Mortgage Free in Three

carboot_karaoke

After +15 years of lurking on the site l have finally decided to create a MFW diary of my own. 
A brief-ish history
2009 took out current mortgage a tracker with FD, +0.79% base rate, allows fee free unlimited overpayments, and crucially, withdrawals upto the original amount borrowed. 

Thanks to your inspiration, super low interest rates and a strict budget by 2016 we we're credit neutral.

We never paid our savings off the mortgage instead in 2017 we used our savings and reborrowed from our mortgage to extend our home.

2018 Got back onto clearing the mortgage and saving so that once again by 2023 we were credit neutral.  However, yet again instead of clearing the mortgage we have spent our savings and reborrowed to finance a BTL property. 

So the current numbers as of today are :

Amount owed
£ 99569.04 - yikes seems a scary number @6.04%

Term remaining, 80 months ideally we want to halve that. 

The plan
Jun - Dec 2024 Target balance £60k
Jan - Dec 2025 Target balance 30k
Jan - Dec 2026 Target balance 15k
Jan - Dec 2027 Credit neutral



This year's OP will have a lump sum from our final savings, the rest from our monthly income and hopefully, some rental income. 

In reserve we have a contingency fund to cover a modest 2025 holiday or in case the washing machine breaks type of emergency.

Our combined income is £43k and our oldest children work and contribute to the household income.

We already live a frugal lifestyle,  so not much we can save bills wise, although overtime a few bad habits (online shopping/food spend) have crept in so I'll be addressing them. 

Hoping you can keep me company on our third and final (hopefully) mortgage free journey.  

Tiredbutdetermined

Well done on biting the bullet and starting a diary.

I love that your annual targets look to be tailored to adapt to your journey.

I am in a 3 year pay off/down your mortgage challenge on here that I find really motivating. This one ends in January 2025 so it looks like the timings of the next challenge might fit perfectly for you

carboot_karaoke

Tiredbutdetermined said:

Well done on biting the bullet and starting a diary.

I love that your annual targets look to be tailored to adapt to your journey.

I am in a 3 year pay off/down your mortgage challenge on here that I find really motivating. This one ends in January 2025 so it looks like the timings of the next challenge might fit perfectly for you

Awwh thanks @Tiredbutdetermined l have read your journey so far and  think your doing brilliantly,  not just financially. I will look out for the next 3 year challenge 😊

powerspowers

Good luck carboot, it seems like you know what you need to do to! 

Would it be useful to think about what you’ll do after the mortgage is gone? Change working hours etc? Do you have separate plans for your  pensions?

carboot_karaoke

Many thanks for your message @powerspowers .  You're right it's motivating to think about what happens when the mortgage is gone. We will need to replenish our savings but overall It will give us financially a lot more flexibility and allow time for what's really important like family etc.
Because it's still a while away and things change, I'm not going to get to carried away.

carboot_karaoke

June to do list

Switch energy supply to a fixed deal saving £40 a month.

Analysis where the food budget is going?? (spreadsheet ongoing) so l can find ways to save from July.

Apply to withdraw the lump sum from our savings account.

Research and renew car insurance (money saved earlier this year )

Buy some bedroom furniture to organise our things better (gifted some vouchers)

Buy thank you teachers gift's for end of year. 

Children party gifts x 3

And list on Ebay/ Vinted my ever growing pile of kids out grown clothes !!.

Work out how to get a signature/footnote 

beanielou

Happy shiny new diary 

beanielou

For signature~~ click on your user name & then profile & then on the right hand side there is a person & cki9ck on that & then there is something  about signature.  Go from there.  Hopefully this helps & my memory is correct!

carboot_karaoke

beanielou said:

For signature~~ click on your user name & then profile & then on the right hand side there is a person & cki9ck on that & then there is something  about signature.  Go from there.  Hopefully this helps & my memory is correct!

Many thanks for the instructions.  Hopefully it has worked 🙂 

beanielou

carboot_karaoke said:

beanielou said:

For signature~~ click on your user name & then profile & then on the right hand side there is a person & cki9ck on that & then there is something  about signature.  Go from there.  Hopefully this helps & my memory is correct!

Many thanks for the instructions.  Hopefully it has worked 🙂 

It has indeed  I can see it 

carboot_karaoke

carboot_karaoke said:

June to do list

Switch energy supply to a fixed deal saving £40 a month.

Analysis where the food budget is going?? (spreadsheet ongoing) so l can find ways to save from July.

Apply to withdraw the lump sum from our savings account.

Research and renew car insurance (money saved earlier this year )

Buy some bedroom furniture to organise our things better (gifted some vouchers)

Buy thank you teachers gift's for end of year. 

Children party gifts x 3

And list on Ebay/ Vinted my ever growing pile of kids out grown clothes !!.

Work out how to get a signature/footnote 

So, this weekend hasn't exactly been very money saving ...
l went out for lunch (did have a discount voucher) and despite having plenty of food at home time constraints meant we also had a rare and expensive takeaway 

We have also agreed to go on a camping trip next month - not technically budgeted for. Although l did give us quite a generous holiday fund this year pre BTL purchase as a well done for being in a position to pay our mortgage off. Seems like ages ago now  It just means our spending money will be reduced on our main holiday but as its All Inclusive I'm sure we will manage. I will just add that this is not our normal holiday scenario we are used to camping and caravans in the UK and always have a great time. But last year decided to have a major treat and booked 5* with all the bells and whistles. Cant wait 

Anyway, l have knocked a few June jobs off the list, and planning our first OP shortly.