The Mortgage Free Roll Of Honour

I paid off my mortgage in full about 11 months ago

The details are

a. The date you decided to become a MFW

17th May 2012

b. Mortgage Debt at its highest

£82500

c. Mortgage-Free Date

17th May 2012

d. Your one pearl of wisdom.

Don't obsess about your mortgage - remember to live a little as well



I took out my first mortgage in 1981, when I was 21. We borrowed £21250 from the Abbey National, which was considered to be a lot at the time. We had a 25 year endowment mortgage, to end in 2006.

I then started working for a big high street lender, but had to wait three years before I could get a staff mortgage, so I went through the 15.4% interest rate thing, even more than that, as endowment mortgages had to pay 0.5% additional interest!

In 1984 I remortgaged with my employer, so my interest rate came down to 5% ..... that was a big monthly saving.

In 1986 we took on a further advance for home improvements, and took on another endowment policy over 20 years to end in 2006.

In 1989 we moved, and took on a £82,500 mortgage, again, it was considered to be a big mortgage at the time. We took on another endowment policy, also to end in 2006.

So, for the next 17 years or so we carried on paying our mortgage monthly payments. Around 2002 we switched to a new staff mortgage which tracked the base rate. Having the staff mortgage was a great help, although it wasn't without penalty, as I had to pay tax on the benefit.

In 2006 our endowment policies matured. The 1989 policy had a shortfall, but the earlier policies made up for this, and we were able to pay off the mortgage and have a small lump sum of a few thousand for ourselves.

I could have been mortgage free at 46, but we decided to have a further advance for some home improvements.

I was made redundant in 2009 and took a pension as part of my redundancy package. As a pensioner, I was permitted to keep my staff mortgage.

The decision to repay the mortgage in full was a snap decision. I had become dis-satisfied with the admin of my mortgage. As I wasn't working there any more I couldn't keep a personal eye on my mortgage, some mnistakes had been made, which I wasn't happy with. There was only a small balance left, so we paid it off from our savings in May 2012.

So I was mortgage free at 52.

I worked with mortgages for most of my working life, so I was always comfortable with my mortgage. It never felt like a burden. It's nice to have paid it off, but I still am the same person and do exactly the same things as I did before. Paying off my mortgage didn't have any magical quality for me.

So there it is, probably not typical MFW, but I'm mortgage free all the same!

I am mortgage freeeeeeeeeeeeee and this is going to sound nuts to you all, but i don't even know when it happened!!! my work rules my life when im working!
I wanted to be free as soon as i got my mortgage, april 2010, so i got an offset mortgage, and the monthly statements helped me focus. i got to be freeeeeee last month sometime. so now its 100% offset, so although i still have a mortgage its not costing me nothing and i could pay it all off if needed!!! ahhhhhhhhhh and im 27 so really happy!

:j:j Mf this month
Started may 2004 £71000
Finished April 2013
Nice first direct tracker offset 1% above base rate helped a lot,plus overpaying by quite a lot!!-Even worse had to buy own house twice-woman trouble!!!!-or was it me??
Pearl of wisdom-spend it now-you'll only young once

ps aged 44:beer:

Hi All

a. The date we decided to be MFW was April 2002
b. Our highest debt was £119 000
c. April 1st 2013 was final payment day! This month sees our first mortgage free month... yipee
d. Set up a standing order to overpay and treat it as your actual mortgage requirement.

:j:j:j

Just reflecting on our MF status:

We took out our first mortgage for £51 000 in 1994 and argued with the mortgage advisor that we wanted a repayment mortgage. We even had to sign a disclaimer to say that we had rejected the advisor's proposal of an endowment mortgage. At the time it took quite a lot of resolve to ignore their claims that we could make loads of money the other way! :-)

When we moved in 2002 we increased our mortgage from £26 000 to £119 000 and kept the length of term the same.

We are in our early 40's.

Now considering whether to save some cash and buy a new house and rent this one out...