Quest for (mortgage) freedom

AnotherNewDay

Congratulations 

eat_that_frog

Thanks so much all! It still hasn't really sunk in...I think it will at the end of the month when we don't have our regular monthly mortgage payment taken out of our account.

f0xh0les

Exactly that! When your earned money comes in, and stays there.  It takes a while to get used to.  But the feeling is priceless. 
Congratulations 🍾 🥂 

Jessy103

Congratulations!! Super happy for you! 🍾🥳

caeler

@eat_that_frog Congratulations!! 🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳 Remember to ask MSE for your mortgage free badge! 🥰

ladysummerisle

Congratulations! I started reading last night and just finished. The second child was a surprise at the end, as aside from a reference to “eldest” not long ago, there was no mention. You’ve been unrelenting in your progress so I’d be interested to know how their arrival impacted things. I’m keen on getting rid of my mortgage while mine are still small too. It’ll allow so much more freedom as they grow.

eat_that_frog

It's been about a month since getting shot of the mortgage. It was lovely not having the monthly mortgage payment taken out of my bank account at the end of April. Definitely felt real then.

We also had a letter from the building society telling us that the mortgage had been cleared. And then notification from land registry that the deeds have been updated. We got those letters about 3 weeks after clearing the mortgage (in case anyone reading this wonders how long it takes...) The deeds are held digitally so there was nothing to receive there, which is a shame as our house is early 1800s I'd love to see the original deeds, where ever they are lurking...

We've agreed we're going to enjoy the next few months and then in September sit down and think about how best to make our money work for us, short and long term. We've both got workplace pensions but we're not as clued up as we could be.

In the meantime I've transferred my focus on getting mortgage free onto weight loss and a bit of light decluttering. I have a couple of stones of baby weight to lose and I need to regain some fitness. And although my house is pretty decluttered already since tackling it back in 2021/2022, inevitably having young kids things have crept up on me a bit and I think there are a few hotspots in the house that need targeting.

Tjh1412

Congratulations, just finished reading your whole diary and found it very inspiring 

eat_that_frog

It's been 2 months since becoming mortgage free. I think it's starting to settle in now that it's happened. 

We've been able to top our emergency fund back up to the level we feel comfortable at, £10k. We've also got a few smaller savings pots to get back to to their original levels, for things like holidays etc. We had also dipped into those to make the final mortgage payment, so we'll look to get those back up to their normal levels over the next couple of months.

Otherwise we've just been enjoying having extra money coming in and not going immediately out again on mortgage OPs. But the mortgage OPs had become a habit, and I think we're still living pretty frugally. We've agreed that in September we'll sit down and think more about longer term financial planning, but for now we're just enjoying it. We've been on holiday twice over the last couple of months, on trips within the UK but by the seaside, which our children love! We had a fantastic time both times!

I think I'm the sort of person who needs a goal to work towards. So I'm concentrating now on my health and some light decluttering of the house. I've lost 2kg over the last couple of months, I've been eating a bit more healthily (although not dieting or restricting myself from eating any particular foods, I don't think that's sustainable) and have been doing regular resistance training and weight training, which I am really enjoying.

I've also decluttered just over 100 items from my house so far. I've set myself a target of 500 items - I might not even get that high, as I decluttered pretty thoroughly back in 2021/2022 and we live a pretty minimalist lifestyle. But inevitably with young children we have accumulated 'stuff' since we last decluttered, so I want to get on top of that. So aiming for around 500 items to be decluttered feels like another positive goal for me to work towards for the rest of the year.

eat_that_frog

It's been 3 months now or so since paying off the mortgage. 

Safe to say we are definitely noticing a difference financially. We've been away for a few long weekend getaways in the UK, which have been wonderful and our children have loved. And we've got 3 more planned before the end of September and we're really looking forward to those.

We've also been saving too. We've been putting money back into our smaller short-term savings pots to get them back up to their normal levels - we'd had to use those to pay off the mortgage earlier in the year. My OH and I have also been educating ourselves on pensions, and I think our next step once the summer's over is to look at increasing our existing contribution levels. At the moment I save 16% of my gross salary and my OH saves 20% of his gross salary - now the mortgage has gone, we have the bandwidth to increase those percentages.

Elsewhere...I've very much switched my mortgage overpayment focus onto my health. I love the buzz I get from doing weights and resistance training, I feel fantastic afterwards and I can see the difference in the mirror already, especially in my arms and legs. 

I haven't done any more decluttering recently, I need to have a look at the sitting room and my kids' wardrobes next....