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My Mortgage Free Diary
Hi all, After lurking here for 3 months, decided to finally sign up and start my diary. My wife and I bought a 3 bed maisonette (1st and 2nd Floor) in August 2008 for 168,000, with a 5% deposit, with Directline 30yr mortgage, 2yrs fixed at 6.89% (ouch!), and since August 2010 we are on the SVR, currently 1.5% above base…
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The Mortgage Free in Three - Take 7 challenge (MFiT-T7)
A three-year challenge for all of those who are want to pay down their mortgage (or save for house-related expenses) over a longer time period than MFW. First of all, a huge thank you to trix-a-belle who ran the 4 and 5 iterations of this challenge, inspiring many of us to stay on track (and becoming mortgage-free…
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The Case of the Overwhelming Mortgage
I’ve lurked for a long time. I have no-one in real life I can discuss these issues with and thought it might be helpful to get it out of my head and on to paper. I am mid 40s, married, with two pre-teen children. We moved in 2017, with a 20 year mortgage of £140,000 and interest of £10 per day. We now have a mortgage of…
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julicorn's journey 3 - The House on the Hill
Hi all! Long time, no see, at least when it comes to the diaries (I still run the mortgage free challenges, of course). Where do I start? This is my third diary on here, the first talking about our initial mortgage pay off journey for Mr julicorn and my first flat (bought in 2017). If you have too much time on your hands,…
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Light the fire...
Hi All :wave: After lurking for a few years and having been inspired by lots of the amazing stories on this board I have decided that its time to join in and post my (our) journey. I am a mum of two (DD is 8, DS is 3) and have been married to my lovely DH for 10 years. We moved into our current house 4 years ago. We paid…
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My Mortgage Free Mountain - A 7 year expedition to climb to the top
OH and I are in a
position where we will be able to repay the mortgage on our own home either at
the end of this year or in Jan 2023 thanks to an insurance claim we have been
waiting to pay out for several months. However we also have 3
BTL mortgages which need to be cleared and our big dream is to clear them all
before my…
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Lumiona's MFW Diary
As a forum lurker, I'm not a threadstarter but I figured like many of you that a diary is a good accountability method. Ok so here goes: Backstory, we moved to our current house in 2006, bought for £178k mortgaged at £130k for 30yrs. Interest rates were high monthly payment about £750, went up to nearly £900 at one stage.…
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Impossible challenge
Hello! Trying to keep motivation so decided to stop lurking in the shadows and start my own thread. Family of 4 (2 adults and 2 children) with a very large mortgage of now £470k over with just over 23 years left. 1.5 years into a 5 year fix (thankfully a cheap one). OH and I are fortunate to have well paying jobs but…
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Life after Mortgage (before the Next One!)
I have been a long time reliant on these threads and at times considered starting my own but bottled it...now I am just going to go for it! It seems like a strange time to be starting a thread as a 'mortgage-free wannabe', but I can't imagine being off this group! It's been such a lifeline to be with like-minded people.…
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Overpay now or later?
I can now access my 25% tax free sum from my pension. I started the mortgage late so we have 10yrs to go £300k to pay off still Which is the smartest of these two moves: take my 25% now - value £30k and use it to overpay the mortgage now Wait circa 5yrs, when the 25% tax free sum will be bigger (circa £50k) and use it to…
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Tip toe towards my goal
Well I read mortgage free diaries all the time and find them motivating. So going to do a diary myself and log how I get on. Property purchased five years ago for £155000 now has I think £119570.24. This was a five year fix and and at the end of December will have 19 years and 4 months left. It has interest at 2.99%. I…
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Mortgage Redemption
I’m planning to pay off my Nationwide mortgage in full this month (yippee!). Currently the money is split between different accounts (cash ISA and non-ISA savings) with different institutions, none of it in the Nationwide. Am I better consolidating it all in one account and making a single payment to Nationwide, or would 2…
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MF Date 2037 - MOP it up by 2030?!?
Hello my fellow MFWers. I've decided to start a new thread now that I am debt free (4th June 2025) - yippeeeeee! I took out my mortgage in 2021 for 16 years and I'd absolutely love to get it paid by 2030 but we've recently been told that our tiny team in work is being transferred to another department and our job is very…
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My mortgage clobbering post
Putting this here because I'm an enthusiastic mortgage over payer and I have no one in real life to tell! Single parent for 15 years, left in £35,000 of debt by ex husband. (Paid off over 6 years). No maintenance paid in 15 years. Unable to pay capital for many years as I had to use the old endowment policy to pay off my…
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Powers’s mortgage free thread
Hi everyone, I’ve been reading lots of MFW diaries and wanted to start my own, sorry it’s going to be long! background: met a nice man with a not so nice house that he still owned with his ex wife and was in negative equity. Eventually remortgaged it together in May 2017 with a mortgage of £68k. We’ve made some…
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One step at a time
2024 has been a big (and expensive) year. I got married! We also moved into our ‘forever home’. Weddings and moving house are so expensive, and I am now looking towards getting a hold on our finances in 2025. I have been on the MSE forum for years, and contributed to some threads particularly on the old style moneysaving…
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Alternative living to escape the rat race....
Has anyone here managed to escape the rat race and semi‑retire before 35? I’ve been part of this forum for around 15 years, and it’s been an incredible resource for navigating all things money. But until about six months ago, I was like most people—caught up in the rat race. Constant bills, rising mortgage payments,…
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Halving our income and still aiming for mortgage free!
Hi everyone, A long time lurker of DFW forum, and then here. Finally starting my own diary as I feel it will help keep me on track! As the title suggests we are halving our income as I have resigned my job in order to keep sane and support DD with home educating for the next year. The last two years we have managed to…
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Strange Discussion today with Santander
I called Santander today to ask questions re paying off my mortgage in full later this year and waive the early repayment fee (which I can due with inheritance money). The conversion was straightforward right until the end. I said "thank you for answering my questions" to which he responded, "actually I have a question for…
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Starting (again). My mortgage-free journey took a detour
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…
