Pay Off Your Mortgage In Two Years Blog Discussion

FZwanab

Hi Sean and Anne Marie, Just wondering a couple of things, who do you get to mind your children? was Anne Marie made redundant from her banking job? the money could be put into the mortgage and surely there are other admin jobs near where you live that she could try? or you could do as I do, live on my husbands earnings ( very meagre!!) and try to make as many savings as possible using oldstyle board tips,cut out anything completely unnecessary eg. cable tv, smoking etc. rent one room out and pay off your mortgage quicker than usual but obviously not in the 2 year time frame and get to stay at home with children. Can I recommend "The complete tightwad gazette" book to give you ideas and inspiration to cut corners, you don't have to be mean but just look at what you do spend your money on. Sean I thought your shows look great, but the planning bit let you down, perhaps Anne Marie could make the phone calls for you and do the marketing to maximise the number of shows that you do. Anyway, I thought Rene wasn't much good, just like a school teacher who gets cross when you haven't done your homework, Jamie was much better, helping to get the ball rolling in different directions for you. Are you going to continue with this paying off your mortgage?? If so there are ways to do it without putting so much pressure on yourselves, see "get yourself a mortgage pig" make overpayments little by little etc..

ifstar

Thought it was a very good episode last night but agree with everyone else who said that Sean looked like he needed to be pushed along.
I would think though that you now have the foundations in place to get your mortgage paid of within the next few years, which is still a great achievement. If Anne Marie isn't back working then her helping out would be a huge benefit to you and it means she is also going to feel part of it.

Best of luck for the future to you both, you came across as a very likeable and normal couple that suffer from the same ups and downs as the rest of us, although you have a great talent that could potentially make you very rich and that is something many of us don't have (or don't know that they have).

mcardinalblue

Hi Sean and Anne Marie

Really enjoyed your show, you seem a lovely couple. So sorry you had such bad luck with the miscarriage.

I think the editing of the show were they tried to show Sean as lazy and unmotivated that is I must have a cuppa/computer/teletext etc, was clumsy any one following your whole story would see through that and see that it was just the editors angle not the real situation.

I had to chuckle when you when to the Standard of England in Ash to do the non smoking seminar. I know this pub well it’s a couple of miles from me and to be honest it’s a bit of a dive, great for a few drinks though. Not surprised you didn’t get many takers.

I hope you can work together in the future and I’m sure you can pay your mortgage off quickly best of luck for the future.

MCB

Sloppy_Saver

I agree that it seems impossible to pay off a mortgage in two years, but I guess a more reasonable five years would not make as good television. I was actually inspired by this program (mainly because I'm such a short term guy) to follow suit and try myself. I decided to start my "Two years" in January, so I'm now 5 weeks in. First I gave up my job with IBM and started my own business as an I.T. contractor. My first contract is overseas, and so far I'm on track to put away (after household expenses) about 5k per month. My mortgage is 150k as it stands, so even at this rate I'll be hard pressed to get rid of it all in two years. Still, even if I just reduce it by half, it'll be a huge weight off.

caseys

Hi folks it's time to reply.

Like some of the posts have mentioned it was edited to make a " good " TV programme. Please try to imagine how many hours of filming we did over the whole 2 years, to make one 1 hour 45 minutes of TV.

I agree that the programme did portray me to look lazy and keep wanting coffee breaks and not look motivated.
The bit where the camera shows me watching teletext was filmed whilst Anne-Marie was having a microphone fitted and as far as I was concerned this was a break in filming and I wasn't aware the camera was on. It was also during the first 12 months.

Well if being lazy and not motivated is giving up the security of my bank job and trying my hand at a quit smoking roadshow in Hampshire, Think yourself slim seminar once again in Hampshire, each at 232 miles round trip, about 300 phone calls between myself and the agent who was supposed to be promoting them, Continually trawling the stage newspaper until I found an audition suitable for my act. Then going to Brighton for a non fee paid audition:328 miles, Recording my CDs in Brighton 328 miles again!( we could not record them the same day as the audition due to time constraints with filming ) Flying to Turkey every 2 weeks from Gatwick not my local airport of Birmingham. Every other week flying to the Costa Del Sol on a Sunday for a gig on the same night. Monday morning 5am flying from Costa Del Sol to Barcelona and then on to Majorca for a show that night. Tuesday morning 7.45am fly from Majorca to Madrid and then on to Lanzarote to do a show and from Lanzarote 9am back to Birmingham on Thursday, eventually going home and wanting to spend some quality time with my wife and children and not being in the best frame of mind due to the miscarriage ( which did have an effect on me as well, believe it or not! )
Then I put my hands up people and say " yes i'm lazy and not motivated "

Please also bare in mind that Jamie is a millionnaire who lives in the fast lane of London society and happens to be single as is Rene.

Perhaps that is the answer, divorce Anne-Marie sell the house and pay off the mortgage:rotfl:

Thanks again though for all your views

All the very best

Sean

Lotta_Littlies

I might have read your post wrong Sean but your post seems like we've all offended you and I'm sure that was nobody's intention.

Nobody has said you were lazy but it seems most people do feel that despite having the talent you lack the ability to push yourself forward and seem to need others to jolly you along which is something that Anne Marie could obviously do so. In short, she would do a great job on the preparation and lay the groundwork in order for you to put on a great show/seminar which will in turn help you to realise your dreams.

caseys wrote:

Please also bare in mind that Jamie is a millionnaire who lives in the fast lane of London society and happens to be single as is Rene.

I can't see where this comment fits in and how it affects the feedback on you?


Lotta

Lotta_Littlies

Just to add that it is just my take on the post and I do apologise if I have misread your comments. No offence intended!

Lotta

Sloppy_Saver

Hi Sean,

I never got the impression though from the programmes that you were lazy. So no comment on this.

However, when I watched the first program and you gave up your job I thought you were mad. When I saw you invest money in your new business and end up with some net losses I though you were insane. Then I did the same myself and realise just how right you were!

I now think you were gutsy to take the plunge into self employment, as I have said elsewhere, no one ever got rich working for other people. I also know that when you start up a new business you sometimes have to speculate to accumulate. I ended up going backwards financially for a while due to initial start up costs and the long wait for the first invoice to be paid.

Thanks for inspiring me to try something i should have done years ago!

clarew

Sean and Ann-Marie, i will say again, i thought you came across as a normal family and it was far more in touch with us everyday people, than some of the people shown already.

i felt that you did well in preparing for the new 2/3/4/5yr onslaught on the mortgage, as said before by others, it was a good foundation to build on. And i really felt that Rene actually was very positive in the end to you both, and understood that you did so well considering your family situation.

I would love to know how you are doing now. Are you still doing the shows (they seemed like great fun!) and are you continuing to budget? Was the £155 week budget , including everything, food,bills,car etc.-only asking as we are family of 4 and was wondering if i could try to keep to that!

With regard to Jamie, i agree, he was able to be 100%focused, as no everyday things like children to distract you or demand money off you for clothes,school trips,lunchs etc.

I think you and Ann Marie did so well, as you can see, i only manage to overpay £100 amonth (mortgage is £1,100 repayment), and i think shows like this, and martins tips and this forum help to keep me motivated, so thank you.

AnW'sMum

I watched the show with interest and have read many of the posts on here.

You asked for honest feedback.....

Did you fail? Well honestly yes you did, the show was about repaying your mortgage in 2 years. From what we saw I think you squandered opportunities and in particular the help that was given by Jamie. You have the seem to have the vision but not the drive (as mentioned by other people) It seems you could have had your self help CD's ready for production/distribution a lot sooner and therefore have generated more income within the 2 years.

BUT for all that you have won, without the programme would you have repaid £32k of debt? Given the cruel blows of fate I applaud you for your efforts and for carrying on with the challenge.

I think the challenge now is to keep the end goal in mind and refocus to repay your mortgage as soon as you can without compromising too much on family life. We get one shot at this life and whilst to be mortgage free would be fantastic it should not be the be all and end all.

You both did a brave thing agreeing to take part, I am certain there are a lot of people out there that have been inspired by you and the other paticipants.

You have suceeded in reducing the amount you owe, celebrate that and maximise the opportunities in the future.