New recruit: First steps (advice appreciated)

BaconandEggs

lincoln-potter wrote: »

I guess generally people like to pick a round number, and forty is a nice age in most peoples mind for still being fully fit and able to do what you like, where the MF would come in very handy. Most mortgages are 20-25 years so OP's would idealy reduce that by up to half so that would put the average MFW user in the mid twenties when they start.

Anglian water have some packs (not in my area unfortunately) where they can fit your showers and taps to reduce your usage. They can also come and check your property for leaks.

Don't get me wrong kids can cost a fortune, because it is so easy to spend money on things that look nice but might not actually be needed. And once you have one the rest hardly cost anything.

Yes, 40 is a round nu,ber and not many people would be able to finish paying their mortgage by 30.

Just sent off for a free water saving pack.

What child related benefits are there? I know of child benefit, which is a flat fee paid annually. I wouldn't expect that we would be eligible for any, but the MrsB&E thinks we will based on what workmates get.

BaconandEggs

Just wondering about cashback credit cards. Do any of you use these. If so how much do you earn per year?
Exactly what spending could be put on this (for example from someone's SOA)?

BaconandEggs

When you overpay you are give the option to
a) reduce you payments and keep the term the same
b) keep the payments the same and reduce the term

If the aim to reduce the term, obviously we would opt for b.
Effectively by going with b, you are overpaying the difference between the initial monthly
repayments and the reduced amount that would result from earlier overpayments.

Not sure that makes sense.

Anyway - I am wondering whether we should
- go with b
or..
go with a, but still pay the same as before.

Now that does sound confusing.
Basically, it would mean that we are overpaying, but if for some reason in the future,
payment was made more difficult, the amount we would HAVE to pay would be lower.

The thing that made me think about this is what someone said yesterday about changing to interest only
but still paying the same amount - like a buffer zone - but you;re still paying off at a decent rate.

Confused..

lincoln-potter

BaconandEggs wrote: »

Just wondering about cashback credit cards. Do any of you use these. If so how much do you earn per year?
Exactly what spending could be put on this (for example from someone's SOA)?

I have just been looking into cb cc the past few days.

The options as I see it are:

Halifax clarity (easiest to use), spend £300 a month and they give you £5 back, anymore than 300 is a waste and can go onto another card.

MBNA credit card gives 1.5% off supermarkets and 0.75% off everything else, no annual fee and no minimum or maximum usage.

lincoln-potter

BaconandEggs wrote: »

When you overpay you are give the option to
a) reduce you payments and keep the term the same
b) keep the payments the same and reduce the term

If the aim to reduce the term, obviously we would opt for b.
Effectively by going with b, you are overpaying the difference between the initial monthly
repayments and the reduced amount that would result from earlier overpayments.

Not sure that makes sense.

Anyway - I am wondering whether we should
- go with b
or..
go with a, but still pay the same as before.

Now that does sound confusing.
Basically, it would mean that we are overpaying, but if for some reason in the future,
payment was made more difficult, the amount we would HAVE to pay would be lower.

The thing that made me think about this is what someone said yesterday about changing to interest only
but still paying the same amount - like a buffer zone - but you;re still paying off at a decent rate.

Confused..

You should go for B, keep your monthly payments the same and ask them to reduce your term. How comfortable and secure are your jobs? Most banks' OP's can be used in the future when you struggle to have mortgage breaks from paying.

I don't claim to know the full in's and outs, but I would stick with repayment mortgage, paying off as much as you can and reducing the term.

The sooner it is paid off the sooner you have security, extra cash, although it does mean you will have to find something else to obsess about :rotfl:

lincoln-potter

BaconandEggs wrote: »

Yes, 40 is a round nu,ber and not many people would be able to finish paying their mortgage by 30.

Just sent off for a free water saving pack.

What child related benefits are there? I know of child benefit, which is a flat fee paid annually. I wouldn't expect that we would be eligible for any, but the MrsB&E thinks we will based on what workmates get.

I honestly don't know much about benefits, except that in my opinion the threshold for receiving them is far too high (not that I am going to turn away free money).

We get £134.80 per month (last month when we just had the two)

SmlSave

Hi Bacon

Just wondering about cashback credit cards. Do any of you use these. If so how much do you earn per year?
Exactly what spending could be put on this (for example from someone's SOA)?

All our grocery shopping goes on the cc, insurances (we pay the lump sum) etc. We don't earn much from it but every little helps.

When you overpay you are give the option to
a) reduce you payments and keep the term the same
b) keep the payments the same and reduce the term

I'd go with option B as reducing the term reduces the interest the bank get from you the most But I'd check that you can extend the term should something like redundancy happen.

BaconandEggs

I agree that b is a better option than a.

But what about b compared to a when you keep paying the same amount (by CHOICE) + any extra overpayments.

You are still paying the same amount off at the same rate but you are reducing the amount you HAVE to pay per month, reducing the potential impact of wage reduction.

BaconandEggs

I've noticed most people who post regularly on this board have a signature and short term targets.

I've been thinking about short term targets this morning and wondering whether to put up some kind of target thermometer that we can look at. Based on sensible timescales, I thought a 60% LTV would be a good goal - something to aim for in the next few years while we've got a fixed rate.

Leading up to that, 70% LTV and before that, hitting the sub £100K mark.

I can put these 3 targets on a scale and we can fill up total leading up to these values. Next to each overpayment I hope to have
-cumulative interest saved
-time saved off term

originalmiscellany

For what it's worth, having a small (monthly) target and a larger (end of year) target means it simply keeps me focussed on what I want to do - and it also means one can post here semi regularly with updates, e.g. overpaid by x this week. Your target could be to save say 8k between now and December 31 - Don't know if that's a doable target, then plot and see how it goes on, on a monthly time frame.
Even better, as you've said include interest saved and time, as it'll become addictive with each overpayment you'll be able to change the interest saved upwards and see how you're clearing your debts for the long term - a most noble effort.