Diary of a Confused MFW

SmlSave

We have now managed to get the mortgage down to £35,716.85, that's just over 50% of the original mortgage

Well done!!!! :T

and congrats to your DS and his reading my brother turned into a total bookworm too after DA tutition

keld

SmlSave wrote: »

and congrats to your DS and his reading my brother turned into a total bookworm too after DA tutition

It's truly amazing:T

setmefree2

keld wrote: »

We have now managed to get the mortgage down to £35,716.85, that's just over 50% of the original mortgage.:j

Brilliant :T:T:T


and well done on son becoming a bookworm

keld

Managed to get down below £32,500.:j

Just asking for advice. Should be MF by mid 2014, but BIL who's been MF for years and was our inspiration for trying to get MF, has just bought somewhere else and he's had to jump through hoops to get another mortgage, as he had no mortgage history.

So basically he's of the opinion that we should get down to circa £10,000 and then pay of minimum in case we need to increase/get another mortgage in the future. Just wondered what anyone else thinks/experience has been. I think that fundamentally we want rid of it, but it never hurts to ask the kind people here.

Merry Christmas everyone.:beer:

SmlSave

Hi Keld

I know that a fair few people keep an odd £1-£50 on their mortgage, some to keep their home insurance deals, some to keep docs stored and others so that they can get another mortgage easily. I think its worth askign your bank what amount you can leave and whether there would be any charges involved.

keld

As you can see from my new signature I made a further big dent in the mortgage. :j DH and I had been sitting on a little bit of money in case things went pear shaped at work and we needed it. But in two years all that's happened is that the money is worth less, as the interest rate is nowhere near the actual rate of inflation.

Two weeks ago DH actually suggested that we put £10,000 of it into the mortgage. I can't believe how he's committed he's come to being MF. :rotfl:So we decided to give it a couple of weeks to think it over and today I've just wacked it into the mortgage. It feels fabulous, as the mortgage is now just under £22,000 and if we keep up the OPs (which we will) then we'll be MF by June 2013, less than two and half years.:D

keld

SmlSave wrote: »

Hi Keld

I know that a fair few people keep an odd £1-£50 on their mortgage, some to keep their home insurance deals, some to keep docs stored and others so that they can get another mortgage easily. I think its worth askign your bank what amount you can leave and whether there would be any charges involved.

Hi SmlSave - took your advice and spoke to bank. They recommend keeping £100 on mortgage, so as to not accidentally redeem early and incur penalties (fixed deal doesn't end until August 2014). They also said that it's easier to get another mortgage, if you already have one. I ran this past my BIL (our original inspiration:A, together with all the guys on here:A) as he's been MF for years and he said that when he went to get a mortgage for another property (for his kids - now that's planning for the future) that it was a bit of a pain and he wished he'd kept a couple of hundred on his mortgage.

Noticed your signature and I hope everythings going well with you.:D

keld

Just updated my signature to reflect the January overpayment. When they sent out the letter with the OP showing they recalculated my monthly payment as £245.30, which is a unbelieveably low £56.61 a week (which is nice to know if it all goes t!ts up!), but they've kept the actual payment as agreed. I must say I've been very impressed with NR's service.

keld

Well we've carried on overpaying and at the moment we are down to £15,500, which practically feels like nothing, in fact it just makes us want to get rid of it even sooner. DH and I have added up all the bits of cash in our savings accounts and bearing in mind their very low interest rates and the rate of inflation, plus the interest rate on our mortgage 5.89, have decided to put in another £10,000. Which would mean that to keep the mortgage to the end of the penalty period, we would only have to pay £180ish per month.

So I rang up to let the bank know about the payment and spent over 20 minutes on the phone getting it authorised, by which time NR had closed for the weekend. A bit annoying, but I was recently the victim of fraud recently, either when I paid for something on the internet or an over the phone card payment, so I don't mind jumping through the hoops. I must say that I was very impressed with the Coop, as I noticed the fraud one day and all the money was back in my account the next day. The criminals had maxed out my overdraft paying for flights and expensive electrical equipment.

DS is still going to Dyslexia Action, which is just fabulous - it should be available to all dyslexics, not just the ones who can afford it. He's moved to secondary, which is a bit of a shock for all concerned. He is finding the whole thing very challenging. However we were shocked to discover that the SENCo hadn't told any of his teachers that he was dyslexic and has trouble writing and spelling. The annoying thing was that his excellent reading (adult comprehsion now) was masking his dyslexic problems to his teachers and they just thought he was disorganised and by inference lazy. Hopefully things are on the up now though.

My twin DDs are doing well at primary. My DH and I both have jobs for the moment. Just hope our luck holds!

DH had said the other day that he felt that we never had any money, but when we went through things it is amazing how much we have overpaid / saved. Thank you MSE and all on the forum.

Off now to look at the shabby chic thread, as I've got some chairs that could do with an update. Tata for now.

keld

Thank you everyone for your support - we are down to the last gasp of our mortgage is only £3,148.90 now, and will be gone in April. Although I will have to keep a few pounds in as there is an early redemption penatly until (August 2012) - well it seemed like a good idea at the time.