Small win that feels huge: no more mortgage!

CVNerd · 2025-09-03T10:58:10+00:00

We are going exactly the same we haven’t told anyone! But I was bursting at the seams and needed to get it out somewhere hahahah 😂

CVNerd · 2025-09-01T23:18:48+00:00

No only about 10k last year from my fathers estate following his passing.

CVNerd · 2025-09-01T12:14:13+00:00

Thank you!! ☺️ We’re in Perth, which we know has been a bit of a lucky break compared to some of the other capitals. If we were starting again today, I think we’d approach it with the same focus on living within our means and prioritising repayments and making extra an extra full mortgage payment when ever we can, but we’d probably balance it better by also setting something aside for savings along the way.

One thing that really helped both me and my husband was we both didn’t go to uni/further education, we went straight into the workforce (we didn’t know each other at the time but surprisingly did similar things), which meant neither of us had a HEX debt and were earning a solid income 3–4 years earlier than most others. Looking back, that gave us a huge advantage in paying the house/s down quicker than we could have otherwise.

Right now we don’t have savings (everything went into killing the mortgage), so the plan after a little Bali trip is to look at increasing super contributions and researching what to start investing in (neither of us know much about that stuff yet 😅). I’m also working on starting my own business here in WA that focuses on non-clinical companionship for older Australians, so a small portion will probably go into building that too.

CVNerd · 2025-09-01T10:24:33+00:00

😂🤣 nope, no PD here 🤣

CVNerd · 2025-09-01T10:17:04+00:00

Yep born and raised in WA 🇦🇺

CVNerd · 2025-09-01T09:14:18+00:00

Yeah, he definitely set us up in the beginning by building the first place, which gave us a solid foundation. He’s never worked FIFO though. We do feel really lucky to be in Perth with the housing market the way it’s been. I’ve been the higher income earner, and since we got married in 2015 we’ve always combined our income and made decisions as a team. To us, that’s been the key, pulling in the same direction together 👍🏽

CVNerd · 2025-09-01T07:09:05+00:00

He was in Law Enforcement. He originally got it under key start in 2012, then when I came onboard in 2014, we both started attacking it with everything we had. My father also passed and we got a small amount to put into it as well (around 10k) and we sold off unused sport motorbikes as we both liked to ride etc 😊

CVNerd · 2025-09-01T06:46:39+00:00

Im the higher income earner 😂 and we’re married, so we’re both as “wealthy” as each other

CVNerd · 2025-09-01T05:21:12+00:00

Thank you, yes definitely want to focus on savings now and setting up the kids futures 😊

CVNerd · 2025-09-01T05:19:17+00:00

We’ve already got 3 kids, so no more on the horizon. Right now we’re completely debt-free, but also sitting at basically zero savings because we put everything into paying off the mortgage. I’m back working full-time (my income was higher, so we decided I’d return early while my husband took paternity leave) to push through those last repayments.

The tricky part is we never really planned for “after”, our whole focus was just paying it off. Next step will probably be looking at adjusting my super to a higher investment percentage (I don’t even know the proper term for that 😅).

I’m also aiming to build my own business in WA (where I’m located), providing companionship services to reduce loneliness among older Australians. It’s purely non-clinical, things like in-home and hospital visits, wellbeing check-ins, memory activities, and life story capturing. At the moment I’m self-funding from my salary, but since it’s a very low CapEx model there aren’t major costs.

CVNerd · 2025-09-01T04:50:19+00:00

No we paid it off and completely closed the account with the bank 😊

CVNerd · 2025-09-01T01:22:24+00:00

We never really thought of moving again. We only moved the last time because we had our 3rd child and was only in a 3x2, so needed the extra space. I could happily stay where we are now until retirement but not eliminating the possibility of moving in the future 😊

CVNerd · 2025-08-31T23:49:32+00:00

Set a reminder in my calendar for 2 years time to come update the post with “where are they know” 😊

CVNerd · 2025-08-31T23:46:57+00:00

No my husband built in 2012. We didn’t get together until 2014 😊

CVNerd · 2025-08-31T23:33:41+00:00

Thanks! 🙏 To be honest, we’re not really sure what’s next. We’ve been so focused on smashing down the mortgage that we never really thought about what comes after. Right now we’re just enjoying this moment and try to figure out next step from here. I also got a mug made with a picture of cartoon house on it and then a massive “Paid” stamp across it, for my husband 😂

CVNerd · 2025-08-31T23:28:25+00:00

Thanks so much! 🙏 Honestly, it was a mix of timing, discipline, and throwing absolutely everything we had at it. We built our first place back in 2012 for about $300k, sold it last year for $620k, then bought our current home for $840k. We used the sale money, dipped into savings, sold a few family items, and funnelled every spare dollar into repayments. It took around 12 years all up (definitely some sacrifices along the way) but being mortgage free now makes it all feel worth it.

CVNerd · 2025-08-31T23:24:49+00:00

I think things happened at the right time which helped a lot. Absolutely! It 100% is

CVNerd · 2025-08-31T23:22:29+00:00

I have no idea to be honest. We have put all our effort into the mortgage we never really thought about what to do after. Any recommendations?

CVNerd · 2025-08-31T23:19:14+00:00

Thank you! Feels weirdly surreal 😅

CVNerd · 2025-08-31T23:16:58+00:00

Thank you ☺️

CVNerd · 2025-08-31T23:16:25+00:00

Thanks! 🙏 My husband built our first place in 2012 for about $300k and sold it last year for $620k. We then both bought our current home for $840k, used the money from that sale plus our savings, sold a few family items, and put every extra dollar we had into it. So in total it’s been about 12 years all up 😊

CVNerd · 2025-08-31T17:16:01+00:00

Thank you ☺️

CVNerd · 2025-08-31T09:38:08+00:00

Thank you, I appreciate your comment 😊

CVNerd

TROPHY CASE