Mortgage-free by 33? (2023)

Trina90

Thought it time I made a thread. We have been overpaying our mortgage since moving to our first (and current) home 5 years ago. We have an annual overpayment limit of £15k. We have managed to overpay by about £60k across these 5 years. We were on a 5-year fix, which is ending. Today, I have just switched to a 3 year fixed.

Our motive is to be able to enjoy life more - and, as we are approaching our 30s, we are beginning to seriously think about starting a family. With our job (my husband and I are colleagues) it really isn't an ideal job for parents - there is a lot of opportunity for overtime, which you are expected to do - not ideal, especially when it is both parents! Therefore, we initially just wanted to bring the mortgage down so that the monthly payments were affordable on just one salary (for a while at least). Will be a bonus if we manage to pay it off completely (depending on circumstances possibly changing in the next couple of years!)

Mortgage balance currently stands at 69,052.68

Welcome to anyone who wants to follow our progress 

South_coast

Welcome and good luck 😀 I didn't even manage to buy until I was 33, so you're already doing extremely well in my eyes! This will bring you so many options for your future

Thick_n_Thin

Hi, you have already done well, wish I’d had that foresight at your age! Will be following with interest! 

Trina90

Our last monthly mortgage repayment of £639 for our 5-year fix will be taken on 28th May (our 3rd wedding anniversary!). Then our 3-year fix begins - looking forward to paying just £278 a month, excluding any overpayments! 

Earnings so far this month
my pay £1918 (£500ish is from overtime!)
husband's £1918 (same as above)
prolific academic studies £41.32
user testing £24
I started matched betting on 10th May. So far have earned £52 from this

We owe my mum back for monies borrowed last month, so will be paying this back this month. Won't be making any overpayments on the mortgage until next payday at least. We allocate £1750 (£875 each) per month to the joint account for bills, food, petrol and any other joint spendings. The other £700ish will go to savings.

Jessy103

Good luck and well done on doing so great so soon!

longway2go

Wow you sound like you are doing fantastically well. I really wish I had been so focused early on. 
I have just started prolific so good to see you can make decent money from it. 
Are you able to offer any pointers in relation to starting user testing or match betting? 

LeighofMar

Welcome. You guys are doing so well and what a gift to give yourselves of being mortgage free in your 30s. Good going. 

Trina90

longway2go said:

Wow you sound like you are doing fantastically well. I really wish I had been so focused early on. 
I have just started prolific so good to see you can make decent money from it. 
Are you able to offer any pointers in relation to starting user testing or match betting? 

Prolific is the only survey site I use regularly now.. it is the only one I like!
The company that does the user testing is local so not sure if everyone has access to this kind of thing - it consists of reading a leaflet for a medicine and then we answer questions about the medicine so they can determine whether the leaflet is readable and understandable. It takes about 15 mins a person. We both earn £12 each from this. I think they only ask the same people every 6 months so will be a while until we do this again - so not a great earner, but worth doing when they want us!
If you are interested in starting matched betting, I recommend https://www.teamprofit.com/ as that's what has got me started and have found it really helpful!

longway2go

Thanks very much 😊

Bargainhunter30

Amazing job Trina! We are in a similar position, 5 years in and just taken on a 5 year fix with £224 monthly payments 😮 We also have 2 kids (2 and 4) and live off 1 income now and any extras we can make. We've not struggled to make similar over payments as now we drink and holiday less and budget accordingly. Hoping to be MF by the end of the fix. I also matched bet and reccomend casino and teamcasin0 website, made £1800 since November and had lots of time off. Good luck x

Trina90

Earnings since last update
my pay £1717
husband's £1744
prolific academic studies £49.03
YouGov surveys £50
I have put a pause on matched betting for now.. may try again when I have more time on my hands. But £57 earned since last update!

£1400 will go towards our joint monthly outgoings, bills
 £1700 will go to mortgage overpayment savings (I prefer to save this and pay it in one annual lump sum at the end of our mortgage year, rather than overpay monthly)
The other £500 is going towards things we want to save up for (new carpets, new TV, new TV unit - these are things we were kindly donated 5 years ago (the carpets were what the previous owners laid!), so are all very old and could really do with replacing)