Starting (again). My mortgage-free journey took a detour

gillynomad

I am re-stating a diary of sorts because I feel I am at a genuine fork in the road and this type of diary really helped me early on when I was just starting my MFW journey years ago. 

In summer 2025 I was around five to six years away from being mortgage free. That was based on regular overpayments and the possibility of some inheritance in years to come. 2025 was the year I became student-loan free and I had no debt other than a PCP car. So I was kinda living my best life…but felt I was too far from family.

So I made the decision that I would sell up and move closer. That meant taking on a new, more expensive mortgage and essentially starting again but was a worthwhile trade-off to be nearer family.

I put my house on the market in early autumn, started viewing and offering, and then…bang! was made redundant in September. The redundancy package was ok i.e. more than standard, but the timing was not. With a lot of support from my family, I decided to continue with the sale and move back in with my parents while I looked for a new job.

So the end of 2025 looked like this. 

• Unemployed

• house mid-sale

• back living with my parents

Basically, not exactly where I thought I would be to start the new year!.

gillynomad

2026 begins!

Things are now moving again. The house sale is finally completing, hopefully by the end of next week. And on the job front, it has taken almost four months, but I am close to securing a role. Assuming contracts go through, I should be back at work within the next month on a slightly higher salary than before.

This is where my thinking becomes messy, and where I would really value outside perspectives too. 

I need to buy again fairly quickly. I love my parents, but staying here long-term is not realistic - we may end up killing or maiming each other…

For info, I am in my early 30s…..so plenty of work years left. It is also just me and my dog at this time, but space is something that matters to me especially with family always “popping” round. My last place was a three-bed terrace and every room was genuinely used. 

Based on current options, I am torn between two broad paths:

• A higher mortgage in the low £300ks for a house that is largely “done” and meets most of my needs now. So no big renovation projects, just usual style and maintenance changes over time.

• A lower mortgage in the high £200ks for a house that is liveable but would need work to fully suit me over time. So renovation projects, alongside the usual upkeep of houses.

This essentially equates to around £150-£200/month difference in mandatory mortgage payments. And obviously I want the ability to overpay on top of that too…

Alongside that, I am trying to rebalance other priorities. Restarting pension contributions after losing roughly six months, rebuilding an emergency fund (I was lucky that the redundancy hasn’t diminished all of my funds…just needs picking back up again), and also still being able to enjoy what life has to offer.

So lots to think about...

debtfreewannabe321

I think opinions will differ on the buy ready done but higher price as opposed to buy cheaper and DIY. I've just done three houses up on the bounce (bought cheaper than the ready done ones in the same area) and on my fourth now. The next one I buy will NOT need all the DIY doing to it. I'd rather outlay more upfront and actually live my life than spend it in a building site (depending on level of work) ...each and every DIY project seems to have a knock on effect to other rooms and it can sometimes work out more money to DIY these days. Gone are the days of cheap DIY where you can do a whole house with 5k..just my opinion and perhaps I'm a bit jaded by all the disruption I've had to live through the last few years 😆. Good luck with the sale next week I hope it all goes through smoothly. 😊

Dakota_Rose

It sounds as though you were managing things really well to be able to ride out the redundancy storm so well. Well done. 

I would definitely be tempted to go for the slightly higher mortgage and less renovation work if you can afford it. It would take significantly more per month in the short term to make the improvements. I only say this from our position of buying a house with a lower mortgage than we needed but that needed some improvements. It seemed the sensible choice at the time. These are proving more expensive than we projected though and are being spread over a longer period than we would have hoped. Moving house always seems to cost far more than you expect too! Of course, the pay off (I hope) will be the value we are adding to our home as we complete each one. 

Will be following along to see how you decide to move along with things. 

gillynomad

Dakota_Rose said:

It sounds as though you were managing things really well to be able to ride out the redundancy storm so well. Well done. 

thanks! - I had thankfully been following advice/guidance from here for years so had worked hard to give myself a security blanket (and have managed to weather the storm without losing too much of my emergency funds due to the payout I was given). 

Dakota_Rose said:

 I would definitely be tempted to go for the slightly higher mortgage and less renovation work if you can afford it. It would take significantly more per month in the short term to make the improvements. I only say this from our position of buying a house with a lower mortgage than we needed but that needed some improvements. It seemed the sensible choice at the time. These are proving more expensive than we projected though and are being spread over a longer period than we would have hoped. Moving house always seems to cost far more than you expect too! Of course, the pay off (I hope) will be the value we are adding to our home as we complete each one. 

debtfreewannabe321 said:

I think opinions will differ on the buy ready done but higher price as opposed to buy cheaper and DIY. I've just done three houses up on the bounce (bought cheaper than the ready done ones in the same area) and on my fourth now. The next one I buy will NOT need all the DIY doing to it. I'd rather outlay more upfront and actually live my life than spend it in a building site (depending on level of work) ...each and every DIY project seems to have a knock on effect to other rooms and it can sometimes work out more money to DIY these days. Gone are the days of cheap DIY where you can do a whole house with 5k..just my opinion and perhaps I'm a bit jaded by all the disruption I've had to live through the last few years 😆. Good luck with the sale next week I hope it all goes through smoothly. 😊

thanks for this - my head is in the space off spend more to do less - as I did improvements and such on my house and while that has paid off a little in terms of getting more for it in the sale...it was a nightmare dealing with it at the time!

I was looking at my finances again more today and with the knowledge that I could have say 3-4 months of a salary that has no pension contributions (as normally there's a 3 month period before you start) and no mortgage/bills to actively pay (other than parents rent/food contribution that they have yet to decide on...although from experience/knowledge of my parents that won't be too much) it means I could have the most available funds I've ever had incoming each month for a very small period. 

If I look to use this money to bulk up all relevant emergency funds early then that means by the time I am on my own again I shouldn't need to push money towards that for 2026...leaving more for overpayments and savings.

gillynomad

So I have officially packed up my house and moved my furniture into storage. Hopefully the sale goes through on Friday and I can put that stress behind me. 

I am still waiting to hear about my contract for my new job. It's been 26 business days since I accepted the offer (and although it has been xmas over that period) I am now starting to get frustrated. A previous colleague reached out about another role at their current business, so I am potentially going to have a conversation with them while I wait. Especially as I don't yet know when the "start date" could be for the accepted offer too and I am now month 4 into redundancy. 

I feel a little like it's 1 step forward, 2 steps back at the moment.

Zerforax

gillynomad said:

So I have officially packed up my house and moved my furniture into storage. Hopefully the sale goes through on Friday and I can put that stress behind me. 

I am still waiting to hear about my contract for my new job. It's been 26 business days since I accepted the offer (and although it has been xmas over that period) I am now starting to get frustrated. A previous colleague reached out about another role at their current business, so I am potentially going to have a conversation with them while I wait. Especially as I don't yet know when the "start date" could be for the accepted offer too and I am now month 4 into redundancy. 

I feel a little like it's 1 step forward, 2 steps back at the moment.

Did the house sale go through smoothly? 

gillynomad

Zerforax said:

Did the house sale go through smoothly? 

Yes! House sale went through all ok. My stuff is all safely in storage and my mortgage has been paid off! So only storage costs and car costs to worry about until I start work.

My contract for the job I accepted also came through 29 days after I accepted...

However, I've had another potential job come up that may be slightly better pay and a little more interesting overall from a career perspective - came through someone I used to work with. It's not necessarily as secure due to the market climate...but after waiting 29 days for the current offer's contract I have soured a little of joining that business. 

Due to needing time to get all my docs in place due to change of address etc. I decided to interview for this new potential job - I've basically had 2 informal interviews already but they have to go through "official" processes to give me an offer. So they pushed through a job role up Friday for which I applied....so the "official" part is hopefully happening from tomorrow...

I decided to delay signing the contract of my current offer for a week to see what comes from this....it's a risk but I think it's the right decision to make especially as I am still waiting on driving licence and credit card statements for new address anyway so it's a natural delay that would have happened anyway.

AgathaSquirrel

I agree with the option of higher mortgage, minimal work. We’ve been in our place 8 years and still saving to do rooms. Thought we’d be long done by now but costs keep going up.

How is the job hunting going?

gillynomad

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81861169#Comment_81861169

I held my nerve….and got the job with the new company! It comes with better pay and better benefits. Will get the contract next week but got a start date of mid-feb so really happy!

Means I can finally start seeing some houses again. The house which is more money…is still up for sale so hoping I can get booked in to view next week. Another property that looked good came on the market today and quickly disappeared this evening as "off the market"…so not sure what happened there. May or may not see that re-appear tomorrow.

northwalesd

Congrats on getting the job.