“Freedom is a core value for me,” says Ani Naqvi, 52. “This includes freedom from a mortgage; being free is more important than getting a fancy house.”
While many people aim to pay off their mortgage early, Ani’s journey isn’t a typical one. She bought a one-bedroom flat in Southfields in 2004 for £160,000 with a £30,000 deposit.
Later that same year, while she was holidaying in Arugam Bay, Sri Lanka, the Boxing Day Tsunami hit. It was devastating but also gave Ani the drive to become financially independent.
“We were the second worst hit after Indonesia. I was in a hut; the door flung open, and water suddenly started coming in. Within seconds, I was underwater and drowning. The hut disintegrated and that helped me as I was washed inland and thrown into a tree which saved my life.” Seven waves hit this remote area but, luckily, Ani had managed to get to higher ground and contacted the British High Commission, via the BBC, who sent choppers to get as many people as possible out.
“I went on Oprah Winfrey to talk about my near-death experience. It changes things a lot. I had a lot of survivor guilt. Why didn’t I die? I felt like I was here to do more. I have a real sense of responsibility because so many people died. I was single and mindless, and I was having an existential crisis.”
Following the tsunami, Ani, who was a project and program consultant, used her experience of stressful situations to work in Iraq for a not-for-profit organisation. “It was an opportunity to help people displaced by war.”
She also decided to start overpaying her mortgage via a combination of regular overpayments and, whenever she had money from a gift or income, she paid off a lump sum.
She said: “I would say that the life experience I’ve had made it clear what is really important, financial freedom was one of those things so that I can live freely, unhindered by the burden of a regular payment throughout my life.”
Initially her mortgage rate was 5 per cent but this went down to 2.5 per cent as she was on a standard variable rate, which tends to follow the base rate. However, in the past few years it has been much higher at 7 and 8 per cent.
She said: “After 2008, with the credit crunch, because I was set up as a limited company, it was difficult to remortgage. Whenever I could, I’d pay off more. Part of the mortgage was the ability to make overpayments of up to 10 per cent,” she says.
“I’d pay a few hundred pounds off every few months. My mortgage was about £850 to £900 a month so I’d pay £1,200 to £1,300 a month.”
In 2010, however, Ani had to pause overpaying as she was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer. “I had to leave work because it was so stressful. I was between contracts when I first found out about my cancer and I decided not to take the next contract,” she says.
“I took in a lodger to help with the mortgage payments and froze my mortgage for some of it. I wasn’t overpaying during that time.”
In 2017, she was given the all-clear. “I went into remission and started thinking about what I should do.” After an extended family member, who had depression and anxiety, said she’d been more helpful than any therapist, Ani decided to use the skills she’d learned during her cancer treatment to help others.
She became an executive transformation expert, helping senior leaders and high performers avoid self-sabotaging behaviour and achieve a work-life balance. “Many of the people I work with have the external trappings of success: the house and the car, but they aren’t happy and peaceful. I’ve learned that comes from within.”
While many people she knows have moved into larger houses and taken out bigger mortgages, Ani lives in the same Southfields flat – now converted so that it has three bedrooms – with her husband. “I wasn’t able to have kids because of my cancer. I don’t have a garden, but I can go in my neighbour’s,” she says.
“I’m not a materialistic person which is why I stayed in the flat and didn’t want a £1m mortgage. The important things aren’t material. I had a home, a flat and made good money – none of it means anything when you’re dying. What matters is relationships; you’re not taking the money with you.”
Instead, since 2017, Ani made a concerted effort to pay off her mortgage by avoiding spending on things like expensive holidays; she’s also benefited because her business has boomed since the pandemic, and this year, she paid off the last of her balance.
“The last few years, the rate has been 7 or 8 per cent,” she says. “Part of the motivation to pay it off was because it was costing so much, even though it was not a big mortgage compared to what people have now.”
“It’s up to the individual but my value is to be free. Lots of people never pay off their mortgage,” she says. “I don’t plan to get a mortgage again – it’s a noose around your neck. Personally, I wouldn’t get a big mortgage but people buying today don’t have the choice.”
With her mortgage paid off, Ani is now investing in a pension. “After having stage 4 cancer in my late thirties/early forties, I wasn’t sure I’d be alive to have a pension. Last year my accountant said: ‘Invest in a pension’, so I’ve just started.”
As well as making her financially secure, Ani’s job allows her to help other people through coaching, mentoring and training. “I could retire if I wanted to, but I love what I do and I’m on a mission to transform the lives of over 250,000 people in honour of those that died in the 2004 Tsunami that I survived.”