The Mortgage Free Roll Of Honour

beanielou

Congratulations @RND79.

MrsCD

Well done @RND79!

mpgsheep

a. The date you decided to become a MFW

September 2010

b. Mortgage Debt at its highest

£251,500 (though at one point had mortgage of £438,500 with some savings in place when we took that on putting it at £220k)

c. Mortgage-Free Date

6th April 2026 (still hold a mortgage, but savings cover it all so effectively mortgage neutral)

d. Your one pearl of wisdom.

Very cliche - but it is a marathon and not a sprint. Also your plan changes - this is the second time we are mortgage free after we decided our previous home was not our forever home - initially seeing our mortgage go from 0 back to over £200k was pretty galling. Also not for some - but i wouldn't have been able to do this as quickly as we did without using stocks and shares ISA to accumulate - do recognise we have been fortunate with that.

e. The MSE Mortgage guides and others that helped you

Early on was playing with the Overpaypment calculator - for small amounts like "oh if i pay off £10 a month extra, that means we save 2 months off the end etc", and some other forum regulars at the time who i enjoyed following their updates and taking their tips on little things - like whenever I took lunch instead of buying for work, I would overpay £4 for that day etc.

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

Below - apologies its way over busy at the start, and very lacking at the end.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2950320/my-mortgage-free-diary/p1

HelenaPinky

I've read so many posts on this thread over the past few years for inspiration!!!

a. The date you decided to become a MFW

2018, I saw an annual mortgage statement and was shocked at how much we'd paid vs. how much the mortgage had reduced. Hadn't given interest a second thought until then! I put my savings of 20,000 into the mortgage and that started the journey I've been on for 8 years

b. Mortgage debt at its highest

112,000 first time then 165,000 after our house move

c. Mortgage-free date

1st May 2026

d. Your one pearl of wisdom

The phrase I read on these threads really early on: "Treat it as a game", which I did, I got a thrill out of each overpayment! and got into a habit of overpaying regularly. (A note added to say that inheritance also sadly sped up this process)

e. The MSE mortgage guides and others that helped you

The overpayment calculator is a great visual boost to remind you why you're doing it.

This equation: (mortgage amount) x 0.0(interest rate) and then divide by 365

showed me my interest rate per day. I wouldn't accept paying £16 a day for anything else, so I wasn't prepared to pay it a day on my mortgage interest!

The community here has been a lifeline including Julicorn's MFW challenge. Overpaying the mortgage isn't something I hear talked about in day-to-day life, so to know that there's other people who put importance on this has kept me on track and made me feel that my approach is sensible and sane.