It's the ultimate dream for homeowners up and down the UK - no more mortgage and the freedom to live life exactly how you want it, without worrying about repayments.
Orall Cornelius, 46, and his wife Carla, 43, have achieved that enviable lifestyle after paying off the mortgage on theirthree-bedroom, semi-detached home in Walthamstow, East London which they bought in 2006 for £233,000.
By regularly overpaying by up to £3,000 a month, the couple who feature in Channel 4's new series Channel 4's How to Be Mortgage Free, managed to save£180,000 in interest and owned their home outright in just under a decade.
The couple, who have two school-age children, saved every penny they earned and were ultra diligent about cutting costs - switching off lights as soon as they left a room, substituting supermarket products for big name brands, and even weighing out every ounce of their food.
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No wonder he's beaming: Orall Cornelius has written a book about how
And Orall says that 'struggling' youngsters who claim they can't get on the property ladder - while spending their money on their comfortable lifestyles - could learn a lot from him.
Faced with the prospect of a 25-year mortgage Orall was adamant that he wasn't going to pay back almost double the £210,000 he had borrowed from the bank.
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'I thought no way am I doing that.I just wanted it to be paid as quickly as possible. I wanted freedom,' he explains in the show.
SAVING TIPS TO SPEED UP YOUR ROUTE TO A MORTGAGE-FREE LIFE
Switch off lights not in use to save on electricity
Swap expensive food brands for cheaper supermarket options
Weigh food so there is no wastage
Instead of trips to the cinema watch films at home
Entertain your children by getting active in your garden for free
Save every extra penny and overpay on your mortgage
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Orall, who works as a consultant for EDF Energy, and Carla, a part-time clothes designer, pooled their joint income of £40,000 and figured out the best way to cut costs.
'You have to prepare for sacrifices,' Carla says.
'Orall was so focused on paying off the mortgage that sometimes he would come in the kitchen and say "Why are you using so much rice? Why are you using so much pasta? You need to weigh it!".'
The frugal parents would keep their children entertained by playing in the garden with water pistols, but they've never had a TV or allowed video games.
'We had to think of different ways to save money and still do fun things,' Carla explains.
The couple'scheap tracker mortgagemeant they were able to make repayments at any time, not just at the end of the month, which Orall explained reduced the time frame.
Sarah Beeny's new Channel 4 show reveals how people around the UK have achieved the ultimate dream of paying off their mortgage early
He also switched his phone, insurance and energy suppliers constantly, never staying with the same one for longer than a year, so he could take advantage of discounts offered to new customers.
In June 2015, when they had completely paid off the mortgage, the Cornelius family treated themselves to a dream trip to New York and bought a new car.
Now the couple say they don't even need to work if they don't want to, and the trick behind it all was just focus and determination.
'We could choose to work or not to work at any point,' Orall says, who has written a book about how to pay off your mortgage.
In it he explains his strong views on people who try to maintain a certain standard of living while trying to get on the property ladder, or pay off their mortgage.
HOW TO SAVE ON YOUR PROPERTY
CONSIDER BROWNFIELD SITES
They are often former industrial sites like factories, petrol stations and office blocks.
Land is cheap to buy and comes with services in place, but you will need planning permission from your local council to build on.
There are 15 councils in the UK that have a Brownfield Development Scheme that encourage potential buyers to build on unused and derelict land.
BUY A BOAT
One young woman in the Channel 4 programme swaps her rented London flat to buy a boat for £18,000, which she has just £7,000 to make it into a liveable space
People living on a boat has gone up by 13 per cent in the last ten years, with 22,000 people already live on boats in the UK and 10,000 of those in London.
A relatively cheap investment it costs from £14 per week for basic canal mooring up to £30,000 a year for marina mooring. But in Wales it is just £1,500 and a cruising license costing around £775.
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'People think they are entitled to a high spending lifestyle and think what they are doing is normal,' he said. 'You are entitled to that but you won't get a deposit for your house or you won't make overpayment.
'This applies particularly to the "poor young people" who can't get on the housing ladder.
'It seems to me that they expect to get on the ladder without sacrifice or discipline.
'It make me cross that people, especially the young, think they should be able to eat out, holiday, not give a second thought to spending AND expect to be helped by the government or whoever to buy a home.
'Let's get real. When you're mortgage free you can buy your take out coffee and have your cake and eat it.'
He adds:'Getting it paid off as quickly as possible and being mortgage free was really important for us.
'It’s security, we weren’t high flyers, if we can do it so can anybody else.'
How to Be Mortgage Free with Sarah Beeny airs Wednesday, April 19th on Channel 4
