Closing the mortgage to Open opportunities

Emsky123

Right, After lurking for 3 years its time i came out of the shadows .

In two weeks I will finish my maternity leave and face the prospect of working till retirement as our family is now complete. That thought coupled with the fact that interest rates are looking increasingly likely to rocket next year makes me want to clear the mortgage more than ever so that work no longer becomes such a necessity.

I am very lucky in the fact that my parents looks after the kids when i work for a very low fee so i dont have to worry about the cost of childcare.

So as of today i have 7 years left on the mortgate but hope to halve this, currently i can OP by 10% and am on a fixed rate until Jan 2013. I have checked every bill i pay and believe to be on the best tarriffs for phones, Gas, insurance etc. I use Quidco for most purchases and have cash back credit cards which get paid off in full each month and have 6 months salary in savings in case of job loss.

My main plans for 2011 is to Ebay as much as possible, Start budgeting more to reign in the spending and after O/P the maximum throw as much as possible into savings ready to pay a lump sum off the Mortgate once the fixed rate ends.

That's if for now, Really looking forward to the next stage of the journey:T

originalmiscellany

Just adding you as a thread to read. Sounds like your financial head is screwed on, and you've locked down any obvious financial leakages that could occur.
We've done similar to you and made overpayments in the past, and have managed to reduce our mortgage hugely, it's soooo satisfying to see that

All the best with your ebay sales - have you thought about a target e.g. to sell £1000 of stuff by June 2011? Something to keep you focussed and on task?

[Deleted User]

Hey Emsky
great progress so far!
I too am hoping to get rid of the mortgage asap to open up opportunities for work! Mine is similar size to your origonal one so itll be a good few years yet! but have reviewed everything to make sure Im on the lowest/best tarrifs so now its very much setting up regular OPs and also trying to make any extra to put in savings from ebay/amazon etc..
good idea to set a challenge too i reckon! Im in if it takes off

Emsky123

Hi Originalmiscellany and the youngone

Thanks for your welcome messages, Its amazing how being on Maternity leave makes you think, Its only then that you reaslise it is possible to live off a lot less money.

I do not have a target for Ebay yet, I was thinking of listing 1 item per week with a target date of April, that way i should be clear of clutter in time for a good old spring clean.

soba

Emsky123 wrote: »

I do not have a target for Ebay yet, I was thinking of listing 1 item per week with a target date of April, that way i should be clear of clutter in time for a good old spring clean.

I always find my ebay items sell better if I've got more than one item listed - I always say 'take a look at the other items I have at the moment'. You'll get people taking a look and something might catch their eye.

RosieTiger

Welcome, you seem to be remarkably well organised !

Emsky123

RosieTiger wrote: »

Welcome, you seem to be remarkably well organised !

Thanks Rosie - i must admit your Diary was one of the first i read on here which gave me the inspiration :A

Emsky123

Right, have joined the MFW 2011 thread with a challenge of OP'ing £5K, I decided to do this today before its a new year as i dont want it to become another failed New years resolution:mad:

Have advertised a couple of items in the local free paper to see if i can sell them, If they dont sell then will put on Ebay next week. Not sure if its the right time of year to be selling??

Going to ring the Bank in the New year to change the Mortgage term, At the moment i can only O/P 10% but if i change the term i will be automatically O/P'ing without hitting the maximum allowed, Luckerly my bank allows me to do this without charge and if i ever have problems i can change the term back at any time.

Emsky123

Yay, First step of the year taken, I called Halifax first thing this morning and changed the term to 6 years, This will increase my payments by £200 per month, One thing i could not understand was that the advisor was unable to proceed with the request until i confirmed what date i was going to retire, Considering thats at least 20 years away i was not sure how relevant this was??

Anyway I also checked how much i could overpay and was told that as i had already made a partial overpayment back in April the rolling year would have started from then so i can pay the balance of the 10% up till April and then another full 10% after April.

So now i have another target of raising around £3000 to overpay between now and April, And then another 10% after April which will be around £8000 although this may be a bit of a stretch so will look to at least achieve my MFW2011 target of £5k.

Emsky123

Time to start listing on Ebay, Its free listing this weekend so my target is to get everything listed, Had a call out of the blue yesterday for my Pram which i put in the paper a few weeks ago so [STRIKE]im hoping that will go today as it will be my first £50 towards this months OP.[/STRIKE] - Sold YAY, £50 sent to mortgage straight away so no chance of spending it!
Next week is my last week of maternity, will miss being at home all day but will be glad to get paid again, Now that i have had several months living on a tight budget i should be in good shape to carry on budgeting and throw everything possible at the mortgage.

Emsky123

Failed miserably at the Ebay challange, but managed to put an item in the free adverts this week so hopefully that makes up for it. This is my last week at home before going back to work so the challenge this week is to have 4 NSD's, I also need to sort out my chocolate addiction as i would love to loose some weight this year.