MFW Gonnabe....but should we do more???

elwistua

Hi all,
Posted a few times on here and wish everyone luck in achieving their MF goals.
My O/H is very supportive in wanting to paying the mortgage off and we are 12 years and 11 months (MF by the age of 48:eek:) from being MF and have a mortgage balance of £89k on a fixed rate of 5.39% for the next 3 years (was a five year deal). The repayments are OK and manageable and we have a great home which we have spent time and money on and is a warm and comfortable place to be and is the way we want it, so we don't have any plans on moving anytime soon. We have spare money left every month of around £750 and we have quite a simple lifestyle but we don't really want for anything either. We are debt free apart from the mortgage and have £6k in an ISA for emergencies and a £2k in instant access savings.

I used to want to get the mortgage paid off pdq by overpaying so we could be MF in 8 years but a couple of friends and relatives have had some quite major health scares and have thankfully come out the otherside. These events have changed the way I look at life and want to live our lives, ie trying to strike a balance between being MF but also wanting to live life (living those death bed moments you will always remember).

Question is am I/we doing enough, I feel we could do more but this might sacrifice things we want to do. Any thoughts?

adwat

Hi

Go for it! Yes, you're long time dead but you're only 36 and you could pay it off in five and a half years by making £750 overpayments per month. Add some payrises or promotions into it and I bet you'll clear it by the time you're 40. What's 4 years of sacrifice to be able to spend all of your money on what YOU want rather than paying the majority to the nasty old banks?

RosieTiger

Being mortgage free would take away your worries surely? Clearly everything is about getting the right balance and no one would advise you to sacrifice everything in pursuit of being MF. But you have enough cash behind you to be able to go for it AND to leave some money over to enjoy yourself so do both. We could have gone about this a lot quicker, but we like our house and want it to look right and not let it fall to bits. We also want to enjoy our toys and enjoyments and to be able to help our families.
So, do both !

dimbo61

You dont say if you are overpaying already but as you have the spare cash each month why not overpay some of it say £500 and save/ enjoy the rest.
Life can be difficult but you wont get savings paying 5.39% after tax and the sooner you are debt free the more you can enjoy life!

Jonbvn

OP,

Personally, I think £8k of savings is not adequate. I would look to at least double that. The actual amount will depend on your income and lifestyle. As dimbo61 suggests, a good idea is to hedge your bets and OP with some of your spare money and save/spend the rest.

elwistua

dimbo61 wrote: »

You dont say if you are overpaying already but as you have the spare cash each month why not overpay some of it say £500 and save/ enjoy the rest.
Life can be difficult but you wont get savings paying 5.39% after tax and the sooner you are debt free the more you can enjoy life!

Technically we are not overpaying but instead we reduced the term from 23 to 15 years.
There are still things like changind cars, etc we want to do (currently the oldest car is nearly 6 years old but I only use it for the 15 mile commute). O/H's car is year 4 years old and we use that for any longer journey's.
It is striking the balance I find hard to do, in that if we are to O/P and clear the mortgage I will want to do it in the quickest possible time.

originalmiscellany

Lots of small changes add up quickly! I was reading a thread on here about a chap who overpays every week, if only £25 and how over the past few years, it's made a massive difference to his mortgage.
We like you want to clear our debt/mortgage as soon as possible, and therefore every month all of our savings go into making the debt smaller with the aim of being mortgage free by the end of next year.
What a feeling that will be!

elwistua

originalmiscellany wrote: »

Lots of small changes add up quickly! I was reading a thread on here about a chap who overpays every week, if only £25 and how over the past few years, it's made a massive difference to his mortgage.
We like you want to clear our debt/mortgage as soon as possible, and therefore every month all of our savings go into making the debt smaller with the aim of being mortgage free by the end of next year.
What a feeling that will be!

Good luck with the MF free date of next year, certainly would be something to celebrate!!

In any event even once we have paid the mortgage we will both have to work one way or another, so although we could be more choosy when we work and maybe do something else that didn't pay so well but really enjoyed we will still have to work. So although I can see the total sense in paying the mortgage off it won't necessarily change our lifestyle and then it would be a case of saving all we can in lieu of the O/H not having a pension.....

dimbo61

Advantages of overpaying even say £200 a month
1 you are getting a "savings" of 5.39% TAX FREE
2 you are building up an overpayment pot which means you can have a "payment holiday" if you want
3 you debt goes down and the equity you have in the property increases which helps when you look at remortgaging
4 you become mortgage free quicker and save thousands of pounds in interest
5 With no mortgage the pressure is off and if you want to work part time or take a job with less pay but more interest to yourself you can
6 the mortgage is most peoples biggest bill each month so more holidays,hobbies, time to enjoy life.

elwistua

Good point well made on all counts Dimbo61. I am almost convinced to go on the £200pm OP