MFW by 50 years old (2020)

SmileyG_2

CharlieH

Just found your thread....

Check your Key Features for your mortgage. I think you are probably on the same 5.18% 5 yr fix as me.

If so, you can actually overpay by the full £500 pm. What's more your overpayments can be borrowed back so you can treat it like an offset account.

At the end of each year, your overpayments are shown as an "overpayment reserve".

Not sure how easy it is to borrow the money back, it may be necessary to go into the branch to do it.

SmileyG

Charlie_H

Hiya All,

Managed overpayment for August and balance will remain below £145,000 when Sept Payment is due. Another milestone achieved:j:j:j.

Off on holiday next weekend and have very little funds for spends and not all my bills are paid. Will def need to dip in to savings and put as much as I can on a credit card. Will worry about it all when I come back.

I'm trying to cut down on commute spending for work and have decided to cycle, pay as I go some days as it's quite a long route and I can't afford to lose any more body weight. This will reduce my costs from £100 to £80 month which is not really too impressive. See how it goes.

Take care
Charlie H :rotfl:

greent

Charlie_H wrote: »

Hiya All,

Managed overpayment for August and balance will remain below £145,000 when Sept Payment is due. Another milestone achieved:j:j:j.

Off on holiday next weekend and have very little funds for spends and not all my bills are paid. Will def need to dip in to savings and put as much as I can on a credit card. Will worry about it all when I come back.

I'm trying to cut down on commute spending for work and have decided to cycle, pay as I go some days as it's quite a long route and I can't afford to lose any more body weight. This will reduce my costs from £100 to £80 month which is not really too impressive. See how it goes.

Take care
Charlie H :rotfl:

Hi Charlie - just found your diary. You're 50 just after me (I'm in March 2020). I'd like to clear ours a little earlier, mainly due to having 4 children which could then be very expensive when they leave school!!

If you're cycling, could you not lose the gym membership in exchange? Just a thought - I have no idea!:)

cardiffmatch

Hi Charlie,

Thanks for posting your diary - it's been the inspiration I finally needed!

I've had my mortgage for three years, borrowing a similar amount to you at a slightly higher interest rate. I'd always promised myself I'd start overpaying immediately, but it never happened. Today, after reading your posts I decided that if someone with such a similar sounding life to mine can do it, why can't I?!

I got on the phone to the bank and set up a £100 month overpayment, on the basis that I'm currently paying £400 a month off my credit card, which will be cleared by March 2011. Then I will be able to put my overpayments up to £500 and aim for 2020 as my mortgage free year (same year, different reasons!)

Have a fab holiday, best of luck with the mortgage and many thanks again,

Thom

Charlie_H

Hi All,

Managed to make overpayment for this month and Sept but what a struggle. A couple of stressful events have zapped some funds-haven't got energy to share to any detail but I'm trying to remain positive. Managed to renew car insurance at approx £220 lower (now £670) than last year.

Cycling to work has not worked out at all as its quite demanding especially on my back & knees. Still going to gymn to swim and do yoga primarily to destress as things are intense at work.

I'm looking forward to getting mortgage down to <140000. This should happen in Jan 2011 if make all overpayments.

@Cardiffmatch/Thom: congratulations on the overpayment and the start of your MFW journey. I look forward to hearing how you get on. :beer:

Take care
Charlie

uzubairu

Charlie_H wrote: »

Hi All,

Managed to make overpayment for this month and Sept but what a struggle. A couple of stressful events have zapped some funds-haven't got energy to share to any detail but I'm trying to remain positive. Managed to renew car insurance at approx £220 lower (now £670) than last year.

Cycling to work has not worked out at all as its quite demanding especially on my back & knees. Still going to gymn to swim and do yoga primarily to destress as things are intense at work.

Charlie

My OH is currently going through stressful changes at work, and finds that the gym local to his place of work is a nice relief from it on his lunch break, or before work or a destress on his way home from work.
Even though we have a good treadmill and bikes at home, he really appreciates the relief and the opportunity it gives him to clear his mind of all the c**p going on around him at work.

I hope you stay positive and get through your issues.

Charlie_H

Hiya All,

Still ticking along with the overpayments and made November's overpayment of £499.99:j. Got £75 cash back from Quidco for switching to NPower. That's my first experience of using Quidco and took ages to sort out as there were problems with tracking etc. My persistence finally payed off. British Gas didn't help as they re-opened my account and claimed that I owed them approx £400. This is after I made my final payment to close the account. I complained and got a free electricity monitoring kit with £50. I think this is called an owl. They claim that Npower provided a meter reading but as this makes no sense. The £75 will go somewhere perhaps an ISA as haven't made any contributions this year.

I've discovered that my water meter is not the one assigned to my account and property. I'm in the process of sorting out but concerned that my meter reading is similar to two other flats each with 2 adults living there as I'm single occupancy. We are a block of 4 flats. It's a new build so we're all the first dwellers in these properties except for the flat corresponding to the meter which was originally assigned to my flat as this is a rental property. I'm sure I'll be owed money in the outcome as I one point I was paying £25 month. I'm taking regular water meter readings now to monitor my usage. I've checked for leaks and the meter reading doesn't change if my stock !!!! is turned off.

I need to decorate but that will be for a future thread.

Good luck with your MFW journeys

Charlie:)

Charlie_H

Happy New Year MFW!!!!!

First payment of this year reached account today and mortgage is now <140,000K and my daily interest <£20. :T:j.

It's gonna be a tough year but as long as I'm in employment and remain focused I intend to make the 11 other £499.99 overpayments this year. Remaining focused is absolutely key especially in these early years when one can often feel unmotivated to make the payments.

Currently switching current account to First direct for £100. Also opened a regular saver 8% to try and save a wee bit extra each month.

Good luck for 2011:T

linz

Nice one Charlie, isn't it great when you reach a milestone like that?

I'm same as you at the mo, trying to make the £500 each month. Some months it will have to be less but not many hopefully. Am also currently applying to change current account to First Direct for their 8% regular saver aswell

All the best, keep going!

gallygirl

Well done, every milestone keeps your momentum going . I went through a few months where I dropped below x£ per month daily interest but then it went above it again during the month, that was really annoying!