The Mortgage Free Roll Of Honour

HudsonBay

The date you decided to become a MFW
October 2018

Mortgage Debt at its highest
£250,000

Mortgage-Free Date
20 February 2024  

Your one pearl of wisdom.
We used to "cash sweep" any left over spending money each month and overpay the mortgage with it.  It made a real difference and was a great incentive not to waste spare money.

The guides and others that helped you
Too many to list.  Every time I had a wobble I would read through some of the diaries - yes it takes time but stick with it....it's so worth it

And if you had a mortgage freedom diary on MFW, a link to it.
I didn't, but wish I had started one

Listerofsmeg10

The template needs an extra title - How do you feel? I don't know about anyone else but over the years I often visit this thread to gain encouragement and live vicariously through other people reaching the goal that we all strive for. I want to know that the end result is worth the pain and sacrifice. I want to know how people feel when the millstone is gone! Surprisingly few people really post about that!

Well, it's my turn. I just paid off the mortgage!

The date you decided to become a MFW
Always overpaid to lesser and greater degrees, but in earnest throwing everything at it from Jan 2020. 4 years was our target and we made it pretty much bang on.

Mortgage Debt at its highest
£220,000

Mortgage-Free Date
9th April 2024

Your one pearl of wisdom.
Honestly the best thing was getting a First Direct mortgage. Completely unlimited overpayments as long as you don't actually pay it off during the fix, and the account is just like any other current FD account. It shows in the app and you can transfer money whenever and the balance instantly updates. Super encouraging. I hated having to wait for statements on our previous mortgage, or use one of the credit apps as a back door to see the outstanding balance.

The other best thing was tracking every single penny we spent, and getting addicted to Excel. You can't save money if you don't know where you're wasting it in the first place, and graphs are motivating.

How do you feel?
I feel great! And a bit lost maybe? We worked towards this moment for four years, and now it's finally here that anchor point is gone and the horizon is empty. We need to find another target in life. A nice problem to have for sure and I'm sure I will soon find my feet, but at this exact moment I'm all at sea.

But most of all I feel peace. No anxiety.

Stress wise it's been a gradual reduction over the last year or so rather than a sudden release today. We started aggressively overpaying because the economy, and our jobs, were looking uncertain (Brexit, Covid etc). The fear reduced as we passed various milestones - Low enough that we could borrow from family if the worse happened, then low enough that we could survive on one salary, then low enough that a redundancy payment would cover the remaining mortgage etc. In fact the last 6 months have been annoying rather than euphoric as I just wanted it gone. Interestingly I noticed that as the stress reduced, so did my ability to give a damn at work. This is good and bad. I enjoy my job and I don't want to jeopardize it. I think I am just burnt out TBH and do feel different now the mortgage is gone. I think this will improve.

Having seen the large interest increases that people are suffering now makes me so grateful that we did what we did. Our 1.54% fix ended yesterday. For those still on the journey coming off fixes, think how much worse it would have been if you hadn't overpaid. I've heard many suggestions that I was a fool to overpay because I could invest that money instead. This is true, in all likelihood I could have made more money, but it isn't guaranteed, and I wouldn't have the peace I do now. I would be watching markets and trying to predict future mortgage rates. I'm all for optimising finance, but I chose to optimise security first and I'm very happy with that choice. I don't need to worry about our home. We will always have it now.

The best bit was cancelling the standing order in my banking app and realising how much spare money we now have. That was better than the call to close the mortgage. All our spare money went to the mortgage as well as the standard payment. Every raise, every bonus, every penny went in to prevent lifestyle creep. By the end we were paying 2-3x our standard payment each month. It now seems a crazy amount of money to have available. I thought I'd go on a mad spending spree, and I did in fact spend the last few weeks planning some fantasy purchases. In the end though I haven't bothered yet. Being sensible with money is a hard habit to change!

A good chunk of money is already redirected toward my pension. As much as our previous mortgage payment in fact! I've read previous posts on this thread to the same effect, and I've always thought that sounds disappointing and boring. What's the point of paying your mortgage if you then just pay your pension instead? Well the first difference is that it's your money. You're not throwing money into a big debt hole, you're building a big pile of cash that is yours to spend at some point in the future. The bigger that pile is, the faster it grows. Secondly, if you're lucky enough to be a higher rate tax payer then the tax savings are nuts. For every £100 take home I sacrifice, I get £166 in my pension. My mortgage payment has gone from disappearing into a hole, to instantly being worth 1.6x more, and growing more every month! Hard to resist, and super motivating. At the end of the day, retirement is basically mortgage free on steroids. The ultimate freedom!

Retirement is only a future goal though. We still have lots of spare money to enjoy life now, and we plan to. Some holidays and fixing up our crumbling house for starters. Maybe a home gym. Then we will see what the future holds. We have options now.

For all those MFWs reading and still on the journey, be encouraged. It really is worth it! Good luck to you all.

crunchy_time

Listerofsmeg10 said:

The template needs an extra title - How do you feel? I don't know about anyone else but over the years I often visit this thread to gain encouragement and live vicariously through other people reaching the goal that we all strive for. I want to know that the end result is worth the pain and sacrifice. I want to know how people feel when the millstone is gone! Surprisingly few people really post about that!

Well, it's my turn. I just paid off the mortgage!

The date you decided to become a MFW
Always overpaid to lesser and greater degrees, but in earnest throwing everything at it from Jan 2020. 4 years was our target and we made it pretty much bang on.

Mortgage Debt at its highest
£220,000

Mortgage-Free Date
9th April 2024

Your one pearl of wisdom.
Honestly the best thing was getting a First Direct mortgage. Completely unlimited overpayments as long as you don't actually pay it off during the fix, and the account is just like any other current FD account. It shows in the app and you can transfer money whenever and the balance instantly updates. Super encouraging. I hated having to wait for statements on our previous mortgage, or use one of the credit apps as a back door to see the outstanding balance.

The other best thing was tracking every single penny we spent, and getting addicted to Excel. You can't save money if you don't know where you're wasting it in the first place, and graphs are motivating.

How do you feel?
I feel great! And a bit lost maybe? We worked towards this moment for four years, and now it's finally here that anchor point is gone and the horizon is empty. We need to find another target in life. A nice problem to have for sure and I'm sure I will soon find my feet, but at this exact moment I'm all at sea.

But most of all I feel peace. No anxiety.

Stress wise it's been a gradual reduction over the last year or so rather than a sudden release today. We started aggressively overpaying because the economy, and our jobs, were looking uncertain (Brexit, Covid etc). The fear reduced as we passed various milestones - Low enough that we could borrow from family if the worse happened, then low enough that we could survive on one salary, then low enough that a redundancy payment would cover the remaining mortgage etc. In fact the last 6 months have been annoying rather than euphoric as I just wanted it gone. Interestingly I noticed that as the stress reduced, so did my ability to give a damn at work. This is good and bad. I enjoy my job and I don't want to jeopardize it. I think I am just burnt out TBH and do feel different now the mortgage is gone. I think this will improve.

Having seen the large interest increases that people are suffering now makes me so grateful that we did what we did. Our 1.54% fix ended yesterday. For those still on the journey coming off fixes, think how much worse it would have been if you hadn't overpaid. I've heard many suggestions that I was a fool to overpay because I could invest that money instead. This is true, in all likelihood I could have made more money, but it isn't guaranteed, and I wouldn't have the peace I do now. I would be watching markets and trying to predict future mortgage rates. I'm all for optimising finance, but I chose to optimise security first and I'm very happy with that choice. I don't need to worry about our home. We will always have it now.

The best bit was cancelling the standing order in my banking app and realising how much spare money we now have. That was better than the call to close the mortgage. All our spare money went to the mortgage as well as the standard payment. Every raise, every bonus, every penny went in to prevent lifestyle creep. By the end we were paying 2-3x our standard payment each month. It now seems a crazy amount of money to have available. I thought I'd go on a mad spending spree, and I did in fact spend the last few weeks planning some fantasy purchases. In the end though I haven't bothered yet. Being sensible with money is a hard habit to change!

A good chunk of money is already redirected toward my pension. As much as our previous mortgage payment in fact! I've read previous posts on this thread to the same effect, and I've always thought that sounds disappointing and boring. What's the point of paying your mortgage if you then just pay your pension instead? Well the first difference is that it's your money. You're not throwing money into a big debt hole, you're building a big pile of cash that is yours to spend at some point in the future. The bigger that pile is, the faster it grows. Secondly, if you're lucky enough to be a higher rate tax payer then the tax savings are nuts. For every £100 take home I sacrifice, I get £166 in my pension. My mortgage payment has gone from disappearing into a hole, to instantly being worth 1.6x more, and growing more every month! Hard to resist, and super motivating. At the end of the day, retirement is basically mortgage free on steroids. The ultimate freedom!

Retirement is only a future goal though. We still have lots of spare money to enjoy life now, and we plan to. Some holidays and fixing up our crumbling house for starters. Maybe a home gym. Then we will see what the future holds. We have options now.

For all those MFWs reading and still on the journey, be encouraged. It really is worth it! Good luck to you all.

Thank you for this it is really inspiring 

South_coast

Listerofsmeg10 said:

Having seen the large interest increases that people are suffering now makes me so grateful that we did what we did. Our 1.54% fix ended yesterday. For those still on the journey coming off fixes, think how much worse it would have been if you hadn't overpaid. I've heard many suggestions that I was a fool to overpay because I could invest that money instead. This is true, in all likelihood I could have made more money, but it isn't guaranteed, and I wouldn't have the peace I do now. I would be watching markets and trying to predict future mortgage rates. I'm all for optimising finance, but I chose to optimise security first and I'm very happy with that choice. I don't need to worry about our home. We will always have it now.

This, 100% 😀😀😀