Finally Mortgage Free ! What happens next ?

amanda40

It has been our goal to be mortgage free for the last 7 or 8 years. Hubby got made redundant at that point and we decided to try and pay any extra money to mortgage. We were restricted for the first few years due to terms and conditions of mortgage, to 10% a year .

When we started our MF journey we owed £65000.

When we changed our deal in 2014 we could make unlimited overpayments each month, which made a big difference. Any money I saved each month by haggling with sky/Virgin /BG homecare/ mobile phones got transferred straight into a savings account, and on the day before payday I would empty out current account and transfer too. Quidco cashback, and all other cashback deals went same way and I would pay all from savings to mortgage every month.

Now we have made our final payment . I am hoping to carry on doing the same to build up some savings again and tackle our to do list .


What did you all do when you cleared your mortgage ?

Roxie

Hi Amanda, I haven't cleared my mortgage, but just wanted to say congratulations :beer: to you for achieving your aim. I can only Imagine how good it must feel to be mortgage free :j it's posts like yours that continue to keep me motivated into overpaying my mortgage. When I do clear mine the intention is to retire early.. Roxie

Silence101

Well done!! Must be an amazing feeling! Can't answer your question though as we've not yet even got a mortgage yet, but already planning on o/p it as soon as possible.

bexster1975

Hello and congratulations :beer:

Well yes, rebuild emergency savings and start on whatever to do list.

I'm relatively new mortgage free. I'm building up investments for a pension, doing things I've wanted to do for a long time and considering scaling back on hours in my main job to work on my own thing. The beauty of being mortgage free is you can do pretty much what you want. With reducing essential outings as part of the journey, how much I have to earn per month is very little. The rest I can do with as I please.

Very good luck to you whatever you do next

Bexster

Notfarfromtheborder

Huge congratulations.


Cleared ours three years ago, and since then I have been fixated with saving, probably even more so than I was in clearing the mortgage.


I've probably got tighter, whether I owed £50K, £70K, £100K it didn't really matter, the fact I owed money meant I had no issues in owing more. I'm different now, it sounds a bit weird but having no mortgage has made me more aware of this.


Pension is the big savings vehicle at present, I'm maxing out on what I can contribute using work salary sacrifice scheme as well as building up a healthy cash buffer with the ultimate aim of being able to retire very early, or have the option at least.


Present plan is to take some time out, maybe a year and travel / see where it gets us and see how we feel after that. This could be as early as 2019, I'll still be in my 40's (just....)


The biggest threat to all this is me, how will I feel spending what I have saved, still got that bridge to cross.....

greent

We cleared ours just over 2 years ago - since then we have put in new windows and external doors, a new boiler (ours was clinging on for the previous few years and then one day literally went bang), been on a 3 week holiday to Florida in school hols for 6 of us and bought new sofas. Oh - and spent quite a bit doing up the BTL in between tenants (full redecoration, electrics re-done, new flooring throughout, new kitchen)

We are now planning a new kitchen for us (hand made, bespoke - not at all MSE:o:o) and paying down the BTL mortgage. We also have 1 child at uni and another starting next year.

We haven't really built up savings - but the money has been spent on 'big' projects in general. The holiday was likely to be the last big family holiday for 6 (eldest is not coming with us this year - she is going away with bf) Once kitchen is done we plan on putting more towards the BTL and hopefully lump sums in pension arrangements

amanda40

greent wrote: »

We cleared ours just over 2 years ago - since then we have put in new windows and external doors, a new boiler (ours was clinging on for the previous few years and then one day literally went bang), been on a 3 week holiday to Florida in school hols for 6 of us and bought new sofas. Oh - and spent quite a bit doing up the BTL in between tenants (full redecoration, electrics re-done, new flooring throughout, new kitchen)

We are now planning a new kitchen for us (hand made, bespoke - not at all MSE:o:o) and paying down the BTL mortgage. We also have 1 child at uni and another starting next year.

We haven't really built up savings - but the money has been spent on 'big' projects in general. The holiday was likely to be the last big family holiday for 6 (eldest is not coming with us this year - she is going away with bf) Once kitchen is done we plan on putting more towards the BTL and hopefully lump sums in pension arrangements

We had 2 wee breaks in our journey for trips to Florida too. My mil died and left us enough for a holiday and we figured it wasn't the kind of holiday we would be able to go on normally so blew it in 2011. Went back in 2015 as our eldest was leaving school that year and we thought he wouldn't want to come away with us again ( used some of hubby's redundancy we still had for that )

Our original plan was to be MF for our eldest starting uni but we were a year late . Luckily though he stays at home and commutes. Youngest has 2 years left at school, then will probably go to uni too.

The month we were going to be MF hubby bought me a new engagement ring as I lost mine last year , so he thought we should do that first.

He us reducing hours at work too, but going down partial retirement route

amanda40

Notfarfromtheborder wrote: »

Huge congratulations.


Cleared ours three years ago, and since then I have been fixated with saving, probably even more so than I was in clearing the mortgage.


I've probably got tighter, whether I owed £50K, £70K, £100K it didn't really matter, the fact I owed money meant I had no issues in owing more. I'm different now, it sounds a bit weird but having no mortgage has made me more aware of this.


Pension is the big savings vehicle at present, I'm maxing out on what I can contribute using work salary sacrifice scheme as well as building up a healthy cash buffer with the ultimate aim of being able to retire very early, or have the option at least.


Present plan is to take some time out, maybe a year and travel / see where it gets us and see how we feel after that. This could be as early as 2019, I'll still be in my 40's (just....)


The biggest threat to all this is me, how will I feel spending what I have saved, still got that bridge to cross.....

I think I will be like that too, when you see how easy it can be to cut back and make savings , I won't ever go back to the frivolous way we were before :rotfl::rotfl:

amanda40

Silence101 wrote: »

Well done!! Must be an amazing feeling! Can't answer your question though as we've not yet even got a mortgage yet, but already planning on o/p it as soon as possible.

Good luck, I wish we had saved before we took our first mortgage , we seemed to squander money , it's only when u have a house and family and work less that you realise how little you can get by on and the saving that can be made if you try

amanda40

Roxie wrote: »

Hi Amanda, I haven't cleared my mortgage, but just wanted to say congratulations :beer: to you for achieving your aim. I can only Imagine how good it must feel to be mortgage free :j it's posts like yours that continue to keep me motivated into overpaying my mortgage. When I do clear mine the intention is to retire early.. Roxie

I hope you achieve your aim very soon ! I only work 16 hrs a week as have caring responsibilities and 1 child still at school. But hubby has out in for partial retirement from next month :beer:

tori.k

Pretty much whatever you want to do, we are just sorting our mortgage now so still have an eight year slog in front of us, not sure what we really plan afterwards yet, I know I will drop my second job, but removing our housing costs opens a world of possibilities, I have eight years of daydreaming to figure it out. You are as free as a person can be, enjoy