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My initial goal in life generally is to see as much of this world that I can. But I also wanted to pay my mortgage off aswell. Well we have done IT !  We are over the moon, and that also means that we can do more long haul travel. But this depends on my health. But I have no idea when or if we are doing this. And I also wanted to have visited over fifty countries before I was fifty. I have now visited over fifty one countries and I am still under fifty years old. My favourite country out of the fifty was Russia of course. I have dreamed of visiting this country for years and it did not disappoint !

The Finance

The thanks to getting the mortgage cleared is my husband. It has only been since we moved to our ‘wreck’ of a house and after a complete renovation that took two long years, that we have been able to overpay it, and we wanted to do it. We paid £500 a month extra from 2014 and our agreed repayment date was March 2029. We had the choice of reducing the monthly payment or reducing the the term of our balance down. It made more sense to take the term down. And it has now be cleared, nine years before it should have been. We also have been helped by once we came out of our agreed rate back back in 2011. We did not go back into a deal. We were automatically moved onto either the Base Mortgage Rate (BMR) of our lender Nationwide. Both the BMR and SMR are variable rates which may vary in accordance with their mortgage terms and conditions. The BMR is guaranteed to be no more than 2% above the Bank of England Base Rate. So with low interest rates, we could make larger payments to it. Which is what we did. We did keep an eye on the interest rates, the deals available were never as good for us as being on the BMR. Even been made redundant made a little dent, and my husband told me to spend the money on the trips that I wanted to do, he could see that my health was turning worse and I did get to Russia, Vietnam and Cambodia, Argentina and Brazil

My husband convinced me to hold off my long haul holidays until this was done. And concentrate on short haul holidays around Europe that were cheaper. So we have paid it off. And now the expensive holidays I have been dreaming about I hope will happen. Depending on my health of course. They include;

The Americas

Peru and Bolivia
Central America Tour
Chile and The Falklands

Africa
South Africa
Kenya And Tanzania
Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe

Asia Pacific

New Zealand
Myanmar
Laos
Indonesia

I am so excited for you all to see the amazing places that I have planned ! But I also have to be well enough so that is a big question. I am so pleased to have complete my initial goals. Now I have to also find a drug for my health condition that will allow me to travel long haul and wait for Covid 19 to be defeated too. As I can not do that at the moment. Fingers crossed, my health improves !