dreaming of being mortgage free

Hi all,

first time submitting a thread so fingers crossed.

purchased our current house 9 years ago for £365k on a self certification mortgage to the value of £270k.
was a little scared with the size of the mortgage and the £1600 per month repayments but me and the wife (& 2 kids) worked out the sums and thought we should give it a go.
used a financial advisor to arrange new mortgage deals over the last few years and was lucky enough 4 years ago to get a lifetime tracker repayment mortgage at Base Rate + 0.17%.
have continued to pay the same £1600pm for 9 years and have managed to get the mortgage down to £185k because of the low interest rate we are currently on.

am trying hard to pay additional payments as well and would love to be mortgage free within 10 years if possible which would leave me and the wife with a £600k+ house mortgage free at 54 years old.

fingers crossed.

Comments

  • Topaz7
    Topaz7 Posts: 26 Forumite
    Welcome,
    Looks like you have a fantastic rate - definately one to hold on to. Good Luck with your plans, you should see the outstanding balance reduce at an increasing pace now.

    Best of Luck
    Thanks
    Topaz7

    MFIT-T2 No 35
    2010 MFQ No 107
  • dimbo61
    dimbo61 Posts: 13,712
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    Thats a great rate and hopefully the current payments are clearing about £15K of the capital each year so you might make your target!
    how old are the kids ? Have/are you putting money into cash ISA,s to pay for university costs
  • dave_j
    dave_j Posts: 20 Forumite
    Hi there,
    Daughter is 17 and Son is 15.
    daughter is looking at uni at the moment and assumed costs of 9k per year.
    doesnt repay anything until she earns £21kpa so it may be a few years away before any repayments have to be made.
    have not invested in any Isa's as i am concentrating on paying off mortgage but have kept an endowment going from my very first mortgage which completes in 3 years time and should be enough to clear her Uni costs and leave a small lump sum for each of the kids as well.
    Son wants to get into a trade (sparky/chippy/plumber) so is not interested in Uni at all.
    this is as it stands now but obviously things can change but will keep an eye on things over the next few years

    PS. many thanks for the reply
  • getmore4less
    getmore4less Posts: 46,882
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    Why over pay when you can save at a better rate

    PAy the minimum on the mortgage and save cash ISAs or regular saver are probably the first things to look at. Just think of this as mortgage money and the net position is debt - savings.
  • dave_j
    dave_j Posts: 20 Forumite
    Why over pay when you can save at a better rate

    PAy the minimum on the mortgage and save cash ISAs or regular saver are probably the first things to look at. Just think of this as mortgage money and the net position is debt - savings.
    that is a very good idea.
    to be honest i never thought of looking at it like that.
    was so determined to pay the mortgage off and seeing the gross figure tumbling each month was psycologically a joy to see.
    will take a look at the regular savings accounts to see what returns i can get over a year and may take the plunge.
    will have to be very headstrong when withdrawing the large sum to make sure that we are not tempted to dip into it.
    as long as the interest rate is better in the savings account that the mortgage rate this could be a good one

    many thanks "Getmoreforless"
  • dimbo61
    dimbo61 Posts: 13,712
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    I have 2 boys/men! heading to uni this september and even though they are only paying £3300 this year for fees they still have to pay for halls of residence so that takes up most of there loan unto £5K so little left to live on!
    hence the support we will be giving to both of them each month on top of loans
    Expect them to leave uni owing over £25K and thats before the new higher uni fees of £9K a year so your daugher may well end up with £42K of debts 3X£9K plus 3X £5k.
    Why not do the 50/50% thing and op by 50% of your spare money while putting the rest in cash ISA,s
  • dave_j
    dave_j Posts: 20 Forumite
    dimbo61 wrote: »
    I have 2 boys/men! heading to uni this september and even though they are only paying £3300 this year for fees they still have to pay for halls of residence so that takes up most of there loan unto £5K so little left to live on!
    hence the support we will be giving to both of them each month on top of loans
    Expect them to leave uni owing over £25K and thats before the new higher uni fees of £9K a year so your daugher may well end up with £42K of debts 3X£9K plus 3X £5k.
    Why not do the 50/50% thing and op by 50% of your spare money while putting the rest in cash ISA,s
    the Uni she wants to go to is luckily a short train journey away so she will remain living at home whilst she is studying.
    she will not be enroling until next September so no doubt she will be on the £9K per year rates and we have assumed that her 4 year course would leave her with approx £36k of debt.
    will have to work out the figures to see if it is beneficial to repay the student loan quicker or let her pay off the 9% on earnings over £21k and as our mortgage is getting smaller we could top up her salary by the same amount she is paying out each month.
    she is hoping to do a teaching course so her salary will not be massive to start with and whatever is left the student loan after 30 years gets written off anyway.
    new territory for us really - so will be checking blogs on Uni fees over the next few months.
  • Jonbvn
    Jonbvn Posts: 5,562
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    dave_j wrote: »
    that is a very good idea.
    to be honest i never thought of looking at it like that.
    was so determined to pay the mortgage off and seeing the gross figure tumbling each month was psycologically a joy to see.

    I would agree. It is unwise to overypay a debt which has a rate of only 0.67%. You can get several times better return from savings ATM. Cash ISA's and NS&I index linked certs should be your first port of call.

    By saving at a higher rate instead of overpaying will allow you to finish your mortgage earlier. The reason being that you will accumulate a large lump sum which you can use to finish the mortgage in one go.
    In case you hadn't already worked it out - the entire global financial system is predicated on the assumption that you're an idiot:cool:
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