Ajmoney's mortgage reduction diary

gallygirl

ajmoney wrote: »

This poses a new question, as I have already stated, I am not bothered about being mortgage free (although it would be nice), I just want to reduce my mortgage so I can have a better deposit when we move. My mortgage is up for renewal next February, I am on a lifetime tracker so not sure what I will do but how does all this help me with that?

You haven't said how much your house is worth. The more you can pay now the higher the % equity you will have in your house when you come to remortgage - this will give you access to better deals.

Good luck & welcome :j

ajmoney

I am not sure on a realistic house valuation, I bought the house for £63,000 in 2005 and reports put it between £72,000ish and £85,000 depending on the sites I look at. My house needed work doing to it when I bought it so I should always break even. When decorations are finished (it is a slow process) I may get another valuation

dexter_fan

ajmoney
it's always possible to be mortgage free.

You have only failed when you stop trying

DF

ajmoney

I am already getting hooked on facts and figures for my mortgage. If overpay by another £5ish (£105) then it will cancel out the interest for the month.

Maybe I will get round to doing a spreadsheet (scary) to see what else I can do towards my goal. Ideally I could do with makin £20,000 on my house when I sell for a deposit so I will need to throw some extra money towards the mortgage.

ajmoney

I have now done my budget planner, well kind of. The problem is I enjoy a life where I do what I want when I want as I am lucky that I am good with my money. If I am going on holiday and can't oay for it outright then I put it on my card and pay it when the bill comes in by I have now set up a realistic budget, although as yet it doesn't cover holidays.

I do a monthly one anyway where I work out what outlays I am going to have and what I am being paid and then see what is left over for me during the month. If there is a large bill, car insurance etc then I know I need my savings. That is changing from next month and I am going to save in advance for them. I have worked out my monthly outgoings as normal and also what all my renewal quote was for car insurance, my car tax, MOT and rough service costs. When broken down they come to £78 a month (until they next need to be paid and then next year I will put the money away over the full month). I am going to open a new account for it but I am not sure what type to open. Any suggestions? I think I will probably go for an e-savings kind of account but need to look for the better ones out there.

Thank you for reading my rambling on but I am happy that I have finally sorted something out that is sensible and should save me money in the long run.

ajmoney

When you make overpayments do most of you make them as soon as you have the money or do you wait till you have a bigger amount and then overpay? If you do this do you just keep the money in your current account or do you get better interest while you are letting the amount build up

ajmoney

I have just shown OH my overpayment calculations.

I started with where we would have been originally, the position we have been with my £60 a month OP (without even realising) and where we will be now I have increased it to £100. He is quite impressed and is excited at the prospect of us having a bigger deposit for our next house. Maybe he will contribute to the OPs to help us along and then I can feel proud to put some substantial posts up on the forum.

StuartGMC

AJM
Welcome. Good to see you are now planning in more detail for your costs; if you can do this on an annual basis it will really help you. Remember to balance the mortgage and OP, with your other financial needs such as pension, savings and later investments. If you want to see an annual household budgeting spreadsheet for ideas, just PM me with your e-mail address and I'll send it to you as I've done with others here.

Enjoy the journey.

ajmoney

Hi StuartGMC

I have just PMd you.

I am lucky enough to have a pension that is taken from source through work so that is already taken care of. I already put £700 away in savings and investments a month and have quite a nest egg/emergency fund at the moment. As I have said in the PM I think I have everything covered, I have had a rigorous look at everything over the last few days and am quite happy now. I am awaiting a pay rise and once I have it I should have all the savings pots active that I need. Your spreadsheet will be useful though, I am bound to have left something out somewhere!

ajmoney

Hi Stuart GMC,

Thanks for the spreadsheet, I have just opened it. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with it at the moment but I am sure when I look at it in slow time it won't be so bad.

Many thanks