Any Single MFWs?

pammyj74

haha I like your style.
I have started doing the same as Queen bee and calculate how much of the house I own. Its nice to see it go up every month.

Luv2Budget

Curlygirl - you've got the right idea, if you want to live a little, it will take slightly longer to pay off your mortgage, and that's the way it should be, you don't want to go without having a holiday or enjoying yourself! As I said to you before, you are still saving interest as your overpaying.

One more thing I forgot to mention, if you pay your gas/electric by direct debit, make sure you have an on-line tariff, the discounts are excellent.

curlygirl1971

Hi Luv2Budget

Yes and my online tariff actually ends on 31st March so I'm going to get comparing pretty soon as now also seems a good time to switch. I'm getting better at this kind of thing

Just changed my breakdown membership via Quidco and got confirmation that £50 cashback has been tracked!! So when I eventually get that payment I will include it in an OP.

pencekeeper

Prudent wrote: »

I paid off my mortgage as a single mum. I took on my mortgage when my marriage broke down. I didn't really start off with the intention of paying off the mortgage it just happened.

I was in fairly insecure employment as a supply teacher. Worrying about not being able to pay the mortgage if no work came in, I started to overpay. I had a flexible mortgage and it came with the option to withdraw the money again or use it against monthly payments if need. As soon as I began to overpay, I realised the impact on the monthly interest and was spurred on. Fortunately the work didn't dry up and I got some evening work training teachers as I worked in a specialist area. That paid very well and I could add it all to the pot.

I was so frugal that we lived below benefit levels and I could save a lot. The huge benefit for me was that through this site I learned to live very well on little money. Mortgage paid off some time ago now and I still live well on little on save the rest

I really want to encourage single people to overpay. It is much tougher, but the security is lovely. I remember standing in the street looking at this house the day I got back my deeds and knowing that no mortgage company could take it away.

That's a great story. I don't need any more motivation to overpay my mortgage, and I've been doing it for 3 and a half years. But that story could serve to let single people know it's possible

redlady_1

At 40 I have just started out again from nothing. I currently repay £150 towards my debts however, I have set a goal of being debt free by the end of the year. Then that £150 will pay off my mortgage. I also have a very high interest rate at the moment and once that comes down (tied in) then I will keep my repayments at this level. Add to that the fact that my wages will increase significantly in the next couple of years and I hope to be MF in 10 years or less.

My only problem is resisting the shoe buying itch!

madeupname1

Another new single MFW here! Whilst its great reading other people's stories and achievements, I am a little nervous because my mortgage debt is by far the highest that I can see on the site ... £418,000 :eek:

I am lucky that I am currently in a well paid job which, up until last year, I felt was fairly secure. However, last year my firm made 10% of its staff redundant and, crazy as it sounds, that was the first time I really felt hugely exposed. I decided then that to secure my future, I really need to aim to get my mortgage debt right down. Reading this site makes me want to get it down to zero!

With debt this large, I am not gonna be MF any time soon, but you have to start somewhere. My first goal is to get my LTV down. NatWest is offering a mortgage with an 80% LTV which would reduce my interest rate by 1.3%, so thats as good a place as any to start. Unfortunately, I bought at the top of the market so I reckon to qualify for that rate, I would need to come up with about £40,000. :eek::eek: I am expecting a tax refund, but not sure how much that will be. I am hopeful that it will cover at least half of the amount I will need. Also my cousin has repaid I loan I made to her of £2,500. That leaves £17,500. So thats what I am aiming to save - hopefully by the end of the year. Wish me luck!

chirpchirp

Wow, that's a huge mortgage but at least you're tackling it! If your mortgage is so high, you presumably have a good income to tackle it with. Do you have a diary? I'd love to read it and watch you make progress. When I started on here a year ago I couldn't find anyone with a mortgage higher than miine but this forum seems to have got busier and lots of big mortgages are now appearing. Good luck.

pammyj74

wow :eek: that is a mountain of a mortgage to tackle on your own and I wish you lots of luck. I would say make smaller targets to get to making it not seem such a mammoth task. Say in 5 years get to £300k (if poss for example)
How long is the term on your mortgage?

madeupname1

chirpchirp and pammyj74 thanks for the supportive comments. Yes it is big. I waited a long time to move, waiting for prices to come down and all that happened (until 2007) is that they went up and up! I finally decided to take the plunge towards in the middle of 2007 and then the market crashed promptly crashed.:mad: I was definately caught out but on the positive side (1) I dont think I would have been offered a mortgage during the credit crunch to buy the place even at its reduced value and (2) I really like the place and I am happy here. I don't plan to move again.

A few stats: I am 37. I have 22.5 years left over the life of the mortgage. The original amount borrowed was £450,000. The first 2 years were fixed at 5.49%. I have now moved to SVR which has reduced the monthly payments by about £400. I have made 2 overpayments so far this year. The first was in Jan - £10,000. That money came from a cashed in endowment policy. I had taken it out when I bought my first place years ago. I switched to repayment when it became clear that the endowment would not pay out enough to cover that old mortgage. However, the endowment continued to lose money (about £2000 in the last two years even though I continued to pay £100 a month into it). So I finally gave up and cashed it in. I couldn't even sell it to a third party buyer, it was that rubbish! :mad: Not sure it was the right decision but it has saved me the £100 per month in payments and reduced my mortgage repayments by £60 a month. The second overpayment was £1500 in Feb. However, I should have planned that better because I ended up going £250 overdrawn by pay day. I'm still a newbie so working out what is gonna work long term ....

I have some other debt - about £400 owed to a finance company for some furniture I bought. However that debt is on 0% and the last payment is May this year. That would save about £140 per month I also have a balance outstanding on a 0% credit card - about £3000. That offer runs out in November so I need to pay that off by then.

Writing this has been interesting - I realise that by May, my monthly outgoings will have been reduced by £700 from this time last year. There's my minimum overpayment per month!:)

Luv2Budget

madeupname1 - as others have said, that is a huge mortgage and tackling it on your own as well! I wish you all the best of luck. I think that is one of the largest mortgages I've seen on this site.

As pammyj74 said, you should set yourself small targets, so you don't give up too easily.

Do keep us up to date with your progress, I'm even more impressed that your tackling this on your own!

Good luck