The Mortgage Free Roll Of Honour

We became mortgage free in March this year. Realised I was running out of time jobwise( boss is selling up to retire)so we went for it. At its highest we owed 38,000 pounds in 1990. Missold an endowment, but we had no recourse as it was pre -regulation. Scumbags.

So we had to start again. This time repayment, but had to extend by 3 yrs to keep costs down as my work is low paid. That was in 2004 so we effectively paid it in 8 yrs. !!!! We used our savings as I figured my fixed rate was 5% ish and the savings rate naff all.

My words of wisdom? Just believe you can do it. I hated my mortgage from day one,and I will always believe that mortgages( and debt generally) is just modern enslavement.

a. The date you decided to become a MFW

When we re-mortgaged in September 2005


b. Mortgage Debt at its highest

£ 71.000

c. Mortgage-Free Date

30th July 2012

d. Your one pearl of wisdom.

Overpay as much as you can without compromising other things...

I must also mention that without the great ideas, suggestions and challenges ( mortgage free in three - thanks Tallgirl ) on this website I would never of achieved being mortgage free by now.

Myself and my family have finally reached the mortgage free goal - I've followed quite a few diaries on here over the years which has really helped in the formulating of ideas and approaches to help becoming mortage free. The most notable one was probably Financialbliss' one as it covered a range of areas of finance and was clearly a balanced yet careful approach - so a special mention to him!


a. The date you decided to become a MFW
It was probably around march 2007 -as first time buyers we had just finished our first 2 year fixed mortgage with one supplier (that was pretty restrictive in terms of overpayments and when you could make them etc) and I looked at the closing statement which showed that we'd paid off a couple of thousand in capital compared to the £18,000 in mortgage payments over the same period - it kind of made me realise that it was an area i could make a difference with the right product. Switched to an offset mortage which gave me much more flexibility and at the time was as competetive a rate as most other "standard" mortgages|


b. Mortgage Debt at its highest

£149,950


c. Mortgage-Free Date
Today - 19th October 2012

d. Your one pearl of wisdom.


In summary it's probably - you need to take control and have a balanced approach.

Just by the fact you are focussing or are aware of the prospect of being mortgage free probably puts you in a more informed postition than 95% of the country. By definition just by thinking about this you have probably taken a lot more control over your finances than the majority of others- and this is something you should celebrate, no matter where you are in your journey.

I was very fortunate that my earnings increased pretty significantly over a relatively short period of time, but the key was that I knew what I wanted to do with it - that was invest in both paying off my largest debt (my mortgage), but also paying into my pension and saving for a rainy day (this is where the offset was particularly useful as the rainy day savings were kind of also helping to reduce my mortgage - I didn't need additional pots).

Because I knew what I wanted to achieve it meant I didn't buy things I didn't actually want or really need - that might have been a £3 coffee or a £300 computer console, the important part was everytime I felt the urge I asked myself whether it really made my life better or richer (in both the financial and soulful sense). If it didn't I simply didn't buy it and felt better for making that decision, if I thought it did then I went ahead and was comfortable with the choice as i'd kind of challenged myself before making the decision.

I think this gave me more freedom than I thought it would - rather than being constrained by money I was in control. It meant that I rarely if ever turned down the opportunity of seeing friends for a meal or a night out - as I felt this made me richer in the soulful sense, because elsewhere I'd made savings on the stuff that when I'd thought about it didn't matter to me.

I'd fight for every single penny with the big corporations that have huge profits - so followed martins tips in terms of seeking out the best deals in insurance, utilities etc etc and reviewed regularly, but i used local services more often where i could - often things like the butchers and greengrocers were cheaper anyway than the supermarkets and where the price difference was pretty small I felt better about the choice I made, because I was actually thinking about where my money was going and what it was doing. Not just simply frittering it away.

Don't put your life on hold just to pay off the mortgage, make sure you find joy in what you are doing and get pleasure from the savings you make whilst ensuring you fulfil what you want to acheive in both the MF quest and what is going on in your life.

Right thats probably about 37 "pearls of wisdom" so i'm going to shut up. Just the fact you are here and reading this probably means you are going to have a positive impact on what you are doing and will end up paying less than others who just haven't thought about it.

Good luck to all those on their quest!

Wow, 38 years old and now mortgage free.
Problem now starts, I got in a bit of trouble with credit cards(18000) we want to get a loan to pay the cc's off and overpay on the loan, but can't get a loan!!!,one bank told us it could be because if we default on the loan they can't use any finance attached to the house(motgage) to re claim their money i.e reposession of it. Is that true? Anyone else mortgage free unable to get credit?

surprised you never paid off debt first

was there a reason?