The Mortgage Free in Three - Take 5 challenge (MFiT-T5)

crv1963

#43 Reporting an update-

My apologies trix-a-belle for the lack of reporting on our progress over time, I have not been as active as I should have been. I am dropping out of the challenge as Royal Mail "track and trace" shows my cheque to the Mortgage Company arrived yesterday and as soon as it is cashed and processed we will be mortgage free!
I decided to retire and return to work in January so duly worked my notice- retired April and returned to work May. We decided to use part of my pension lump sum to clear the mortgage, possibly not the best use of 80k especially as we paid 1500 early redemption fee, but peace of mind and a happy Mrs CRV trumped my urge to use the money elsewhere.
Good luck to all of you doing the challenge and I'll continue to pop onto the thread and read of your progress.

mummytummy

Congratulations crv1963 on becoming mortgage free and well done to Mrs crv for getting in first before you got any ideas  

crv1963

mummytummy said:

Congratulations crv1963 on becoming mortgage free and well done to Mrs crv for getting in first before you got any ideas  

Thank you mummytummy- it is more surprising than I thought to know we own it outright! Good luck with your goal!

trix-a-belle

Congratulations! Don't apologise, I think its quite sensible to give yourselves that peace of mind, I wish I could!
chuck a form through to close it out officially when you get the confirmation

pinknsparkly

Congratulations @crv1963! What an amazing feeling that must be, especially in the current circumstances. That's exactly what we're working towards - early retirement with the mortgage paid off. Though at less than 1.5 years into our 35 year mortgage, we've got quite a while to go yet

Lomcevak

And happy to say that I've also joined the mortgage-free club today - I posted more on the 2020 mfw thread so won't repeat myself too much, but huge thanks from me - MFiT-T3, MFiT-T4, and MFiT-T5 have provided hugely-needed motivation and support as I ground my way through the last seven years.

trix-a-belle

great news Lomcevak, whats the plan with your new found freedom?

Lomcevak

trix-a-belle said:

great news Lomcevak, whats the plan with your new found freedom?

Short term is a bit dull - there's some decoration and general maintenance work that needs doing, and I need to focus on building up liquid assets a bit because I'm heavily skewed towards house and pensions at the moment. Then over the longer term it becomes a focus on changing my work/life balance. I'm mid-40s, and by around 50 would like to shift to a job that's either fewer hours, or more personally interesting to me, or both. Quite what that means, I don't know yet!

Cheery_Daff

Wow, congratulations Lomcevak and  crv1963! Excellent news! We were mortgage free for a couple of years and it felt SO good

Just been staring at the spreadsheet working out why, despite it saying we'll pay it off 2.5 years early, it also says we'll pay £2600 MORE interest than at the start... Finally realised (of course) it's because we had to remortgage at a higher rate than the original (only 2.26% compared to 1.8% but still, that adds up over 20 years). Hopefully that'll come down over time!

crv1963

pinknsparkly said:

Congratulations @crv1963! What an amazing feeling that must be, especially in the current circumstances. That's exactly what we're working towards - early retirement with the mortgage paid off. Though at less than 1.5 years into our 35 year mortgage, we've got quite a while to go yet

pinknsparkly- I work with a number of younger people, so understand some of the competing pressures you have. I tell them it has always been that way, just in my opinion our 80s music was better! I also always suggest round up their mortgage payment figure- even small monthly amounts make a difference and to save even a small additional amount into a pension- taking advantage of compounding both ways!

It does feel really good walking round the garden looking at the house thinking "this is ours".