Pay Off Your Mortgage In Two Years Blog Discussion

innovate

Marlee wrote:

A contented stress-less life should be the goal. Money should work for people, not people just for money. Be careful out there!

I couldn't agree more! The more I hear about the facts (like the salaries and working hours) the more I wonder about this programme.

To pay off 80K in 2 years, you need to repay something like 3.5K/month if you have the money at 5% interest. Even at 0% interest it would be way above £3K/month. The couple is working 24x7 (?!?) and brings home £2.6K? Or may be they are just working 14 x 7 and bring home £5K/month, and do a TV programme, and re-skill themselves whilst they are at it? What money do they buy food, clothes, petrol, holidays, washing powder, kids toys, a good book etc from? With what money do they pay their utility bills and insurances? What do they do if one of the kids gets yet another kiddie cough or the measles? When do they shop, sleep, wash, go to the dentist/pub/theatre/for a walk, play with their kids, see their friends, iron, have sex???

Either way, if the whole thing isn't just fabricated, they will basically have thrown away 2 precious years of their young lifes, and they will have missed out on two of the most formative years of their kids. I feel more sorry for the kids than for the parents on that point, but I do feel sorry for the couple too.

As Al Mac said already - fantasy, pure fantasy.

Marlee wrote:

I do miss Marvin too!

Marvin? Alvin? All the same :rotfl:

Alvin was mingling about on BBC Breakfast TV and on some radio station today. He often reminds me of Billy Graham or one of the other american evangelists :rotfl:

I am really glad I found moneysavingexpert.com because it's the place where real people help each other make their lifes better.

steve$$$$$_5

The sum's they quoted just did not add up.

The couple also stated that at the end of the first year they had for the
first time money in their savings account.Surely the money should have been
paid against the mortgage,to cut the debt ASAP.

Is that not the point of it all ????

Do think i will bother watching this week

MastG

I watched the programme and was quite impressed.

For most people paying off the mortgage in 2 years is not realistic (maybe 5-10 years ?)
BUT the programme does make people realise how much they pay the bank over 25 years; and maybe push them into cutting back/ saving/ paying off the mortgage faster.
At work several people were talking about the programme and what it would be like to get rid of their mortgages, so in that respect it has had an effect.

Oddly enough what the programme was trying to do (cut back spending and maximise income) is exactly what most people I know are doing to get on the property ladder here in London !!! Imagine trying for 2-3 years to scrap together a deposit to get a mortgage on a house then want to get rid of it !!

Gary

Patr100

If I remember correctly didn' t the couple in the first episode of the series save about £7000 in the first year ? - even they doubled the saving in the second year that would only equate to about 20 odd grand in the second year - I don't think that was enough to clear their mortgage.

Although our mortgage is for most, the major drain on income, it actually represents usually relatively cheap borrowing. There are two other factors to consider - quality of life and how inflation will evitably erode the value or potential buying power of the amount of the mortgage. What used to be ignored when endowment mortgages were sold - as well as hopefully clearing the debt. what they never mentioned was that due to inflation what seems like a tidy sum now eg 3K - will buy so much less in say, 25 years time. Of course now the endowment may not even pay off the original debt, le alone have any left over.

caseya

I must admit we are very fortunate to have Anne-Marie's parents living very close by and they have been wonderful.
Obviously the BBC filmed hundreds of hours of film just to get a one hour programme, so what you see isn't always a true reflection.
We spend an enormous amount of time with the children.
We realise now that the only way we are going to do this is by A-M keeping her full time job at the bank ( which she has never given up ) and her being my rock as I set up my NLP and Hypnotherapy business and go into the corporate market to stop their employees from smoking, helping with stress in the workplace and continuing my comedy hypnotist shows. I will also be doing some more " Think yourself Slim " seminars and training people in stage hypnosis and PMA techniques.

It has been great reading all your comments both positive and negative and we are taking a lot of these on board, actioning them and really hoping in the coming year to achieve our goal of being mortgage free.
What it didn't actually say in the programme was that the main aim was to pay it off so Anne-Marie could finally give up her job to spend more time with the children. She was a little upset that this wasn't mentioned and they seemed to emphasise that we were just doing this so we could start a new life in America which is not true.

Cheers
Sean Casey-Poole

angela110660

It was great to see that you had read this thread and answered my (and other people's) question about your child care arrangements when you took on all these new tasks to raise money. Did you pay the £14K off the mortgage as you got it in your hands or in one lump?
About the programme generally, I realise that there is so much never broadcast (we were on Real Rooms a few years ago), and I wish you both all the best for the future. I have to say that A-M's slimmiing success was remarkable and wondered if the club she works for is only local to you or nationwide? Is it similar to the Slimming World, Weight Watchers, Lighter Life clubs that I know of? Also if you are ever in Hampshire.. maybe you could run one of your day seminars? Very interesting and the people who took part were very enthusiastic. Well done to you both.

ohit

I've only seen the first episode so far, and think it's a great show.

Ignore the title of the program for a moment, and then you realise what has been happened here. There's people who have started living below their means, and then have increased their monthly cash flow. Eventually, ending up as a savings pot to pay of their mortgage.

A mortgage isn't a bad thing, but it IS a huge debt, and a large monthly payment for pretty much everyone.

They have become their own self-employed businesses.

Just think of the concepts it talks about: reduce costs, increase income. That's simply business concepts. It applies to everyone.

After the mortgage is paid off, they could continue those ventures and have an even higher disposable income.

The intelligent thing to do then would be to obviously invest the cash, rather than just spend it, but I hope you get what I'm saying by now.

Anyone that has read "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" will get exactly what I mean.

dalepearson

I have not seen this, but I am assuming it was not possible to pay off the full amount of the mortgage in 2 years?

Dan29

dalepearson wrote:

I have not seen this, but I am assuming it was not possible to pay off the full amount of the mortgage in 2 years?

This first series has 8 programmes, each showing how one person/couple/family got on in their first year of trying to pay off their mortgage.

In a year's time, the second series will show the results for each participant at the end of two years.

So the short answer is that we don't know about Sean and Anne-Marie yet, but it was looking promising at the end of the first programme.

ohit

Another thing.

It's ALWAYS to get set goals that seem to be higher than you can achieve.
OK, so they MAY not cover the mortgage over 2 years. But say they pay off half in that time. It's an achievement.

I'm beginning to think all this savy consumer stuff is making people think in ways that really don't stretch their abilities (e.g. lazy people). There's a world of possibilities out there - go find it.