100 Payments To Mortgage Freedom

Little_Miss_Uni-Debt · 29 March 2017 at 2:28PM

Hello folks!

I'm new to the Mortgage Free board and wanted to start a thread as a way to say hello to you all and to kick-start my Mortgage Free journey!

Over on the DFW board I had a long running thread & challenge called the "1% Challenge" it only seems fitting that I should tackle my mortgage in a similar way!

I am currently in the process of completing on a house purchase with my OH. As a first time buyer I'm using this time to a) have a huge spring clean before the move b) learn more about how we can pay this down quickly and efficiently.

I'd love to hear from all of you any tips, tricks or information I should be aware of as I go into home ownership.

Anything you wish you knew before buying your first house?

I look forward to learning lots from all of you lovely people.

edinburgher · 29 March 2017 at 3:34PM

Write a budget now - you can get figures for Council Tax etc. and estimate the other categories.
Accept that your budget will probably be 50% wrong - it takes a full year to appreciate how high your utility bills and property maintenance spends are likely to be
Track your spending to the penny (knock together a quick spreadsheet)
Get your post redirected for a year (it costs more if you do it for a few months and then have a few odds and sods who you have forgotten to provide with your new contact details)
Remember to update your address with banks/doctor/dentist etc.

beanielou · 30 March 2017 at 3:42PM

Happy shiny new diary

User1489 · 30 March 2017 at 3:48PM

What I wish I knew before buying my flat was...

For every £1.00 borrowed, I would pay back £1.86.

This is written in your mortgage paperwork, it's a regulatory thing they need to tell you.

Suddenly, my perspective changed. Every £1.00 I paid i now saved me £1.86. And then, I was hooked.

Now I'm on an accelerated plan all worked out in a spreadsheet to clear my mortgage (my only debt) by the time I am 40. Six years and one month to go.

Good luck,

Man vs Mortgage

Little_Miss_Uni-Debt · 3 April 2017 at 11:53AM

Thanks for the replies all!

I have started a budget spreadsheet, bringing over from what I had on the DFW board - pretty basic for now but it's a start!

I have played around with the overpayment calculator and it has really motivated me, if we hit the overpayment straight away we can do this in 7 years, which is around 84 payments. I know there will be months when we can't overpay so that gives us 16 months where we can take a breather but still be mortgage free before I'm 40!

The solicitors have said we should be signing in the next 2 weeks so looking to complete very soon! Exciting.

LadyGnome · 3 April 2017 at 1:49PM

Welcome to the next phase in your life. You've done very well to get your debt out of the way. A lot of the skills you have developed for DFW will be useful here too. One thing I would say is that you have been working hard at debt busting for quite some time and the mortgage is another long haul, so I think you are wise to build a bit of breathing space into your plan to allow for hiccups and "sod it" moments.

Little_Miss_Uni-Debt · 16 May 2017 at 5:28PM

Hello again!

We are finally in our little house now!

So now the overpayment can begin.

We can overpay by 10% of the mortgage balance - calculated every Jan 1st.

Does anyone know of a spreadsheet or overpayment calculator that takes into account the fact our max overpayment reduces every year? The MSE one just does percentage of original mortgage balance.

I would like to keep a running total of what we have paid and what we will need to pay to stay on target.

Hope you are all doing well with your own challenges!

genieuk · 16 May 2017 at 5:53PM

Hi
I play with the one on themoneycalculator and see what the balance is at say month 24 then use that figure for next lot of overpayments

HTH

100 Payments To Mortgage Freedom

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