Are we in a small minority?

SmlSave

as MSEers should we be making it our duty to at least raise awareness of OPing with loved ones in the hope that it saves them money?

I've let all my friends know and encourage them to think about about it, but I don't 'go-on' at them about it.

I've found that they'll chat to me about savings and getting quotes. Most my friends thave made it clear that they're not interested in OPing and my Parents and In-laws have paid off their mortgages.

Overall I think we should let people know that OPing is possible but perhaps not mention amounts. APart from maybe the odd comment that ....'oh, did you know that OPing just £10 a months can save you.......'

mintedmatty

SmlSave wrote: »

I've let all my friends know and encourage them to think about about it, but I don't 'go-on' at them about it.

I've found that they'll chat to me about savings and getting quotes. Most my friends thave made it clear that they're not interested in OPing and my Parents and In-laws have paid off their mortgages.

Overall I think we should let people know that OPing is possible but perhaps not mention amounts. APart from maybe the odd comment that ....'oh, did you know that OPing just £10 a months can save you.......'

Im always happy to speak about it but its not something I ideally would like to bring up as i dont feel comfortable talking about it when Im paying off a good amount when i have some friends (not I would say in bad financial shape) with pretty big mortgages and who struggle now and then. As I have said previously they all tend to have their heads screwed on generally but if they ask Im always happy to talk to them about Op'ing a saving etc.

I do think we are a definitly minority though, my brother and his Mrs overpay, my parents have a comfortable semi retired lifestyle, the major factor in that was my dads redundancy in the early 90's which made him teach us to be prepared, save, spend only what you have, dont use CC's loans etc. I know my bro and I were lucky that we have both generally being supported well by the rents. We both had jobs 13 upwards tho, but it paid off and we both had houses at 22-23.

pawlala

great story

pawlala

I had two threads so I thought it resourceful to have a diary and a discussion on overpayment popularity in the same place. Hope the new MFW'ers can contribute their feelings towards OPing as per the first post

[Deleted User]

I just helped a mate move into their first house...and as we heaved boxes around managed to steer the conversations subtley towards OPing...they seemed pretty unaware of the potential benefits, and were surprised at howe much we'd cleared off our last mortgage. Who knows what they will end up doing but they might pop up here sometime! I secretly felt like I was giving them the best moving in present ever

pawlala

New mortgage started, I need to update my sign. It is nice to see the months being chipped away, but the previous loan has really driven home quite how much over-paying it takes to reduce it even by a few months! It seems almost impossible to imagine paying it off much sooner than the original term

originalmiscellany

Just updating to get emails from this thread

BFM

TurnaroundSue wrote: »

I was aware about mortgage o/ps and when I took out this mortgage was told we could repay 5% per annum. At the time our finances couldn't stretch to that much anyway so I wasn't really bothered, but now am in a position to overpay am gutted as am only covering the interest element on overpayments. I am however paying £500 into a savings account which in a couple of years will pay off mortgage in full and pay the small penalty.

I told one of my friends that we overpay and have only 2 years left (once lump sum is paid) and her response was "God aren't you lucky"!!!!!!! It has nothing to do with luck, but putting the right head on and using our money wisely, going without certain things and sometimes sheer hard work, whilst she has the lastest fashion, hairdos etc

this reaction drives me nuts, the missus and I have always lived within our means and have never had any interest bearing debt (mortgage aside), if we wanted something we either saved up for it, or a couple times when we first bought our first house we got a couple of white goods on 0% for 6 months or similar - but we'd religously put a sixth each month to one side so we would have the money to clear it at the point we needed it. we got a mortgage that we could just about afford with living sensibly knowing that we'd both increase our earning power but when that started to happen we made sure a fair chunk of our new income went against the mortgage or was being saved.

my brother (and quite a few of my friends) went the other way, live flash, has a car upgrade every few years, exotic holidays, latest gadgets and what have you. but when we have now cleared our mortgage and building up a decent amount of interest income from savings he uses the lucky argument. it drives me nuts :cool:

its obviously a sacrifice now to do this stuff, but its so much easier if you can start in the habit fairly young and have OPs / savings / pensions etc coming out your pay packet so you never mentally have the cash in your hand to miss it so it never really feels like the sacrifice bites quite so much.

i think the talking about all this stuff with the kids to make sure they are finacially savvy is probably more important than making sure you are putting actual £££ away from them and thats something that I can start working on today...

dorisday

having read the whole thread let me tell you a sad story. Im now 64 and with my now deceased oh bought first property when I was 21, since then have bought 4 more properties not before selling the previous ones. last one I bought myself 20 years ago for £36000 putting a small deposit down so I could spend the profit made from house sold last.
Its now 20 years later and my mortgage stands at £17.500!!! My mortgage payment per month is only £219 but I have another 9 years to go.!!! Having been on this site for some years I have come to the conclusion WHAT A FOOL IVE BEEN why didnt I op this mortgage even a small amount I would have saved thousands of pounds. Instead I wasted my money on things I thought I needed or wanted - what a waste.
I still have some cc debt to clear which is well under control but this year I shall do my best to clear £12000 off this mortgage and then hopefully clear the mortgage by July 2012. If I can do this I shall have saved myself £5500 in interest. It will be hard very hard but I shall work all hours I can and no holidays/clothes or spend money on frivilous things I dont need.
Moral of this story is overpay all you can you will reap the benefits sooner than you think. I used to think - well its not much interest to be paying but interest is your hard earned money going to someone else - you are working to make others rich!! when you could make yourself rich.
OVERPAY OVERPAY OVER:money::money::money:

SJ1

I didn't realise you could overpay until I hit this site and started talking to friends about it who were either offsetting or doing overpayments. I wasn't told by the mortage companies, but then why would they say that. Our children are small and we still have massive outgoings but the childcare costs should get less next year and I really want to start in earnest then. We can only overpay £500 a month but actually that might suit us well because if we can overpay that then that would be fantastic. My parents overpaid on their mortgage, actually I think they saved most of what they needed and then overpaid very very quickly... I need to do better!

I do think that mortgage companies are starting to look more carefully at the end point of your mortgage so what age you will be when it is supposed to finish but it's tempting when remortgaging to go for the higher years. When we remortgage next I am going to cut the years down as well.

SJ