Irish cottage journey to (4!!) mortgage freedom

DW has begun her final bit of the IVF process which will result in 2 eggs being implanted - trying not to think about it too much as it just stresses me out but keeping all my fingers and toes crossed that we have some luck.


As for the mortgage busting - I generally stare at my spreadsheet once per week to try and keep the inspiration up to continue. It's been a long journey up until now but there has definately been solid progress - my target for when I turn 50 is still in play and do-able I think. I turn 42 later this year so the time is moving on quickly!


My dream is to be able to at least semi-retire in my early 50's and I certainly do not want to be working past 60 and for that to happen I need to knock these mortgages on the HEAD!

I appear to be awful at updating this thread - generally seems to be about once a year at best!

Our overpaying had been much reduced over the past 2 years because we decided to complete much needed work to our home - new kitchen, brought bathroom upstairs, new toilet downstairs - unfortunately this turned out to be much more expensive than we anticipated (£30k budget) and we ended up having to spend around £45k!!! This totally wiped out all our savings and meant we had a pretty big debt to focus on before we could think about OP'ing again - we have done really well though and we now only owe £13000 which we will have paid off in the next 2 years so in the past few months I have started OP'ing again with enthusiasm!! Bonus is that the house is now fantastic and exactly how we wanted it.

I have had a bit of a 'moment of clarity' over this past year which has changed my outlook on life and my journey towards mortgage freedom - this has been due to a mixture of COVID, the loss of several members of my wife's family and a new spreadsheet that I created. Essentially I have come to the conclusion that where I am right now in my career is all I need to reach my targets and I don't 'need' to get promotion or a better job if I don't really want to. This has taken such a huge burden off my shoulders as for the last 20 years or so I've constantly put myself under pressure to be 'doing better' or earning more cash to get mortgages paid off. It's such a relief.

So my new spreadsheet is very simple - it just shows the current mortgage debt for each of our 4 mortgages - shows the amount we are paying off each month from overpayments and then has a total mortgage debt total that I can see reducing each month. What this simple spreadsheet has enabled me to do is calculate pretty accurately just how long our current mortgage debt total (today sitting at £258554) will take to be zero - my aim is to reduce this by a minimum of £1650 per month which would have it cleared in 13 years or so. Our target total monthly reduction is £2000 which if we manage it could enable the debt to be cleared in around 10-11 years from now! What a realization that has been - so this month has been the start of our 10 year countdown.

Mortgage 1: £97994 - OP currently £200 p/m (our home)

Mortgage 2: £67275 - OP currently £250 p/m (rented for £525 p/m)

Mortgage 3: £36280 (interest only) - OP currently £200 p/m (currently empty but will be rented for £450 p/m hopefully in next 3 months)

Mortgage 4: £57445 (Interest only)  - OP will be £400 p/m from this month (rented for £400 p/m)

Current total OP - £1050 p/m

I should have my car paid off in next 2 months which will free up £350 so I intend to increase above by £300 and once we get house number 3 rented out (we are renovating the house a bit) we should have another £400 or so to add on to the OP's so potentially we could OP by £1750 p/m which by my estimation would be an overall reduction of our total mortgage debt of £2400 p/m which if we could sustain this would have our total mortgage debt cleared in.... 9 years!!

This has been a lightbulb moment for me. In 9 years I'll be 52 and the thought of having no mortgages and a rental income coming in is incredible really. It has given me hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel and that all this will have been worth it. The best thing is that through my little spreadsheet my wife has finally seen the light and has committed to OP £400 on her house which will make all the difference.

In other news sadly our IVF was unsuccessful (we tried twice) but we are about to go through the adoption process so fingers crossed we have more luck with that.

Problem with boiler in one of our houses - thankfully nothing major and has been fixed for about £65. Have been trying to plan more for the 'dream scenario' which for me would be retirement/semi-retirement at 58 and then live 6 months at home and 6 months in Spain. 

At the moment we have nothing in Spain so it's a total pipe dream however I'd adding a few columns to my spreadsheet to include our savings.

Each month I have been saving £200 into a basic savings account - most of this goes on rates bill each September which is normally around £1150. In addition to this myself and my wife between us put £500 per month into another account which pays for our home improvement loan (£450 per month - will be paid off in 2 1/2 years). So my plan for the future includes us continuing to pay £500 into that account once the home loan is paid off and for me to add my usual £200 p/m savings onto that - so £700 p/m savings could be possible on top of our overpayments.

If we are able to sustain this then in 5 years time (which is when realistically we plan to start looking for a property in Spain) we could have £20k saved which we could use towards a deposit. It is a big ask because we are stretched enough as it is however we have been so used to being frugal and counting the pennies that I think we could stick it out.

Personally I need to have goals to work towards because without them I feel a bit helpless and trapped. It's the thought of being able to get out of the rat race and live a quiet life doing the things I enjoy without all the stress of work that keeps me going.

Hit our minimum target of £1666 overall mortgage reduction this month for the first time which was great. We actually managed an overall reduction of £1728 as my wife made only her second ever overpayment on her old house of £400. So delighted she is fully on board with this. 

I'm also hoping to finally pay off my car next month which should free up an additional £300 per month all of which I plan on adding to our overpayments - so £2000 reduction per month is possible! At this rate my 10 years to zero dream could be a reality if we can keep it up!

In other news we finally have been allocated a  social worker today for the adoption so really excited to think that maybe this time next year we will be well on our way hopefully to expanding our family. Very anxious and nervous about it but hopefully it will work out for us.