Drip drip drip feeding the mortgage

tjp70

Thank you for all of your messages x

tjp70

It's been two years since we paid off the mortgage. Not having that monthly payment to make has changed my life considerably. Last July, after much deliberation, I stopped working for my parents company. It was a tough decision but the right one; I was so stressed all the time, and whilst I was being paid extremely well, I no longer liked who I was and so, handed my notice in.

I decided to take the summer off to spend with DD as she was 15 at the time. We had a great summer holiday; we went to Yorkshire together and we spent a week at my parents house in France with the rest of the family. We also went to Cornwall for a week with DS and his girlfriend. September came and DD went back to school and I eventually knuckled down and started job hunting. I was offered a part time role in a local accountants and started there in October. I hated it. I worked in an accountants when DD was a baby and disliked it then, so why I thought I would like it second time around is beyond me. Within three months I found another job, just as close to home, working 3 days a week. I earn at least 50% less than what I was earning working for my parents, but I am so much happier. Paying off our mortgage has enabled me to do this, plus having an incredibly supportive husband.

tjp70

Since starting back at work, we have been saving and have been turning our focus to our financial future. During the years I was self employed I ploughed money into the mortgage instead of a pension. This was a conscious decision as we knew we would focus on our retirement once the mortgage had been despatched. Now we have had the chance to review our pensions, we realise we need to take some action now; our concern being that we have a comfortable lifestyle at the moment, but once DH retires then our monthly income is minimal. We have added a voluntary contribution to his workplace pension of £100/month and will review this at a later date. I now pay £35/week into a pension.

Our savings are gaining a tiny amount of interest so we have decided to use the savings as a deposit for a (very small) buy to let property in our area. I didn't realise that buy to let mortgages are interest only which goes against all our principles so I have insisted that we have a mortgage that you can overpay. As we are so new to this, we have opted for a two year fixed mortgage. That way we know how much money we have to pay each month. After the two years, we will decide what to do. Obviously if we detest being landlords we could sell, but hopefully not. So, the survey is being carried out on Friday and all being well, things should all go through by the end of September.

I'm looking forward to starting another mortgage overpayment spreadsheet :rotfl:

tjp70

Finally, after what seems an eternity, the sale has gone through and we completed the BTL purchase on 10th November. We have been very lucky and secured a tenant almost immediately. We are awaiting confirmation from the letting agents that she moved in yesterday. So we are back in mortgage land again. The BTL mortgage is £120,995 on an interest only basis, fixed at 2.19% until 31/08/2019.

Our plan is to build up an emergency fund for a few months, and then start small overpayments sometime in the New Year. Sadly our mortgage does not allow ad hoc overpayments, but they will allow us to amend the monthly mortgage payment.


I’m looking forward to seeing how much we can pay off before the fixed rate ends.