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Money and Life - my journey so far
I was on this forum when I started my MF journey a few years back and it has been a real help to me in the past. I haven't been on here for the last few years, but I have never stopped overpaying. My mortgage started in 2013 with a balance of £145k. Today the balance is approximately £15,500. I should have it paid off by…
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Overpay mortgage or personal loan?
This is a fairly quick question as I suppose I'm looking for a binary answer. I have £70K repayment mortgage @ 0.75% variable (i.e. English base rate) with freedom to make unlimited overpayments through my employer. I also have circa £4.5K left on a personal loan for a car @ 11. 9% (when I applied for the loan, I was…
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S&s ISa or pay into offset mortgage...I can’t fathom which is better....
Hi all, I have about £200k to pay on my mortgage, it’s on offset interest only, so I put £1000 a month against that. It’s ISA time, and I don’t know what to do...I’ve only been putting money into Ida’s for 2 years so only have about 60k (mine and wife’s)....I’ve got £20k from saving super hard this year, should i ISA it or…
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Jumping on the MF train
Hello everyone! Been a lurker on here a while and reading all the diarys it really has motivated us to get our finger out and tackle our mortgage. We got married and moved into our first house last year so things were a bit hectic money wise. We are both 30 y/o and 1 year into a 25 year mortgage with the balance currently…
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Advice on tracking overpayments and spreadsheets
A question for the more experienced MFW’s that have been here a lot longer than me. I have a spreadsheet that I use to record daily interest, mortgage balance each month, interest paid and balance reduction. Now I’m making mortgage overpayments and keeping a record how do I work out interest saved, cumulative interest…
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What are implications of reducing term on mortgage
I have made some overpayments recently (after investing my risk appetite worth under S&S ISAs). I am also a 6-7 months away from end of my fixed term period. Remortgage will give me a lower fixed term interest rate than what I am paying currently.. I am thinking whether to reduce mortgage term so that new fixed deal would…
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5 year mortgage overpayment plan - first step towards MFWb55
I first joined this forum with quite a bit of debt and a target to be debt free by 35 (hence the username). Lots of things happened since then, it was quite a journey and now I'm back with the ultimate aim to be mortgage free by 55! Being on the dfw boards has really changed my whole attitude to money and was a major turn…
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Just kept going!
So I became mortgage free a few years ago through consistently over-paying what I owed. After I paid off the mortgage I said I was going to start just enjoying the fact I didn't have any debt repayments to make. May be it's just a hard habit to break but I am now mortgage free and for the first time this month have a six…
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Are people here aware that it is not usually financially sound to repay your mortgage early?
Because interest rates are at such a historic low, the correct decision to maximise returns is to not overpay on your mortgage, and instead to put the money into an index tracking fund, or any savings account which gives more interest than your mortgage, or even P2P lending would be a better choice. I've been wondering…
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Stewby's Second Start.
Good evening. So... I was here a few years ago and everything was a bit messed up (finances and me) so I paid off my credit card and then started looking at the mortgage. Then I gave up as everything was getting a bit much... but I'm back. So, here it is.... Stewby's Second Start. So... finances are a lot more stable. OH…
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RT's path to MF
Having followed a bunch of these diaries over the years and now just about to complete on the purchase of a flat I thought I'd start my own MF diary. I'm 37, currently single and have 2 children, DD lives in Switzerland with her mum as did DS until a couple of weeks ago but he has now moved to England to live with me (I'll…
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FSCS protection with offset mortgages
Hello, I'm considering an offset mortgage, does anyone have any information about what happens if your savings cross the FSCS threshold and the bank goes bust? Do you lose the difference or are you ultimately not at a loss should this situation arise? Thanks.
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Mortgage free plan in action, but what next?
Hello We are a couple living abroad with consent to lease on our small flat in London. As we are leasing we are tied to our interest rate and cannot remortgage. The rate is 4.25%. We have 90k left on the mortgage which we should be able to pay off in full within 2 years as we have good salaries and little outgoings here.…
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Overpayment advice - where to target first.
My wife and I have been in a fortunate position for some time that we have been able to save £1,500 per month. We've amassed the equivalent of 6 months in wages for us both / one person's salary. We both are about to get significant pay rises in April, we really want advice of what to do next. We have the following…
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Make Me Mortgage-Free!
I’ve always enjoyed reading these - so here‘s my Mortgage Free Wannabe diary. I’m 36 and married with (recently) two children. DW and I have just confirmed the second re-mortgage of our house – bought in March 2015 for £230,500. Remortgaging to Santander in 2017 gave us a nice boost in equity, when it was valued at…
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Balancing the books
Welcome to my diary. This is a diary for many things; paying off the credit card, building up savings pots, starting a small business, paying down the BTL mortgage and saving for retirement. There doesn’t seem to be a natural home for this diary on the forum, as I’m doing a little of everything, but as I have found the…
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Huge mortgage - ahhhhhgh!
Hi all, We have recently bought a house - house value a whooping £600,000 and a £300,000 mortgage. This is a huge house and the idea is that it is our forever house. It needs work though - it's cold and not nice aesthetically inside. We moved from a lovely house a year an a half ago and had no mortgage - it was just a bit…
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MF Dreams...Take2!
Hi MFW’s... It’s my second time here having started a diary many years ago. That seems like a lifetime ago now, marriage, baby and a new house/mortgage since then. Life is beginning to settle down again (DS now 20 months old) and it’s time to turn my attention back to making better use of of our money. Ultimately we want…
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Chipping away one day at a time
Hello! After having a good lurk on these threads I thought I'd join (I'm hoping having somebody else reading might make me more accountable! I took a mortgage out on a two bed semi detached house in July 2018. I took a mortgage of £99,000, over 25 years with a five year fixed rate of 2.14%. I was really frightened about…
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Pay it off in one go or stick to monthly?
Hi Looking for some advice. I have a £114k mortgage and about to get some money which could mean I could clear this amount in one go. I have a fixed rate at 2.59% for 10 years (7 left) so there is a penalty for paying off early but when compared with the savings on interest means it's still worth doing for a saving of…