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hkminca

Hi everyone

Have been lurking for months now, so thought it finally time to post.

We took out a mortgage in 2007 for £241K over 35 years - yes I know a very long term, but we planned to pay a lump sum off quickly once our house sold....however we were victims of the property slump and it took almost 2 years and a big drop in price to finally shift it. Meanwhile we had our new house to renovate, which we couldn't live it and we had used all our savings up to do the work - which still wasn't finished.

Fast forward a bit and once we had sold and finished the new house we started reducing the amount of our monthly payments as we were then on a BRM with Nationwide. Since Oct last year we have chosen to start reducing the term as the payments are now down to £272pm - at their worst they were over £1300 pm!

Since then, we have managed to get the loan down to £65K and have about 27 years left.

Each month we pay about £980 to £1000 in overpayments and see almost a year a month go from the term.

If we still managed to keep our jobs and keep up the payments we reckon we can pay the balance off in under 4 years.

Even if interest rates rise to 5% we don't think the extra £90 it could add a month to the payments will cause problems and so long as we continue to nwork we'll continue to overpay as much as we can.

Hopefully we'll be mortgage free by the time hubby turns 45 in 2014! :j

lincoln-potter

Hello and welcomet he MFW.

Sounds like you have things under control and are making some lovely OP's!

Keep it up!

dimbo61

perhaps you should look at building up savings in cash ISA,s before overpaying the mortgage if on the BMR of 2.5%
Once you have paid off the mortgage you will have too much money to invest in cash ISA,s each year

adwat

Well done! You've tamed that shockingly large mortgage.

hkminca

I should have added, we have an ISA with about £30K in it too, so have a nice nest egg if one of us loses our job. We always try and add to this each year, but it's not easy and like everyone else here we know the meaning of making cut backs in everyday life.

hkminca

Thought I'd post an update on how we're doing...

After a tricky year re job security, things have settled down a bit.

We're still makig overpayments each month of £1250, plus the mortgage payment of £272 and the balance of the mortgage is now down to £45K with just 17 years 4 months left on the term.

I'm really pleased with it as we're still on target to be MF in November 2014! :j

lincoln-potter

Well done you have managed to stay on top of it!

2014 thats just round the corner!

hkminca

I am very pleased to report, that as of this week we have paid off the mortgage (bar the last £200 which we're leaving open in case we ever need to borrow some back).

So that's taken us 7 years to pay off a 35 year mortgage, a huge saving on interest payments.

Now, what shall we do I wonder with all that extra cash each month??!

:j

Rikki

hkminca wrote: »

Now, what shall we do I wonder with all that extra cash each month??!

:j

Pay mine off?

Well done:T

tootallulah

Absolutely brilliant, how inspiring. Well done you.