If you are mortgage free...

[DarthVader]

how did you achieve this?

by moving abroad

not mortgage free but have a small one:

waited till in 30's to have children.

buying house at a good time

not having credit cards/loans etc...my moto
"IF I HAVENT GOT THE CASH THEN I WILL SAVE UNTIL I DO HAVE THE CASH"

live way below our means.

Have big holiday every 4/5 years

NEVER EVER even look in designer clothes places.buy very very cheeply and always in sales.

I know it sounds daft but things like:
make packed lunchs for work/school.

save 50p pieces then put into an acount every few months when i have a few, use this acount for xmas and birthdays. this way we dont have to dip into our current acount or big savings.

save about 40% of our wages each month.

if we want to make a big purchase like a new Tv then we wait, think again then save up.

we dont have fancy gadgets, have a pc but saved for that, dont have ipods and stuff like that.have a donated old nokia phone, pay as i go, £10 every couple of months.

it has just become our way of life.
we dont feel like we are missing out on anything.went to Florida on holiday earlier this year, saved every penny for it.
got a posh telly, saved and paid that off after the buy now pay next year deal.

we have no money worries because of this attitude to it all.

we DO have good jobs but that is because we worked hard to get to the level we are at and waited to have kids. Got well established in our jobs first.

blimey! thats good going to pay off mortagages that quickly isn't it??

we have no mortgage- never had one but we are going to take out a loan on the house to pay for some building work and renovations at a different property- we hadn't even thought about trying to pay it off early- i am impressed by some of you paying them in less than ten years

on reflection though, I think paying off the mortgage is less of a challenge for those of us who started 10 years ago, when house prices were comparatively a lot cheaper.

I would struggle to buy my house today and pay it off in less than 10 years.

Oooh yes, I was forgetting about my donated almost pre-historic mobile 'phone and limiting use thereof to emergencies only. (have spent £25 for new sim card and £10 on new charging up plug and then £30 only on top-ups in about 3 years now) dh's 'phone is on a very advantageous orange off-peak tarriff which suits us brilliantly and costs us less than £20 a month for loads of off-peak use and texts. Unfortunately he can't upgrade the phone as he would lose the right to stay on that tariff so he too has an unfashionably old looking mobile 'phone

Also I was forgetting that we tried out sky TV packages and cancelled them as we simply weren't having enough time to watch them but actually cancelling say just movies and sports takes a bit of nerve but you get used to watching more documentaries and being a mine of facsinating facts about diggers/history/hawkshead moths or whatever.

We didn't plan waiting until we were 35 or so to marry and start a family it just happened that way and we had made a large dent in the mortgage by then so didn't want to hike it back up for the sake of one day and a big party.

I do feel lucky to have been able to buy a home when prices were lower about 7 years ago and that I got a university degree before student loans were introduced (remember student grants anyone ?)

Students didn't seem to mind living in mild poverty when I was at University. We didn't have mobiles to pay for and it was O.K. to slop about in slightly shabby clothes until the next term's grant came through or your parents took pity on you. We rarely ate out or had takeaways unless it was just chips on the way home from a night out.

Aaaah Happy (Cheap) Days !

anyone who has been mortgage free (in their own home) over the last 10 years knows not a lot about finance. they would be VASTLY better off had they mortaged themselves to an acceptable level and bought a more valuable property by doing so.
I don't understand how anyone can fail to understand this

Agreed Minty

Leverage is the key

thank god for CD

thank god for Minty

(just wish I had the leverage capability that Minty has )

Unless, of course, they are aware that their income will be going down dramatically in the next year or so, or that their outgoings will rise disproportionately in the near future - or, God help us, both!

I don't agree minty. By being mortgage free we can afford to live off one salary. Dh is happily a SAHD. If we had upgraded we would not be able to afford that.

But if you want to downsize your life so you don't have to work so hard, paying off the mortgage makes a lot of sense, doesn't it?

I did say affordable jan

oooh yes, highly leveraged chez peahead CD
how was supper btw

actually I am rather not practicing what I preach as we have just re-mortgaged and as I am now self employed we just did on dh's income as couldn't be arsed with all that self-cert stuff, realised how much they will lend these days he was nowhere near the limit. It really is irresponsible.

I suppose I should buy another house really and rent it out or something as I am not leveraging to the max

no it doesn't really dino
all these people who have scrimped and saved to pay additional amounts off their mortgage will just end up with a much smaller pot of cash at the end of it, than if they had used the same money to service a bigger mortgage

I guess the question is do you want the (misplaced) warm glow of feeling mortage free, or do you want a hell of a bigger wadge of capital to look after you in your old age?

VERY fine

Lidgates Coq au Vin pie
lots of 58 and 64 Rioja

The host was a bit knackered due to his little early morn jaunt to Bristol!

He said the woman from costco rang him almost in tears saying that her boss was livid at the amount she had sold him. He said "tell him you didn't sell it, I just took it. He can call me and I will confirm" Hope she didn't get into too much trouble...

I think we are about to go for the former, misplaced or not! I just find having a big mortgage too scary.

ha ha ha
we got the manager to sell it to us. he was delighted, pressed free coffee and soft drinks on us, asked us to stay to lunch (!) and loaded the car

ho ho

fair enough dino

How odd
I wonder why she was in trouble then?

He said that there was quite a lot correctly priced but quite a lot that was a third of the price it should have been

He bought all the underpriced stuff!

I'm with you unquietdad

we did have to persuade hin into it
and he did make a phone call first
maybe she had overstepped the bounds of her authority

yes ditto with us, lots of lafite and latour

We bought and sold 7 times!I know i need help!We sold in July/August this year and have put all the money in a high interest account and are waiting until prices come down to buy again.Really hard work but worth it The stress of no mortgage is great and the interest on the money pays the rent atm so we know what it feels like to be mortgage free and its very liberating.We have lived in every size type and style of house while we did this and this has satisfied my curiosity about different houses and I just want a home now and am prepared to go for something more modest in order to remain mortgage free.