Pay Off Your Mortgage In Two Years Blog Discussion

Batgirl

nooksky wrote:

Just a reminder that the 2nd episode is on tonight, BBC2 at 7.30-8.30pm.

Thank you thank you thank you I loved this program last year and was so gutted when I found out I had missed the first 3 recaps. So I am so pleased you posted that it was now.

[Deleted User]

I watched this evening episode but I can't help but think that they are being very simplistic with regards to the figures they quote about paying off the mortgage.

The main thing in tonights episode was to do with the Market Drayton house that he bought to do up and sell but as far as I can tell he never did and ended up just renting it (Apologies if I missed him saying he'd sold it). If that is the case then how can they offset a £10k increase in the value of the house against the mortgage when it hasn't been sold and thus they have not yet banked the £10k.

On top of that is the funding for the rennovation house. I am assuming that they remortgaged to get the money to buy the 2nd house. (If they had the sort of money to buy it without remortgaging then surely they would just pay off the mortgage and save loads of hassle? :huh:) If they did, what happened to all the extra interest they would have paid? That didn't seem to be taken into account anywhere.

I'm not trying to knock their attempts at paying off their mortgage in 2 years, I just don't think the programme makers are being entirely honest or accurate in the figures they are using in the programme.

Did anyone else think the same or is it just me?! :undecided :question:

boysmum3

Missed last weeks - gutted as loved the first installments last year...but just watched tonights!
What a lovely couple - ok they didn't pay off but I think to get mortgage down to 29k was good. However was it just me or was that figure based on interest savings and his potential sale of the rental property...my limited brain only works in real money!!
Don't think I could have cut back so much on my kids things, my DS1 was panicking I would stop his pocket money and make him eat porridge!!!
All in all though I think its a really inspiring programme, last year we made lots of changes after watching it and our mortgage will be paid off early(more than 2 years though) because of them:j :j

boysmum3

our posts crossed sce8mph!! Great minds think alike - they are definately 'cooking' the figures a tad!!

Destined_to_be_skint

Mmm, they forgot to mention the fees involved in buying a property, although the Market Drayton house probably came under the stamp duty threshold, and capital gains tax on selling something that isn't your main residence.

They did fantastically well to cut back on their expenditure but the rest of it seemed to be castles in the air as they didn't manage to sell the first house.

Anyway, they seemed to be such a lovely, strong family unit which was really heartening to watch after all these dreadful reality programmes with problem kids, bad parents, etc. However I'm not sure whether the children really didn't mind that much when Rene interviewed them at the end, maybe they were upholding their parent's values for the cameras as they seemed to take it all very philosophically and maturely considering most teenagers only want to spend to keep up with the peer pressure.

cazmanian_minx

What I thought was interesting was some of the voice-over at the end where they said they were convinced it couldn't have been done without sacrificing their family values and happiness - which we know isn't true because we saw Dan and Lucy pay off double that amount in the first episode without ruining their family life. I think it's all down to attitude and creativity.

Still reckon if they'd let the kids in last night's episode come up with the ideas, they'd have done it! I hope Charlotte does get signed with Storm, she seems to have the right down-to-earth approach to make a successful career of it.

Caz

watcherman

Agree with what you guys have said...They seemed like smashing kids, and how articulate was Charlotte, they should be very proud parents.

The figures are soooo cooked though, you bought it for X and sold it for £10K more than X, so you made £10K profit, what happens to tax, CGT, fees etc?

culpepper

Most people probably don't know where their comfort zone ends until they try to step outside it.
These people found their's was a little more limiting than they had thought.
I thought the father of the family was a little pessimistic as he knew what to do and could push himself to consider doing it but couldn't manage to risk anything at all to actually go through with it.
I thought last year when watching these programs that some people's schemes were almost chosen to fail because then they could prove that they were right to remain within the comfort zone.
It was amazing that the family could save £1000 a month on just spending less. Some of us have that amount to live on a month.

The birthday boxes were very borgeois ,not the sort of thing you would be buying at a school fete and really would make the person trying to sell them that way quite unpopular with the other parents. More the sort of thing you might pay to advertise in the National Childbirth Trust magazine .

It really doesn't matter in the end though. It will still be useful to them to pay their mortgage off earlier than they would have.

TallGirl

I loved the programme to we made some changes to our mortgage payments last year because of it. However I agree it skates over things like capital gains tax, what money did he use to buy the other property etc. I know it is TV but if we are to take Rene serious surely that has to be looked at.
I did not really like the birthday boxes either I think they were too unpersonal. Don't think they would have worked even if she had pushed it they were just not sales people. I was impressed with the budgetting we are only 2 but we bulk shop at Macro and lots of things are so much cheaper in bulk loo rall, washing powder, dishwasher powder etc etc.
Can't wait for the next programme.

pudding06

how can they offset a £10k increase in the value of the house against the mortgage when it hasn't been sold and thus they have not yet banked the £10k.

On top of that is the funding for the rennovation house. I am assuming that they remortgaged to get the money to buy the 2nd house. (If they had the sort of money to buy it without remortgaging then surely they would just pay off the mortgage and save loads of hassle? ) If they did, what happened to all the extra interest they would have paid? That didn't seem to be taken into account anywhere.

I'm not trying to knock their attempts at paying off their mortgage in 2 years, I just don't think the programme makers are being entirely honest or accurate in the figures they are using in the programme.

I totally agree, he's problably hoping no-one spots it.

I thought the same about Dan with his stoves - the parting comment was a warning about him finding the money to pay his taxes and I did ownder if he'd included that figure in the mortgage pot as well.

not sure about renee at all. I could come in and do a botch job on you all, lol, but it means nothing unless you actually pay it off and a re not left oicking up bills elsewhere to do it.

pudds