Mortgage Overpaying Rises at the banks

Lotus-eater

BlondeHeadOn wrote: »

I've just paid off £17,000 on ours - does that qualify?

It feel really good by the way - and we were nowhere near negative equity to start with, so it wasn't a forced move.

Our mortgage is now under £40,000 - boy, does that feel good!!

:j

Nice one, I don't want to brag, but we've always overpaid on our mortgage, almost from when we first had it. Last year was a bumper one and we paid off about £46k extra, so we're now down to under a £10k sum owed.
Just gone onto a 2 year tracker, so it should be paid off at the end of the two years, mortgage free by my 40th birthday

:j

Gorgeous_George

cogito wrote: »

27000 isn't all that many though and G*rd*n Br*wn wants us to spend our way out of recession.

A friend of mine whose mortgage is over £300 a month less than it was 6 months ago hasn't a thought of overpaying and views it as more to spend on holidays. He just doesn't understand that he could be in negative equity before long.

To the best of my knowledge, nobody has ever said on their death bed 'I wish I'd had less holidays.'

Enjoy life - all things in moderation.

No point being rich when you are old at the expense of enjoying life when you are young and healthy.

My parents have never been 'rich' but I remember having a summer holiday every year. All but one in the UK and one year, it took over 24 hours to reach Cornwall.

GG

tomstickland

It's all a matter of balance.
Don't reduce your life to living on gruel with the heating off.
However, you can still be very happy without spending loads of money, so don't waste money.

I thought about a 5 year mortgage, but in the end thought "what if I'm struck down with a serious illness on the first day of being mortgage free?".

Hence I'm going for a less harsh target.

kennyboy66_2

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Which way is the market heading though????

Better LTV could mean much better interest rate for some in the future.

I don't really care which way the market is heading. If it falls a bit, I'll keep buying, if it goes up a bit, I'll keep buying. Either way I am 99% certain that in 20 odd years time, it will have been the right decision.

I don't really understand the obsession about paying your mortgage off - as it happens roughly half of each of my months payment pays the capital sum of anyway.

If someone suggested that you buy all your food for the next 10 years or so, you would think they were mad. Paying your mortgage off isn't that much different.

StevieJ

kennyboy66 wrote: »

I don't really care which way the market is heading. If it falls a bit, I'll keep buying, if it goes up a bit, I'll keep buying. Either way I am 99% certain that in 20 odd years time, it will have been the right decision.

I don't really understand the obsession about paying your mortgage off - as it happens roughly half of each of my months payment pays the capital sum of anyway.

If someone suggested that you buy all your food for the next 10 years or so, you would think they were mad. Paying your mortgage off isn't that much different.

Hey, have you read some of the threads on this board :eek: Beans seems to be the favourite tipple

kennyboy66_2

StevieJ wrote: »

Hey, have you read some of the threads on this board :eek: Beans seems to be the favourite tipple

Washed down with water that you have licked off a frozen windscreen.

Ray Mears has nothing on some of these guys.

Lotus-eater

kennyboy66 wrote: »

I don't really understand the obsession about paying your mortgage off - as it happens roughly half of each of my months payment pays the capital sum of anyway.

Well yes, but in two years time I won't have anything to pay, atm its £73 a month, which leaves me alot more money to have fun with.

kennyboy66 wrote: »

If someone suggested that you buy all your food for the next 10 years or so, you would think they were mad. Paying your mortgage off isn't that much different.

Yes it is, you would be buying in food to store, not much point in that unless you know food is going to soar in price. A mortgage is borrowing, it might be cheap borrowing, but it still is. You can save a fortune in interest if you pay it off early.
I'm not saying its for everyone, we all have our way of life, but to say there is no point doing it, is a bit silly.

StevieJ

Lotus-eater wrote: »

Well yes, but in two years time I won't have anything to pay, atm its £73 a month, which leaves me alot more money to have fun with.

Yes it is, you would be buying in food to store, not much point in that unless you know food is going to soar in price. A mortgage is borrowing, it might be cheap borrowing, but it still is. You can save a fortune in interest if you pay it off early.
I'm not saying its for everyone, we all have our way of life, but to say there is no point doing it, is a bit silly.

I would rather pay it off when interest rates are 10% not 1.5%, obviously as Thrugelmir pointed out, if it helps with lower LTV's and allows you to lock into a low rate 10 year mortgage rate, well that is a different matter.

kennyboy66_2

Lotus-eater wrote: »

Well yes, but in two years time I won't have anything to pay, atm its £73 a month, which leaves me alot more money to have fun with.

Yes it is, you would be buying in food to store, not much point in that unless you know food is going to soar in price. A mortgage is borrowing, it might be cheap borrowing, but it still is. You can save a fortune in interest if you pay it off early.
I'm not saying its for everyone, we all have our way of life, but to say there is no point doing it, is a bit silly.

A mortgage is just a tool to spread the cost of having a roof over your head over a reasonable amount of time. The amount you actually save is not quite as much as people make out, if you have the discipline to save (particularly in a tax free wrapper). In fact many time over the last 5 years you could get a higher tax free rate in an ISA than your mortgage borrowing cost.

It was an extreme example I was making, but many people could be better off in the long term by putting some of what they are paying off their mortgage into a pension.
I think it is the physcology of debt that encourages them to do this, but it may not always be logical.
The same people will then bemoan this country's obsession with property whilst keeping all their wealth in their family home.

You could be paying off debt when interest rates are at the very lowest they ever will be, or investing in the stock market at what could prove a low level (or not!) & get a tax break to do it.

I would never say there is no point in doing it though.

Lotus-eater

kennyboy66 wrote: »

A mortgage is just a tool to spread the cost of having a roof over your head over a reasonable amount of time.

This is what I disagree with, if I bought a plot of land for £20k and built a eco house from straw bales, I could build it for virtually nothing, I wouldn't have a mortgage. Because I choose to live in this (nice) house, it means I do. Therefore I am borrowing to pay for a std of living. (planning permission aside for one minute)

It was my personal choice and made for a variety of reasons, which I won't bore you with, or indeed go into them on the net.

I actually think we have been brainwashed into thinking that a mortgage is a daily charge we must pay all our working lives.

You make some very good reasons to not pay off a mortgage and I agree with you, I just repeat again, for us it was the right thing. I feel much happier as well