great way to put down your thoughts and order them. You will go through ups and downs, you may lose your way (I know I did), but committing to your goal in this way will help to keep you on track. Join the various challenges for annual reductions. This is a marathon so you need interim milestones to reward progress.

kr147

Huge congratulations Glass Half Full! I love that you posted on the day you became mortgage free. What a great day! 

notes1

a. The date you decided to become a MFW

Probably as soon as I became debt free and left DFW in 2014 sometime.

b. Mortgage Debt at its highest

£160,000 (March 2014)

c. Mortgage-Free Date

Today ( 23rd August 2021)

d. Your one pearl of wisdom

Keep yourself motivated with spreadsheets to see how things can change. But make sure you do enjoy yourselves occasionally to avoid falling off the wagon. Its a long term project and needs to be sustainable.  

e. The MSE Mortgage guides and others that helped you

Everyone really.

f. And if you had a mortgage freedom diary on MFW, a link to it.
Nope - sorry i was too busy working to pay off Mortgage 

andys15

That’s is. Mortgage free. Paid my last 69 pence in the service station on the way home from Cornwall. 

It felt a bit of an anti climax to be honest. I think possible because I felt mortgage free when I got below the £10k mark. Not sure why. 

Nationwide were quick and closed my account before I had chance to take a screen shot. 

Just been paid today and feel good. 

I am glad I reduced the term of my mortgage. I had been overpaying quite regularly before reducing the term, but things always came up which I needed money for. 

By reducing the term I had no choice but to pay the DD. 

Also being with Nationwide with unlimited overpayments I was able to really knuckle down. My fixed deal was till Feb 22 but it’s paid off now with no penalty. 

Frith

a. The date you decided to become a MFW

Late December, 2018

b. Mortgage Debt at its highest

£45,000 from July 1998 - c2016. 100% interest only mortgage. 

c. Mortgage-Free Date

Today, 8th September, 2021. 2 years and 9 months early. 

d. Your one pearl of wisdom

Throw everything at it. I was really helped by EBay sales, prolific and YouGov surveys and an unexpected sum of money from the sale of my grandparents’ house. 

e. The MSE Mortgage guides and others that helped you

I have enjoyed reading a great deal of different threads, even if posters had huge mortgages and were high earners. Thank you to everyone who posted on my thread. 

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

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6154682/my-mortgage-clobbering-post

Please may i have a mortgage free badge! 

shala_moo

a. The date you decided to become a MFW

9th October 2011, we were just moving to a new property and I didn't want the mortgage to be a burden to us when we got older. My aim was to "retire" and be mortgage free at 45 - I gave up work through voluntary redundancy in Sept 2020 at 44 and paid off the mortgage at 45.

b. Mortgage Debt at its highest

£166,050 - we had three mortgages between us in 2011 but this was the one on our main home that needed paying off, the others were paid off when the other 2 properties were sold.

c. Mortgage-Free Date

We had the money to pay off in Jun 2021 due to a redundancy pay out, however we left it until 24th September 2021 when we had an inheritance also come through. 

d. Your one pearl of wisdom

Try and balance the aim of paying off the mortgage with having fun and doing things you want to do. Life is too short.

e. The MSE Mortgage guides and others that helped you

I followed a lot of diaries over the years that motivated me, however, work commitments meant that I lost track of lots of them.

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

I had a diary many years ago but abandoned it due to work commitments as above  

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3537953/mortgage-freedom-shala-moos-attempt-at-a-diary/p1

Porridgecat

We cleared the last £12000 off our mortgage on the 23rd December.
a. the date we decided to become mortgage free: 
    Ours was a bit of a roundabout route, we were originally with Northern Rock and I guess decided to start paying it down when we were shifted to NRAM (not sure when that was now) we started by paying extra off the attached loan and saved up to pay off the loan. We also went from around £55000 of debt to debt free over a period of around 16 years, when we got to debt free we could massively increase our mortgage paying off rates. We got to mortgage neutral in June but then decided we liked having savings as well so kept on adding to both. The interest hike was the final push, it would have made only a few quid if that difference to our interest but thought it was the final insult as we've been paying 4.58% all along, we used just over half our available savings to pay it off. 
b. Mortgage Debt at its highest
    Our original debt in 2002 was £103 000. A lot less than others I know but we also racked up a lot of debt in the first few years just living beyond our income (and OH brought a lot with him)
c. Mortgage-Free Date
     23 December - that's the date we tried to log into our account and got the message that we didn't have one to log into any more.
d. Your one pearl of wisdom
     Start over paying as soon as you get your mortgage. I keep saying this to others, even if you start with £5 a month over the mortgage term it makes a big difference.
e. The MSE Mortgage guides and others that helped you
     I've also lurked more than posted. I started on the Debt free diaries and gradually started reading mortgage free wannabe diaries when we reached the stage that it became a possibility.

Porridgecat

inkie1

I have had to start a new profile  - previously inkie- as I couldn't remember the password for my old one (and the email I initially set it up with back in 2006 - I think!). Could I have a mortgage free badge please as we paid it all off in 2010  

Mortgagebuster

a. The date you decided to become a MFW

As soon as I bought the house in 2015.

b. Mortgage Debt at its highest

185300

c. Mortgage-Free Date

28th November 2020. 11 years 9 months early. 

d. Your one pearl of wisdom

Overpay if you can afford while enjoying your life. 

e. The MSE Mortgage guides and others that helped you

MSE Forum is a fantastic place.

f. And if you had a mortgage freedom diary on MFW, a link to it.
None

I should change the username or get another mortgage.