Team Remote_Control: Mortgage-Free before I'm 63

Busy_Mee

My mortgage wasn't quite as big as yours (287k) but relative at the time. We similarly ended up with a large mortgage because of a house build. We chose to target mortgage neutrality instead of paying the mortgage off, because we have a great mortgage product and can make the money work harder in investments and savings.
We are now sub £200k on the mortgage, but are mortgage neutral as we have enough in savings to pay it off.
OH retired 18 months ago age 60, I am retiring this summer and I am 56. We will continue to repay the mortgage until the end of the term ( when I am 60) and then finally pay it off.

There are lots of people out there with big mortgages, but the sensible ones are on here developing their plans for getting it repaid 

Kittenkirst

Hi there, our current mortgage is in the £134k bracket, but we are selling this house and moving into our forever home, which means our mortgage will jump to approx £307k in August! 

Ive subscribed to your thread as these numbers make me super nervous (as I’m a worry wart!) so would be great to follow other with similar value mortgages smile:

remote_control

Thanks Busy, I was thinking that perhaps all the people with large mortgages haven't worked out they should be on this forum! 

rugbymadfamily

Hi @remote_control thought I would pop by and say hi 👋  as a fellow big mortgage person! I too worry about the size of our mortgage but have taken several steps to reduce my worry (I'll always worry, I'm one of lifes born worriers 😆 )
- life insurance so that if something happened to either of us the other one will be OK
- built an emergency fund of 3 months costs inc mortgage / bills etc as this reduces my worry if either of us were to lose our jobs. In reality if only 1 of us lost our job, this emergency fund would last at least 6 months with the other person still bringing in a salary
- have "pots" for all annual expenses such as car related, insurance, TV licence, Christmas, birthdays, holiday etc which means I know money is there for expenses as they come up
- reminded myself that we live in London which is bl**dy expensive and so without a mortgage this size we would be in a much smaller house without a garden etc and that the bigger mortgage does give us a nice standard of living. And that the general rule is that your housing should cost no more than 30% of your income, our mortgage + utility bills come to exactly 30% of our income so even though our mortgage is big, it is proportional!

remote_control

First of the month update:
I am officially moving from DFW to MFW. I thought about starting a new diary but I might as well just keep this one.
Mortgage: £375,905.86
Daily interest ~ £20.30
Debt on 0% £13,597
Target for 2021: One bit of our mortgage is £110,112.08, I would like to have this bit starting with a 9 by 31st Dec. Also to have £5000 in savings. 
Overpayments so far April: £170.

remote_control

Hi

After much internal debate over how to over pay the mortgage I have set up a weekly overpayment of £125. Yes I know it would be better just to do £500 at the beginning of the month but I don't always know if we can definitely afford that as other bits come up in the month (e.g. all the children's clubs are now asking for money!). It also gives me a weekly goal to aim for in surveys and sales etc. I never make that much in a week but every £ I do make can go towards that.

My other reason is I like to see regular movement in the numbers  - once a month over payment is a bit boring. I spend the whole month waiting to over pay and see the new balance. 

Anyway, with this weekly payment and the regular payments we will just about be in the 90s for one bit of our mortgage by the end of the year, and that is my target. 

Any spare money is going into cash savings as I would like a foreign holiday at some point! 

Overpayments so far April: £295

powerspowers

Good luck RC. I think having a mini goal of getting one part down is good! Is it the highest interest part? 

remote_control

Thank you.

Yes it is, it is on 2.4% and the other bit is on 1.7%. It is extra borrowing for home improvements. I always think our mortgage is massive but if I think of it as £265,000 mortgage and £109,000 extension it doesn't sound so bad in my head. 

remote_control

I claimed back over £800 today from my student loan! I spent ages researching whether or not to do this, reading everything Martin had to say on the matter.

It is a gamble as to whether or not to take it back but in my current role I won't pay it back before I am 65. I don't plan to ever leave the charity sector. But if I do and get a well paid job then I will happily pay it back.

I'm sure lots of people will have opinions on this so not sure if I should post this! 

I'm mainly excited as it was so quick and easy

FtbDreaming

I claimed mine back last year or the year before. Ever since I’ve worked more hours so not able to claim it back though. 

When I last logged onto my SLC a few months ago I did feel that I’d probably shot myself in the foot. Not necessarily by getting the refund but through getting a postgraduate loan for a rubbish masters and now it’s £1,000 more than I borrowed less than 2 years later as the interest is so high. 

If I went to full time hours I could have the plan 1 paid in 6 years which would free up some pennies in my income. The deductions depress me terribly.