Karmacat: To Infinity And Beyond!

redsquirrel80

Happy twirling and flirting :rotfl:

Karmacat

Thanks folks! This is my non-London Friday, and its still very odd. A lot of the work I need to do is outside (sweeping, collecting dead stalks, that exciting kind of stuff ) but there's a huge amount of low flying cloud socking me in right now. So I'm stuck with the cleaning, grrrr as a treat, I'm going to have 2 cookies left over from my mystery shop yesterday

shaun40400

hi kc

yep still do banking every day even though once a week would be more than good enough,daily scratch cards never amounted to more than €3 a month,and two survey companies,€60 a year in tescos vouchers and same in hmv
not a lot,,,but helps me to remember that 3 yrs ago these things were needed for survival ,,now their treats for me being a good sheepie:D
s xx

EssexHebridean

You sound so positive and cheerful KC - it seems as though somethinhg has now properly "clicked" as you sound so much clearer about your way forwards. Excellent news - I'm really glad for you!

Karmacat

Thanks EH! I don't *feel* like that, I must say, but I know what needs to stop, and that'll do for now. I guess, when I've made big life changes, I've always let it grow until staying still always feels worse than moving, or like I'd lose my self respect if I didn't move. I'm just about there. Feels very strange, this is the biggest change I've made in 25 years.... good grief, I hadn't written it down like that before:eek:_pale_ :rotfl:

Karmacat

I've finally ticked another item of my "things to do before the estate agent gets here" list - washed the glass door to the bedroom and washed down the paintwork in there. Someone will still need to strip it, or indeed strip it out, but at least they won't see accumulated grime on there

That took all of 20 minutes, so time for another cup of tea


EDIT - I forgot. One of the things I did yesterday was cash in an Instant Saver - I only opened it a few months ago, I had the builder to pay and all the transfers between accounts went wonky, so this stupid instant saver account was the result. Paying 0.45% per annum. So I cashed it in, and have paid it off the mortgage - which is at 2.5% per annum, so even if I claim it back next year, its more profitable.

taxi73

That's a good idea about the savings KC and yes you will survive it.Think it's a great idea Wol looking over the figures for you and you may feel more comfortable about your deciscion having had that second look over the figures.

Karmacat

I'm hoping for some replies to this in due course (I know its a lot to take in) but can I ask people not to use the quote button - its a lot of personal information, and I might well delete some of the more personal-feeling bits. Thanks!!!

Looking over the figures, and having put that Instant Access money to the mortgage, has given me an idea.... I updated my sig, in which the debts currently look like this:

NRock £10,862 now £3,705 5.7% fixed capital balance only.
Mortgage £43000 Sept 1987 now £34,390 2.5% interest only loan overpayment of £8610.
Mortgage E76,140 now E59,683 interest 2.05% capital balance only

Now, here's the issue I'm thinking about.... check out that mortgage over payment. What do people think about taking some of that back and paying off the loan in its entirety? I haven't done it before, because I've wanted the flexibility of being able to reclaim the money if I didn't have enough for the French mortgage.

But here's the thing. If I take £3705 of that overpayment, that will still leave an overpayment of £4905. It may affect my mortgage by a couple of pounds, but a lot of that overpayment hasn't gone to reduce the monthly payment, its gone to reduce the term (I have to check that out, actually, the detail of it). So the situation would then be:
- no monthly payment to Northern Rock of £157.
- mortgage interest payment may go up by £3 or so, to £81 (:o:o:o I know, I know, but when I bought my house back in 1987, the mortgage was 80% of the purchase price - this is what they mean when they say inflation reduces your loan).

In 2.5 years, my endowment policy will mature (yes, I kept it, I'm not giving it up now ). It was supposed to give £60k, for a mortgage of £43k. I'll assume it will give me £30k. It will probably give a little bit more than that, maybe £33k, but lets keep it round figures. If it gives me £30k, that leaves me £8k short on the mortgage.

So then, my only debt in the UK would be £8k on the mortgage.

The French mortgage and the house move both have the potential to affect all this hugely, of course. More on the next post (in a while, I'm hungry!)

Karmacat

The move itself will cost about £20k, between estate agents, solicitors, stamp duty and house movers. I'm looking at houses that are on for £250k, and assuming the same thing will apply to them as it does to me - that I'd pay about 10% less than the asking price. So that means, conservatively, I'd pay about £230k. That would give me a £20k pot - which I think needs to go to the French mortgage.

The French mortgage currently lasts until the end of 2018 :eek::eek::eek: good lord, that sounds a long way away, but I know it isn't ....and the thing is, I got a great guarantee on the rental income from the French apartment, for 9 years, but that will finish in 2015, which gives a 3 year shortfall when I can't *rely* on an income. I'm sure there will be one, I just can't tell how much it will be, so it makes sense to pay it down.

I'd be using equity from my home to pay it off, but its going to equity in a property as well, just equity in a different country.... that sounds okay to me, but again, what do people think about that?

After 2018, of course, I'm in clover - at the very least, I'll own my own property outright (and will have for some time) I'll own my French apartment, which will be giving me an income thats about £100 a week at 2010 prices, and believe it or not I'll have my old age pension :eek::eek::eek: If I'm still here of course, after what happened last year I'm not assuming anything.

So thats the long term financial arrangements.

Next post (some time next year ) is about possible income.

hypno06

OK, to me, it is not about the figures, and what would cost you more or less each month -it is about what you feel comfortable with. As you know, "feelings" are just as important as practicalities.

If you feel more comfortable paying off the loan, then do so. If you feel that it is defeating the object of the overpayments to the mortgage, and that the loan will carry on looking after itself coming to its natural end of term in due course, then carry on as you are.

Do you need the £157 a month that the loan will free up? What will you do with that? Will you pay it as an extra to the mortgage again, thereby building up the overpayment once more, or will it get frittered in day to day expenses. If the latter, then I would suggest leaving things as they are would be a better option.

How long does the NR loan have to go -the closer you get to the end of it, the quicker the capital balance goes down so psychologically that is a nice thing to see.......perhaps!

etc etc etc

It is not an exact science - all I will say, is that I have run with my gut feeling on most of my debt repayment, paying off things in the "wrong snowball order" sometimes, but always feeling right about what I have done, even if I could have saved a few ££ doing it a different way.

If you feel comfortable with what you do, you will have done the right thing - so ask yourself what do *you* want to do?