I Could Be Mortgage Free

Popgirl

Hello
Like many people I have been a long time reader and have been inspired by people's achievements and actions which I have tried to adopt over the years and this has given me the courage to post my own journey

A little about myself, my family and our life.
I am married to DH with DS x2 both have now left home and are making thieir own way in life quite successfully.
We both work for FTSE 100 companies at different levels of management which gives us great reward and benefits. We both know how lucky we are to be in that position.
We have 3 houses, 1 we live in, 1 BTL and a holiday apartment abroad.
We have been talking for sometime about paying off the mortgage on our family home as we have the funds to do that but over time the conversations have been alittle deeper with talk about giving up work and retiring very early. After lots of talking, thinking and looking at the options we have decided to do it and finish work in Jan 16 and not pay off any mortgage for now but continue with small over payments.

The Mortgages
House 1 (our home) mortgage now £88k (tracker 0.27% above BR) this is IO but have overpaid £30k in previous years house valve £240k
House 2 BTL £82k (tracker 0.99% above BR) IO mortgage house value £160k
House 3 (holiday home) mortgage free house value 140k€

The Savings
Shares (purchased though work sharesaves and share buying schemes )£150k
S&S ISA £91k
Investment Bond £28k we pay in £1k a month to this
Santander (our emergency/easy access fund) £15k
Endowment estimate £22k due in a few years

We have been in the mind set that while our mortgage rate is so low our money would work better for us in savings then paying off "IN FULL" :money: house 1 mortgage. There is a good feeling when looking at the mortgage statement seeing the figure reducing so I do make small over payments but never more than £100 recently.

Our Plan
DH will finish work Dec 15 and I will continue to work until my company offer redundancy. This traditionally happens twice a year once in March and once any time between Sept-Dec. Once we have both finished we then plan to rent out house 1 move to our home abroad and live off the rent from both house 1 and 2. I need to check with the mortgage company that I am allowed to rent house 1 for a period of time before changing to a BTL mortgage and also I would like to check with a letting agent on expected rent I have an idea but would like them to confirm.
I still want to make small overpayments on house 1 mortgage until we need to swap to BTL as this gives me a sense of achievement.
In the long term we are not expecting to keep House 1 and House 2 we think we will sell one of them which should pay off both of the mortgages if that is the best thing to do when the time comes

I know this isn't a traditional mortgage free thread and my journey may not interest anyone but I want to post regularly so I can track our potentially life changing journey.

Best wishes Popgirl

gaffel

Hi Popgirl, welcome on your journey.

It is true that often it is better not to pay off your mortgage and make your money work much harder elsewhere. With such low rates on your mortgage I think you are right on this path. A lot of people on this board follow FIRE which is financial independence retire early and whilst I am aware of it and beginning to understand it, I am by no means an expert, but I guess it is what you are following. Will the rent from your two UK properties pay the mortgages and give you an income, enough to live of (once working out tax etc), if so this sounds like a great idea.

Popgirl

Hi Gaffel

Thank you for your reply yes FIRE is the path we are trying to follow but like you I don't understand it fully but more than happy to learn.
Doing the maths we believe the rent will give us enough to live on after paying the mortgages even when the rates rise. If the base rate ever hits 4-5% we may need to look at drawing down some of our savings but not expecting to do that for some time to come and the drawn down may only be some of the interest.
We have adopted a nice but simple life over the years , with a few nice luxury things along they way, but we certainly dont waste money we don't think. Bills are certainly a lot cheaper since DS x2 have left home! My water bill is half what it use to be, boys and showers! We enjoy doing hobbies that cost nothing or very little and we are more than happy to eat at home than eat out regularly.
We have a really good idea of how much our bills will be abroad so that helps to budget

bexster1975

Hello!

I realise you think your journey is quite different but we all aim for much the same thing on MFW. Not everyone wants to be MFW to retire early, but whatever works. Would you consider part time work whilst abroad? I only ask as people often report being bored shortly after retiring and if you are retiring very early (40s/50s?) this may be even more true.

Mr money moustache (MMM) is a website lots of people on here follow too.he looks at reducing how much you need to spend in order to retire early. Whatever you plan, you are in an excellent position.
As for me, I'm about to be mortgage neutral ( so enough savings to clear mortgage ) but only the one home. However the plan isn't to retire, but to work for myself. Needing less money to live on and having a roof over my head that can't be taken away offers the freedom to leave the 9 to 5.

Best of luck on your journey, I think more people than you think will be interested in following along

Bexster

Popgirl

Hello Bexster1975

Thank you for your kind words and good luck with your journey too, working for yourself is a nice plan to have, what are your timescales to achieve this? Are you on track?
I am not planning to do paid work while abroad in an ideal world I would have liked to do the job I am doing now PT as I could be based anywhere but that rule applies to UK only. I will look to do voluntary work, I will get great pleasure out of that.
I will have a look at (MMM) thanks for the advice


Regards
Popgirl

bexster1975

Hi

My timescale is the same as yours - so next year. Means my mortgage is not an issue only ten years after it started. Shame you can't do your job part time abroad.

Hope you find MMM interesting. Sounds like you have some of his tricks Sussed already!

Bexster

Goldiegirl

Hi there.

Just wanted to say congratulations on making the decision to stop work.

It's a big step to take, especially if you are both in good jobs, but when it feels right, and you've thought through all the finances, then just go for it.

I've never come across anybody who has regretted early retirement - it's brilliant!

I've never been bored, in fact I don't know how I found time to work!

Popgirl

Hi Goldiegirl

Thank you for your reply. I have read your thread with great interest and taken a lot of inspiration from it.


I don't think we will be bored either!

Popgirl

A couple of things on my to do list today in between work

Make appointments with letting agents (think i will get 3 different valuations) - will need to tidy house before they come :)
Ring bank to make appointment to discuss mortgage to see if we can get permission to rent

Must start to de clutter and sell things we don't want or need, think I will tackle this room by room for now. Will start tonight by taking photos of things to sell and post on free add site.

Made OP of £13.95 today money from TCB:j
Time for :coffee:
Have a lovely day everyone
Best wishes Popgirl

Popgirl

Make appointments with letting agents - DONE.
Make appointment with bank re mortgage -DONE
Start to de clutter - Started but this is going to be a BIG task
Post some items on free ad site to Sale -DONE

I have been busy :j

Popgirl

The last two days have been none stop so haven't really had the time to do any more de cluttering or anything that would count towards making our big move in Jan.
First letting agent coming tomorrow luckily house is pretty tidy just a last minute Hoover and a dash around each room with the air freshener as they arrive.
We have had some mechanical problems with our car recently which has resulted in the car being off the road for over 8 weeks. The dealership has had the car since the problem started and still haven't been able to fix it. They are waiting on the manufacturer to tell them what is causing the problems and how to fix it. The car is just over 12months old and we bought it from new. I know that isn't very MSE but the car was only launched 2 years ago so there wasn't many used cars around to choose from so didn't really have much choice....that's my excuse and I am sticking too it!:rotfl:
Sorry back to the tale...2 weeks ago I lost patience as I still didn't have a fix date and I was well and truly fed up with the whole saga so I rang the head office of the dealership and the car manufacturers and complained. I have to say both companies could not have been any more sympathetic and they have been most helpful, which has resulted in an offer of a brand new car that will roll off the production line sometime in Sept and will be a 2016 model with a 65 number plate at no extra cost to me. That must get the thumbs up:money: . I have an appointment tomorrow at the dealership to choice the colour and spec...very excited :T

We have family coming to stay this weekend so another few days will pass with no de cluttering action...oh well plenty more weekends I guess in the next 6 months.
I have managed to sell a couple of items on free ad site this week which is good news. The £110 we made has gone into the retiring early pot and not as an OP. I will do OP on Pay Day.


Gosh is that the time...bed time now , night night.