The Mortgage Free in Three - Take 4 challenge (MFiT-T4)

trix-a-belle · 7 December 2015 at 11:32PM

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The Mortgage Free in Three - Take 4 challenge (MFiT-T4)

First I must give a huge thank you to Financial Bliss who ran T3, he is a great inspiration to many having reached mortgage free status in T2, I wish to continue this legacy.

This is a the fourth in a series of three year mortgage challenges on this MFW board. Anyone who has joined a previous challenge should be aware of the format and timescales. If not see the next few posts below.

This fourth challenge runs from January 2016 to January 2019 and is open to anyone who wants to devote the next three years to greatly reduce or completely pay off their mortgage, or build up a pot of savings.

Below is a list of the challengers who have signed up and their own challenge:

1. trix-a-belle Build up my savings from £33,123 to £85,000.
2. Suffolk lass Reduce my mortgage from £114,882 to £60,000.
3. icklehelen Reduce my mortgage from £56,800 to £40,000.
4. lorriedriver1988 Reduce my mortgage from £79,000 to £50,000.
5. A Frayed Knot Reduce my mortgage from £33,000 to £15,000.
6. floxxie Reduce my mortgage from £88,500 to £30,000.
7. megela Reduce my mortgage from £78,955 to £57,500.
8. Shangaijimmy Reduce my mortgage from £126,000 to £85,000.
9. muppets Reduce my mortgage from £204,414 to £173,232.
10. dano17439 Completely clear my £95,000 mortgage.
11. Ang4k Reduce my mortgage from £61,000 to £40,000.
12. ourcornercottage Reduce my mortgage from £127,000 to £87,000.
13. VoucherMan Completely clear my £25,858 mortgage.
14. dark^knight Completely clear my £100,000 mortgage.
15. hiddenshadow Reduce my mortgage from £159,500 to £69,500.
16. JoeyGrey Reduce my mortgage from £195,000 to £100,000.
17. Radish72 Reduce my mortgage from £ 74,200 to £ 36,400.
18. uropachild Reduce my mortgage from £62,872 to £40,000.
19. helibob Reduce my mortgage from £198,230 to £152,000.
20. Runders Reduce my mortgage from £103,524 to £85,000.
21. selloptape Reduce my mortgage from £77,000 to £57,000.
22. AvidSaver Reduce my mortgage from £ 140,000 to £ 95,000.
23. Dalradian Completely clear my £95,849 mortgage.
24. Maybe_its_because Reduce my mortgage from £ 209,000 to £ 174,000.
25. Catriona79 Build up my savings from £0 to £30,000.
26. Wombatchops Reduce my mortgage from £ 149,294 to £ 134,294.
27. Pearla*Merle Build up my savings from £0 to £ 15,000.
28. Chutney86 Reduce my mortgage from £ 109,000 to £ 95,000.
29. pavlovs_dog Reduce my mortgage from £103,798 to £75,000.
30. taka Reduce my mortgage from £24,278 to £12,000.
31. 2rea22 Completely clear my £ 30,000 mortgage.
32. skaps Reduce my mortgage from £172,987 to £140,000.
33. princess295 Reduce my mortgage from £68,709 to £50,000.
34. Diamondsonly Build up my savings from £0 to £72,000.
35. Karona Reduce my mortgage from £35,216 to £25,000.
36. XSpender Reduce my mortgage from £117,553 to £87,000.
37. My Lovely Carrot Reduce my mortgage from £153,900 to £120,000.
38. HelenDaveKids Completely clear my £7,800 mortgage.
39. Anagran Reduce my mortgage from £102,500 to £92,500.
40. Mrs Money Penny Build up my savings from £10,000 to £40,000.
41. GETMYACTTOGETHER2016 Reduce my mortgage from £35,963 to £17,500.
42. Maximum Saving Completely clear my £24,351 mortgage.
43. Lexi-lu Completely clear my £90,472 mortgage.
44. CathT Reduce my mortgage from £89,501 to £69,501.
45. Penny pauper Reduce my mortgage from £115,500 to £85,000.
46. pathtofreedom Reduce my mortgage from £153,892 to £120,000.
47. SuperSecretSquirrel Build up my savings from £14,733 to £60,000.
48. Trying to be good Completely clear my £46,000 mortgage.
49. Rachiedabbler70 Reduce my mortgage from £70,800 to £45,000.
50. ielond Completely clear my £255,850 mortgage.
51. Sox77 Reduce my mortgage from £177,764 to £100,000.
52. utopiah Reduce my mortgage from £54,000 to £4,000.
53. bunty109 Reduce my mortgage from £139,386 to £99,999.
54. Haras_nosirrah Reduce my mortgage from £225,000 to £175,000.
55. littlemonkeywolf Reduce my mortgage from £58,000 to £35,000.
56. Needhelpsaving Reduce my mortgage from £83,710 to £55,000.
57. SueP19 Reduce my mortgage from £70,350 to £50,350.
58. Socks779 Reduce my mortgage from £30,600 to £6,000.
59. Mortgage Minimiser Reduce my mortgage from £234,787 to £195,000.
60. afoolandhermoney Reduce my mortgage from £157,500 to £140,000.
61. brila Completely clear my £55,947 mortgage.
62. mummytummy Build up my savings from $0 to $100,000.
63. Hollysan Reduce my mortgage from £67,342 to £40,000.
64. shala_moo Reduce my mortgage from £116,871 to £65,000.
65. new mortgageeee Completely clear my £16,569 mortgage.
66. jodles16 Reduce my mortgage from £177,472 to £156,000.
67. mrsp1987 Reduce my mortgage from £99,311 to £80,000.
68. FreedomGirl Build up my savings from £ 160,537 to £ 250,000.
69. Welshlassie Reduce my mortgage from £150,140 to £130,000.
70. ajmoney Reduce my mortgage from £109,544 to £74,000.
71. SusanneCape Reduce my mortgage from £80,000 to £35,000.
72. Daisy Duck Reduce my mortgage from £184,000 to £164,000.
73. Mysteek Completely clear my £46,400 mortgage.
74. Annaharky Completely clear my £38,190 mortgage.
75. PorgieGeorgie Reduce my mortgage from £142,480 to £86,700.
76. brigzy Completely clear my £22,962 mortgage.
77. tim_n Build up my savings from £0 to £168,000.
78. Stingy_3000 Completely clear my £73,350 mortgage.
79. PennyJar Reduce my mortgage from £101,062 to £81,062.
80. juststuff123 Completely clear my £45,232 mortgage.
81. kizzie01 Reduce my mortgage from £54,643 to £34,643.
82. lincoln-potter Reduce my mortgage from £85,000 to £38,000.
83. tattycath Reduce my mortgage from £148,750 to £131,750.
...
92. icontinuetodream Completely clear my £25,913 mortgage.
...
96. brizzledfw Reduce my mortgage from £166,000 to £100,000.
...
106. tattycath Completely clear my £58,500 mortgage. Retired number
...
126. Lomcevak Reduce my mortgage from £135,000 to £60,000.
...
148. Twiggy_34 Reduce my mortgage from £ 58,500 to £ 45,000.
...
150. ElusiveLucy Completely clear my £5,619 mortgage.

Please see the posts immediately below for further information. Good luck in your own challenges.

Registration / update form: The MFiT-T4 form

Trix.

trix-a-belle · 7 December 2015 at 11:33PM

Questions and Answers...

Q. Why are you doing this?
I was part of challenge three (T3) and feel this is a great forum for encouraging each other and pulling together to meet our targets therefore wish for that to continue.

T4 will remain with the three objective options:

Completely clear my mortgage
Reduce my mortgage
Build up my savings

You will need to choose an objective type from the list above and think about what your target is to be, do try to push yourself but do think about your individual circumstances. Whether you meet your target or not though we are all rooting for each other

Q. What is different this time?
We all recognise that 3 years is a fair while and life can often get in the way therefore there will be some additional experienced previous challengers assisting me in updating the spreadsheet and getting charts published.
Also please note the update months have changed from T3 and updates will be on the 25th of the month to give you some more time to get an update after your payment and more time to get some overpayments in over the course of the month.

Q. Is this challenge for me?
This is a 3 year challenge. I'm proposing that we have regular updates every 3 months, ie 12 updates over the course of the 36 months. If you don't think you can provide regular mortgage updates over the course of 3 years, then perhaps this isn’t the challenge for you.

There are regular annual challenges on this board which you can join if you feel a three year challenge is too long for you.

Q. What are the timescales?
The challenge will officially start on 25/1/16 and it will complete on 25/1/19. See post #4 directly below which gives a suggested progress chart update schedule.

Q. How do I join?
I have kept FB's form layout and function for registering / setting and updating your objective and also providing chart updates. You can use this update form to register.

Q. What if I cant clear my mortgage in the 3 year period?
You dont have to pledge to clear your mortgage completely to enter this challenge. Everyone’s circumstances are going to be different, so look at what you can realistically attain and set your own challenge goal accordingly.

Q. What information do you need about my own challenge?
I will need an estimate of your mortgage or savings balance on 25/1/16, the update form can be used to provide an accurate figure nearer the time.

Also, I will need a figure of where you would like to be by the end of the challenge, ie a challenge start and end value, eg:

Completely pay off my £125,000 mortgage.
Reduce mortgage from £48,000 to £30,000.
Build my savings from £0 to £30,000.

Q. What happens when I register my challenge objective?
We will allocate you a MFiT-T4 challenger number, add you to post #1 and the progress chart and PM you back with your number.

Q. Why havent you responded to my private message (PM) yet?
I will try to reply to any pm's received but with the additional help on this challenge please can I recommend you post to the thread as far as possible as there are many experienced challengers involved who may be able to assist and your question may help others.

Q. I have a mortgage free diary. Can you link to it in post #1?
If you have a mortgage diary, then it's not a problem to link to it in post number 1, please provide the link via your update form to make us aware of your diary.

Q. I have made an overpayment what do I do now?
Not a lot Im afraid. Unlike other annual challenge threads, which are only running for 12 months, keeping track of payments / overpayments on a monthly basis for everyone is probably too much admin work in a 3 year challenge. Feel free to mention any significant overpayments in this challenge thread, but as long as you give a mortgage update at the chart update schedules, your mortgage reduction will get logged.

Q. When can I give a figure for a chart update?
The chart update schedule in post #4 gives the dates each chart will be published, ie on the 25th day of Jan, April, July & Oct. The first chart is due to be published on 25th April 2016. If your mortgage payment is taken on the first of the month, so you may want to report your mortgage as soon as the payment clears when we are in a chart month. That then gives us enough time to gather and publish the data.

Q. What information do you need in a chart update?
Hopefully you have gave an accurate starting mortgage value or savings balance, so updating us with a current mortgage value or savings balance will show the reduction or increase made in each 3 month period. Your forum name, challenger number and current mortgage/savings balance is all we need.

Q. How do I provide information for a chart update?
There are 2 ways of providing an update, with '1' being the much preferred method for the purpose of record keeping.

1. Google Docs chart update form:
See post #4 for details.

This has a benefit over private messages (PMs) as an update via the above form won't fill up our private message box. Using this update form does not update any chart directly, but instead goes to a "holding" chart so the information can first be checked. Values entered other than as we approach a chart date or the challenge start may be disregarded.

2. Private message (PM) to Trix or Posting on the thread.
As there are back ups who have access to the spreadsheet for this challenge please do try to use option 1 as far as possible, and pm or posting on the thread as a last resort. We like to have a record of where the figures have come from.

Q. What about the 25/1/19 chart?
25/1/19 will be the last date in the challenge that you can make a payment / overpayment. Once as many as possible have got back to us with a final mortgage value, we then publish a final chart.

Q. What happens if I become mortgage free during the challenge?
Do tell us as soon as possible including the date you became mortgage free and we will add you to the list of challengers who became mortgage free during the challenge.

Q. What if I want to leave this challenge?
While I hope this wont be the case, perhaps a change in circumstances may dictate this? Rather than just leave with everyone wondering why we have had no updates from you, we would appreciate if you could let us know you are leaving the challenge. You dont have to give a reason. This is just so we can update our active challengers.

Q. How do I bookmark this challenge so I can locate it easily?
You can add the thread to your subscriptions by clicking Thread tools > Add subscription which will flag any new posts in the User Control Panel of your MSE account.

Or you bookmark it in your web browser. You don't actually need to be logged in to the MSE forums in order to view the challenge. Simply click on this link: link
which will take you to page one of this challenge thread. Once you are there, bookmark it in your browser.

Internet Explorer (IE).
Favourites, Add to Favourites.

Firefox.
Bookmarks... Bookmark this page. Or Double click on the star in the address bar to file the bookmark somewhere.

Chrome
Click on the star in the address bar to file the bookmark somewhere.

The process will be similar in other browsers. Every time you want to locate this challenge, simply fire up your web browser and use the bookmark.

Q. Where can I find the first three challenges?
Each of the previous challenges have their own threads and can be found here.

Original MFiT challenge:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=435291

Second installment of MFiT challenge - MFiT-T2:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=1402631

Third installment of MFiT challenge - MFiT-T3:http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4152769

Q. I have a question that you haven’t covered.
Hopefully the challenge is simple enough. If you do have a question, please PM myself or post in this thread and we will try to help / add the question and answer to this list.

Best of luck everyone.

Trix

trix-a-belle · 7 December 2015 at 11:34PM

Announcements.

Intending to use this post for any announcements relating to this challenge, please do check back here regularly.

- Challenge is [STRIKE]open[/STRIKE] closed for registrations. Feel free to register and post in this thread...

& please let me know if there are any edits that i've missed in these first posts

Registration / update form: The MFiT-T4 form

- 'gonnahappen' I have got your joining form but according to the message system your username does not exist on the forum, please can you send me a pm in the forum to make contact first please.

Thanks,
Trix

trix-a-belle · 7 December 2015 at 11:34PM

Chart update schedule.

As this is a three year challenge, I am maintaining the 3 monthly updates but on the 25th of the month.

Each chart is 8.33% of the challenge. On each chart is a percentage complete column for each questee. If you're on track, then your entry will be green. If you're slightly behind schedule, then your entry will be yellow. If you're further behind schedule, then your entry will be red. See the table below for details:

Link to schedule due to hosting changes

Note: As charts will be published on the 25th of each chart month - if you could have your updates in by the 24th of a chart month at the latest, that would be ideal.

The preferred method of updating your mortgage balance is via the Google Docs chart update form.

Registration / updates form.
The form below can be used to register for and provide updates for the challenge.

Registration / update form: The MFiT-T4 form

Note:
When reporting balances for charts please just report the current balance of your mortgage or savings pot, please do not report your difference to target as the spreadsheet is there to calculate this. If you have any queries please get in touch. Also the spreadsheet is to the nearest pound so you don't necessarily need to worry about the pennies in this case

_______________

Thanks,
Trix

trix-a-belle · 7 December 2015 at 11:35PM

This post will always be used to enable you to locate the current chart, the chart summary and links to each of the previous charts and analysis for each chart.

Current chart.
The last and final chart for the T4 challenge was published on the 25th January 2019.

Current chart:
Chart 12

Previous charts.
Chart 1
Chart 2
Chart 3
Chart 4
Chart 5
Chart 6
Chart 7
Chart 8
Chart 9
Chart 10
Chart 11

Thanks,
Trix

trix-a-belle · 7 December 2015 at 11:35PM

MFiT-T4 mortgage free roll of honour.

This post lists challengers who have become mortgage free during this mortgage free challenge. Also please post on the mortgage free role of honour thread (link below) to obtain your mortgage free for an badge. In order to be included in this list, we need to know your mortgage free date as this is used in the chart.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=493240

Trix-a-belle (finishing off T3)
GETMYACTTOGETHER2016
ElusiveLucy
Brila
Maximum Saving
SuperSecretSquirrel
juststuff123
Mysteek
Lexi-lu
Socks779
Trying to be Good
A Frayed Knot

Thanks,
Trix

trix-a-belle · 7 December 2015 at 11:36PM

Ok. That's the formal stuff out of the way. What's the deal then?

In a nutshell, register and set an objective. This objective is divided by 12 with their being 12 charts and you provide 12 updates during the challenge.

Providing you're on track to hit your goal, your chart progress colour will be green. If you're a little off your objective your chart progress colour will be yellow and if you're a little further behind, you're in the red zone :eek:

Keep an eye on these first few posts in this challenge thread as they will be updated with links to charts and further information in the coming weeks and months.

So get your calculator out, set an objective and register.
For reference in T3 £4million was paid off mortgages or into savings with an average of £24,000 per person but its obviously very much down to personal circumstances.

T4 stats;
£7.9 million in mortgages/savings aims to reduce/increase by £3.36 million over the 36 months.

Enjoy,
Trix

AvidSaver · 7 December 2015 at 11:59PM

As current Mortgages Free in 3 is now ending, need new challenge to keep me motivated - sadly was £1,400 short of my initial target, but still really pleased with how much I managed to clear. Will check mortgage figure after making January payment. Thank you for setting up this new challenge.

dark^knight · 8 December 2015 at 12:59AM

Hi trix,

Thanks for setting this up...much appreciated.

I am clicking on the link and getting a 'file not found' message.

A_Frayed_Knot · 8 December 2015 at 1:53AM

dark^knight wrote: »

Hi trix,

Thanks for setting this up...much appreciated.

I am clicking on the link and getting a 'file not found' message.

I know its very late but same for me - file not found.

Oh and in Post 1 - states "This fourth challenge runs from January 2016 to January 2018 " - 2 years:)

VoucherMan · 8 December 2015 at 7:33AM

& the red text in the op needs editing. Still reads MFiT-T3, instead of T4.;)
Thanks trix-a-belle. I've updated my sig in anticipation.

The Mortgage Free in Three - Take 4 challenge (MFiT-T4)

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