deffo a wannabe !!

~daisy~_2 · 24 August 2007 at 3:12PM

hi just wanted to say hi and stuff !!

hub and i watched the pay off your mortgage programme on beeb 2 the other year and he was all fired up for the challenge - mortgage of bits and pieces totalling approx 50k at its most

i said dont be daft cant be done blah blah then we watched the catch up show a year later and i was most disappointed that only one family/couple managed it
however lots of them were now well on there way but this did get us thinking about our finances

during that year we were fortunate to receive a 25k windfall out of nowhere - we paid 10k off our mortgage and re organised it so we were now on all repayment fixed rate of 5.89% - which worked out to about £350 a month - in all the time we have had the house our mortgage has never really been above this - and we still have our 2 endowments of approx £70 a month

hub has a good job and has enjoyed yearly pay rises and some promotions and currently earns approx 55k but my point is we only just realised about 6 months ago that we could overpay on our mortgage !!!!!!

we went on holiday to portugal and loved it and decided we wanted to do all we could to try and buy a small place there so when we came home we started seriously looking at our money in vs money out - like many ppl we spent to our means every month and just saved his bonus's - to our horror we had made an initial mistake on taking out the second part of our mortgage and we actually had 4 more years to go on it than we realised - to say we were gutted was an understatement - we thought we only had 7 years left but was almost 12 !!
this was when we decided to pay another lump sum - only 10% that is all thats allowed and start over paying
we now pay double which is the maximum for us and still quite affordable but we are absolutely kicking ourselves that the last 2 or 3 years we could easily have been over paying but just never crossed our minds to do so and were coasting along !!

we definitely would like our mortgage to be history by a max of 5 years now - so we can buy in portugal and then start paying that one off !!!

as off march 2007 our mortgage was approx 36k - paying £655 a month with £162 of that being interest so hope to be down to 30k by next march !!!!

sorry ive waffled on abit but am very excited to be getting this sorted but im also very cross that we hadnt cottoned on to this a few years ago - who knows what situation we may have been in now
ive also been really insipred by everyones stories on here - well done everyone :j:T

comping_cat · 25 August 2007 at 8:37PM

Good luck, might be a good idea to join us on the MFiT thread (sticky at the top of the pae) - loads of lovely people who will help you stay focussed on your journey!!!

Move_To_Portugal · 26 August 2007 at 1:17PM

Good luck Daisy!

Bf and I are doing exactly the same. We plan to clear our mortgage in the next 5 years and live in Portugal. After thinking about it for a while I've started a blog about it. I spend half my time planning our next move so I might as well write about it.

We have a larger mortgage than you and have been practising frugal living for a few months now. It's starting to make a real difference to our finances.
These forums are the best there is for money saving tips but be warned they are addictive:D

~daisy~_2 · 29 August 2007 at 11:25AM

catowen wrote: »

Good luck, might be a good idea to join us on the MFiT thread (sticky at the top of the pae) - loads of lovely people who will help you stay focussed on your journey!!!

not sure about joining the challenge officially as we have done all we can do until at last next march - can only pay 10% lump sum which we have already done for this year and are already paying the maximum overpayment without penatly - this is fixed until sept 09

i know we can save savings so we have our next 10% ready when
it comes round but we do save what we can already - normally hubs bonus's

but i do plan on hanging around here - i like it :T

~daisy~_2 · 29 August 2007 at 11:26AM

Move_To_Portugal wrote: »

Good luck Daisy!

Bf and I are doing exactly the same. We plan to clear our mortgage in the next 5 years and live in Portugal. After thinking about it for a while I've started a blog about it. I spend half my time planning our next move so I might as well write about it.

We have a larger mortgage than you and have been practising frugal living for a few months now. It's starting to make a real difference to our finances.
These forums are the best there is for money saving tips but be warned they are addictive:D

good luck MtP it sounds like a great plan !!!!:beer:

~daisy~_2 · 3 September 2007 at 8:28AM

well kids go back to school tomorrow - wahey !!!

am toying with the idea of selling some bits on ebay again
did this once before but the listing fees and paypal charges seemed to add up to so much it wasnt really worth my time at the end of the day so not sure

also tried selling books on amazon - that didnt really work either - had about 50 listed and sold about 6

im a newly qualified - well may - massage therapist and i havent had much work over the summer but havent been to fussed with the kids being around and stuff but i have kept saying come september ill get cracking - well its september
trouble with massage its a very tricky one to advertise !!!!

i did make 3 good contacts over the weekend who seemed very keen so i shall wait and see if i get any calls

have good weeks all !!

~daisy~_2 · 3 September 2007 at 6:44PM

well after posting this - i had 2 phone calls for appointments !!

one from an exsisting client who had been busy with kids summer hols etc and from one of the new contacts !! so a good result

one thing i meant to talk about but forgot ....
last monday we had my cousin and his family over for sunday lunch and we were all sitting chatting in the garden - we talked about life money and the universe as you do and we were outlining our plans for the mortgage - well talk about a lead ballon - we hurridley changed the subject

then on friday i was at a party and was talking to some ppl about how this lady was going to be adding 100k to her mortgage to finance building work - everything was like yeah well done its the right thing to do dont worry its only a huge mortgage etc etc - when i commented how we had gone the other way and decided to stay in our modest home but get our mortgage paid off
the table went very quiet and eventually someone said oh yes well we could do that do - if we didnt want to have a life
i started to try and explain but after clocking everyones faces i made my excuses and left the table

why is it that paying off your mortgage or rather talking about it makes everyone so uncomfortable ?? is it cos most ppl have such big mortgages that they have no chance or do ppl think your showing off or something ??

both times ive tried to talk about it - it went very pear shaped

im not sure ill be bringing it up as a conversation piece again thats for sure !!

chickadee · 3 September 2007 at 8:14PM

Daisy, I think there are definitely two camps when it comes to paying the mortgage off. As you have observed, there is the 'live for today' brigade, then there is us. To be honest, it is really a personal choice. We might do all we can to pay the mortgage off, then drop dead the day after. We'll never know. Personally, I'd rather be paying it off earlier. Then who will be the one at those dinner parties saying 'Oh, I gave up my job. After paying off the mortgage all those years ago i don't really need to work so we're going on holiday for three months.' It will still be a conversation stopper but who cares?

~daisy~_2 · 3 September 2007 at 9:40PM

LOL i like your way of thinking !!

i just honestly never thought this subject would be such a no-no in polite society !!

Martinslovechild · 3 September 2007 at 10:12PM

chickadee wrote: »

Personally, I'd rather be paying it off earlier. Then who will be the one at those dinner parties saying 'Oh, I gave up my job. After paying off the mortgage all those years ago i don't really need to work so we're going on holiday for three months.' It will still be a conversation stopper but who cares?

I'll definitely have to remember that one!

In fact - why stop at 3 months?

I recall a conversation I once had; I was asked when I planned to have children, I responded by saying that 'I don't want any kids, I'd rather travel around the world'. They then replied 'well, once you've been around the world, then that's the end of that whereas children last forever'. In walked my Dad at that point and interjected 'Well, then he can go around the world again when he gets back'. I couldn't have put it better myself...

savingforoz · 5 September 2007 at 1:53PM

That made me smile, Martinslovechild - I've had lots of comments in my time about not wanting children - like paying off your mortgage early, it seems to be a taboo topic and lots of people are willing to tell you how they know best how you should live your life. I noticed the person asked when you were going to have kids, not if!

I didn't get any negative reactions when I paid my mortgage off early, but am now on a wealth creation plan and have been warned to keep quiet about that, as people may well be resentful, which I think is good advice. I think the unpleasant reaction Daisy had can only be down to jealousy, as perhaps the other person doesn't have the self - discipline to overpay their mortgage. And who says you can't pay off your mortgage and still have a life? I did, and it looks like all the MFWs on here do as well.

deffo a wannabe !!

Comments

Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

🚀 Getting Started

Categories

Is this how you want to be seen?

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free