and so mortgage life begins (again)...

newlife01

Hello everyone,

It is official... me and the bank now jointly own a house! Last year I paid off a £68K mortgage with my husband over 7 years - what an achievement! It was soured though as the relationship broke up... so here I am: new location; new job; new life (hence my forum name) and have just got a new mortgage.

I need to adjust to a single income and have an estimated budget calculated. It looks like it should be ok but 'estimated expenses' are one thing 'actual expenses' are something else, but I'll aim to stick with it for a few months and see how realistic I have been.

Yes, the budget does include money for saving... wouldn't it be nice for some of the savings to go towards the mortgage . So, my mortgage is £71,400 and it is fixed rate for 3years - my goal in this area is to overpay £10K by the time I come to review the mortgage rates in 3yrs time.

As I dont have a mortgage partner supporting me on this goal, I'd love to use this forum to keep on track and make some posts when I've managed to knock the mortgage down... £1K at a time.

So here goes... £71,400K and counting

Newlife

New Mortgage: September '10 - £71,400
1yr goal: September '11 - £68,100
3yr goal: September '13: £61,400

cha97michelle

It's good to have a direction from the start, and you know you have done it before. I wish you luck and look forward to hearing more.

Baby_steps_2

Good luck with everything, I'm currently splitting up with the OH and about to start the journey on my own. My mortgage is about 3X the size of yours and to be honest I feel a little bit overwhelmed by the whole situation. I’ll be interested to see how you get on, welcome to the MFW boards. I'm sure you will find it addictive:D

wannabemortgagefreee

Good luck, you can do it ;-D. I am paying my mortgage alone, any money extra at the end of the month goes off my capital, although with 3 kids it is probably slower than some others, I have managed to over pay £1000 off my mortgage over the past 3 to 4 months, and cant believe that 2 of my usual months mortgage extra has saved me a year off my mortgage and a few grand saved in interest.
I have over the past month started selling on ebay, and cant believe that I have made £700 selling old clothes and used shoes!! all goes to the mortgage over payment fund, I have also started a jar in which I throw in anything under 50p from my purse at the end of every day.
I wish you the best of luck, really throwing yourself into it at the beginning of your mortgage, will save you even more in the end. I will keep up with your diary for a lil inspiration ;-)

newlife01

Thanks for the welcome guys,

Aye, I'll add to the posts as the overpayments are made. I'm not allowed to make regular overpayments to my mortgage, but can make 'capital payments' of minimum of £1k. It'll be quite a discipline to let the money accumulate and then pay off in a lump, but I'm looking forwards to seeing the figures go down


Newlife

adwat

Sorry to hear your news, what a shame after your hard work clearing the mortgage, but hey ho, life goes on! Was the relationship under strain in any way because of concentrating too much on the mortgage do you think? Reason I'm asking is that it's a concern of mine that worries me from time to time. Anyway, the very best wishes for your new mortgage free journey.

Day_Dreamer_Girl

Hi Newlife

Welcome aboard. I shall watch with interest on your progress.

newlife01

Hi adwat,

Thanks for your interest. No I dont think overpaying the mortgage was a factor in the break-up.. Actually we both had the same attitude to wanting to pay the mortgage off early, so it was a 'project' that we undertook together.

I know that money, in general, can be a bone of contention between couples especially if they come from extremes of the spend/save continuum. It's an interesting point.... I assumed that most MFWs would have a partner that also wanted to achieve the same thing. Maybe the compromise comes in the rate at which it is paid off.... maybe ask over forumites what they think?

Take care
Newlife01

newlife01

Mark the day! I have made a capital repayment of £1300 and reduced the term of my mortgage. It takes the mortgage to under £70K!

I read the guide on recession-proofing finances as I thought to pay more off the mortgae, but having read the advice given, I decided to keep more in the bank for a 'cash buffer' incase I was made redundant. Still, I'm very happy to have made an overpayment - it knocks off about 9 months from the mortgage term, which was more than I'd expected and so was a plesant surprise.

With the increase in VAT, fuel taxes, wage freeze etcetc, I may not be able to make the £3300 overpayment by Sept 2011, but every little helps and I'll just do the best I can.

Onwards and upwards....
newlife01

newgirly

Hi newlife01, just wanted to pop in and say well done on your OP.
I have been reading your diary and I'm sure you will be just as succesful paying off this mortgage.
I am married but my OH has no interest really in Oping, so i really rely on this board for motivation and support. Its not the sort of thing I can talk to friends about really as well, not the usual topic of conversation on a girls night out!
Best of luck with your new challenge, have you looked at some of the other threads as there are some good ways to earn a little extra, which all adds up

*Jellie*

Well done on your first OP- baby steps in the right direction is a great way to go, as I'm sure you know! Amazing to see how much it knocks off the mortgage term.