The Anticipated Glee of being Mortgage-Free....NoraBatty's Quest Begins!

norabatty_2

I was delighted with myself this morning when I rang C&G to cancel my regular OP of £400 p/m, but make a payment instead of £750, as I'm not sure how much we'll spend on this holiday next week and I thought I could make another sole payment next month once I know how much I can OP, before increasing my regualar OPs in August to approx £740.

After the payment was made, I asked for my mortgage balance - turns out today's balance (before OP of £750)stands at £147637.71, a good £400.12 quid more I had anticipated :eek: as you can see from my signature. I started thinking my calculations for interest were way off, until I figured out that I overpay by exactly £400 every month, and that perhaps one of my regular OPs didn't go through. I checked my current account but it will only go back to March, whereas I assumed the OPs started in February. I called them on the 31st January to arrange OP and the direct debit goes out on the 4th of each month, so I can only assume the OP didn't go out in February and therefore it would appear I'm a good £400 behind on my OP target. :mad: So instead of feeling wonderful about OPing an extra £350 over the next month, I'm now left with the feeling that I've OP'd £50 less than I normally do.

Anyway, with the OP of £750 today, the balance should be under £147000. Will have to amend the signature now!

wynnvegas

Hi Nora,

I think the quizzical blue pacman says it all...

Cheers,

Billy

Twiddy

Hi Nora/Billy

And the angry red face.....

from a lurker now de-lurking.....

norabatty_2

Time for an update...

We had a lovely holiday and when we came back, I called 2 estate agents and arranged for them to view the flat last Thursday to make valuations for sale and for rent. Let's just say I was shocked at how low the sale valuations were, it's a drop of 20% on how much OH paid in 2006. Anyway, worse news came when I finally sat down and did the figures on how much we would earn or lose if we sold or rented out the flat. If we sell this year, we would lose £9,000 excluding all the equity OH has in the property, ie he is in negative equity to the tune of £9,000. If we keep a hold of it and rent it out at the rate proposed by the estate agents, we would still make a rental loss of approx £1500 per year. Depending on when we sell, if we rent out the flat and then sell at any time within the next 5-10 years, our loss would be anywhere in the region of £15000 - 20000. When I informed OH of this, he was gutted, started blaming himself - "I thought I was doing the right thing", etc. Which of course he was doing the right thing, he was buying his first property, nobody knew what was coming and there are other people who are in way worse places than we are.

Of course, other family member didn't take out a loan to cover their half, (this was purely an investment for them, but helping out OH in the process) so they would actually gain income by holding on to the property and renting it out and if they owned the property outright, it would be in their best interests to keep it and rent it out too. But OH reckons they have no interest in buying us out. Anyway, OH informed other family member of the situation at the weekend - apparently, they are peeved. OH says he doesn't want to screw them over. I said if we don't act now, we are screwing ourselves over. So it's been left with the family member to think about it. I am hoping they will do the right thing and free us of this whole sorry mess.

On the Friday evening before I returned to work from my holiday, I got a phonecall from my colleague to inform me that I will have to do an interview for my own job next month. There are 3 of us in our department and only 2 jobs will remain come next January. The other person will be re-deployed if a position becomes available or alternatively, they can take voluntary redundancy, which is generous - one year's full pay. I'm not overly panicking about this, mainly because there is a 2 in 3 chance I'll stay in my job and if I don't, I will have the guts of 18 months to find something else. I was pretty annoyed when I first got the news, because the 3rd position was only created and filled late last year, and because of management's lack of foresight, they have put all of our jobs at risk. :mad:

But I've had a few weeks to let it all sink in and to a certain extent, I'm beyond caring because although I enjoy most parts of my job, the role no longer challenges me and there are zero prospects for promotion. On the other hand, we are currently trying for a baby so a well-paid job is not something I would willingly walk away from in the current climate.

wynnvegas

Hi Nora,

Sorry the update isn't positive. That's hard to take with the flat but there is only so much blame anyone can apportion to themselves for buying at the peak of the market. In an ideal world, I'm hoping you get made redundant, take a year's salary, pick up a new job that pays at least as much as you currently get (and has a generous maternity policy!)

Cheers,

Billy

Lois_E

Nora

That all sounds very stressful. You're doing very well to remain calm. I hope it all works out for the best in some way you can't as yet foresee.

Hugs

norabatty_2

Hi folks,

As you can see, it's been a while since I last posted so I have plenty of news for you:

1. I'm pregnant! And due in 4 weeks time - starting to get a bit nervous now about the overwhelming constant responsibility shortly coming my way...

2. Family relative moved out of the apartment late last year, took 2 full weekends of cleaning to get it presentable again! DH finally got estate agent to advertise in December, new tenants moved in in January, first month's rent went to estate agents but have been receiving full rent since February (2.5 times what we were previously receiving!) Family relative still living closeby in a complete tip and is happy because he is paying £15 less per month than he was with us!

3. After a bit of soul-searching in July/August, I started contemplating a career change. Fun and all as the marketing was, it wasn't exactly challenging me intellectually, the job was not family friendly in that there was lots of travel/evenings/weekend work and I doubt I would have found a better paid marketing job locally. So I started looking into another career area (too niche to mention without giving away my identity to anybody who might know me!). Anyway, it's more than a bit challenging and will require going back to university for 4 years so I bit the bullet in October and signed up for voluntary redundancy. I sat exams in January to get into the course this September, which I past with flying colours so I'm all signed up to go back to uni this September.

4. Because of the drastic change in circumstances, I stopped overpaying in August and started saving. I did pretty well. By the time I finished work at the end of January, I'd saved about £8000. Together with my redundancy package of one year's wages and my last month of wages, I had just over £43,000 sitting in my bank account on the 31st January. It felt good to be looking at such a nice bank balance!

5. This money now had to last me for 4 and a half years and I expected to use about £700-£800 from it each month to survive. I signed up to get JSA at the beginning of February and applied to move on to maternity allowance at the end of March. Amazingly enough, I'm still waiting for it (MA) to come through. I chase them up every two weeks and get fed a different excuse each time. I signed off JSA last week and am looking forward to get a nice amount of Maternity Allowance backpay to cover the last two+ months. The best thing is that my bank balance currently stands at £43596. This means that despite paying out annual rates bills for 2 houses, kitting out a nursery and all the various baby stuff required, and going on a foreign holiday in February, we have managed to survive on DH's income, rent money and JSA (which is about £270 per month) and actually managed to add (if only a small amount) to the savings pot.

6. Once the baby turns up, I expect our money situation to change quite drastically. Even with student rates, we'll be paying just shy of £500 per month on creche fees from October onwards. As it's not my first degree, I am not entitled to any student loans/grants/bursaries and will have tuition fees of approx £3,500 per year. Creche fees will probably double in a year or two if baby number two decides to make an appearance! I will be working for my third year and apparently it's relatively well-paid for a student placement. After 4 years, job prospects are excellent, starting salary should be £30K+ and should be earning £50K+ within another 5 years.

7. As the mortgage is now charging us 2.5% interest, and I am now classed as unemployed and therefore registered for gross interest, it makes more sense to save money than put it into the mortgage. So the plan is to hold on to as much of this £43.5K as possible over the next few years until interest rates change, at which stage we will have to re-evaluate!

If you're still reading, I applaud your perseverence!

Pinky15

Hi there - have just read through your diary and wow - lots of changes!
Congrats on the impending arrival - I have 3 myself! How exciting. Secondly congratulations on having the guts to start again and go to uni - I am sure it will work out for you.
Keep us updated!:)

ammonite

well done for the baby! great news! lots of big changes for you ahead good luck with uni too

norabatty_2

Pinky15 wrote: »

Hi there - have just read through your diary and wow - lots of changes!
Congrats on the impending arrival - I have 3 myself! How exciting. Secondly congratulations on having the guts to start again and go to uni - I am sure it will work out for you.
Keep us updated!:)

Thanks Pinky, I have just read your diary. Do you work full time or part time and how is it working out with the 3 kids? Am hoping to pick up a part-time job after maternity leave is finished and wondering how realistic this is when I will be studying "full time" and having a 6 month old baby!