Not a spring chicken!!!

stedwell

Thanks for all your positive words. They really do help.
I overpaid my mortgage online today as my regular monthly payment had gone through. I am allowed to pay a maximum of £500 but if I pay a penny less then it is not recognised in terms of reducing the term. I get really jittery and always worry that I will press too many zeros and get an ERC. However I do love the Nationwide as it is soo easy online and they send you a letter immediately with your new balance and term.

stedwell

Lady Tara.
I didn't see your post, it must have been on the next page! I just wanted to say that I know exactly where you are coming from. I have lost friends and relatives very young and it does make you re evaluate what you are doing. I try to have a tight month and then have a bit of surplus money for the next to treat ourselves. I sometimes write down all the nice things I have bought or done as often I don't appreciate that we do have fun too. I think my difficulty is that if I don't overpay then I will be selling the house to pay for uni fees!:(

Lady_Tara

That's a good idea writing down all the nice things - its too easy to forget - I will start doing that too!

2gorgeousgirls

I'm almost 47, hubby 49 and we have 6 years to pay off mortage although at the moment ours is only £37,000 due to overpayments.

However, the only reason we are overpaying is because we are on an endowment (eek!) and it is definitely not going to cover the mortgage.

Currently only overpaying £150 pm as husband is off sick. He is hoping to go back to work in next 3-4 months so will be able to increase overpayment again.

Our mortage ends about 18 months before eldest is uni age so will have to use that time to save, save, save!

teapot2

Hi Stedwell, I meant to ask how you got on buying the wedding clothes - did you get anything? We had to do just that recently and it is expensive, soon adds up even trying to do it 'cheaply' :eek:

stedwell

Hi teapot
Well we didn't buy any wedding clothes. Iwasn't really in the mood and two daughters couldn't find the dresses they wanted. We are trying to look online for them. It is expensive buying for weddings and afterwards who really remembers what you wore? I am not going to spend too much but at the same time I want to feel nice. Have you had your wedding? Ours is in July.

stedwell

Spent the whole of Friday evening in Homebase car park with a nice and helpful AA man as little car no. 2 decided to refuse to move. (Again!) DH is now at the garage we towed it to to find out the damage it is going to cause our bank balance. This has got me thinking.

I do sometimes feel that we are cutting it too fine with the money and worry that we do not always have the spare cash we would like. Therefore I have been puzzling over this thought:

Do we carry on reducing the term of the mortagage or do we reduce the payments instead. I have always been a little caught in the middle of this one. :think:
Would it be better to keep the mortgage at it's present 10 year term and gradually see the payments decrease so that we have the money to enjoy now?
I am not sure how this system works. Do I still save interest or is that what reduces my payments? I do get confused easily with money and banks.:o Any thoughts would be appreciated.

themull1

catslovelycats wrote: »

Oh.

I'm 43 in July. Does that mean you class me as an oldie?

(I'm 1 year into a 23 year mortgage.)

I'm 43 in July as well!! I'm 1 month into a 25 year mortgage, as me and hubby split up and i did a transfer of equity. I plan to overpay £500 a month if i can and get the mortgage down to 8years 4 months!!

themull1

stedwell wrote: »

Thanks for all your positive words. They really do help.
I overpaid my mortgage online today as my regular monthly payment had gone through. I am allowed to pay a maximum of £500 but if I pay a penny less then it is not recognised in terms of reducing the term. I get really jittery and always worry that I will press too many zeros and get an ERC. However I do love the Nationwide as it is soo easy online and they send you a letter immediately with your new balance and term.

I want to overpay with Nationwide, so if I pay £499.99 what happens to the DD every month? does it stay the same and only reduce if you pay the £500?

stedwell

Yes that's how I understand it. If you cannot pay the full 500 every month then you should wait until you can make the full 500 - say every three months as then it will reduce your term. All mortgages work differently but that is mine. Do you bank online? I think there is a section where you tick the box for either reducing interest or term and it explains it more fully. You will be doing fantastically if you can bring your 25 year mortgage down that quickly!!