Claire's Journey to Mortgage Freedom!

ClaireT13

Hi Everyone

After lurking and being really motivated by your posts during the last 6 months, I have finally convinced my husband that paying most of our savings into our mortgage is more beneficial to us than squirrelling it all away into savings accounts that were not really working for us!

Our mortgage at the start of this year was £210,000 and after the July payment has gone we now stand at £74,000. :j

Obviously, now the hard bit starts! We are still very motivated by our MF ambitions but now we have ploughed all our excess savings (keeping £30,000 as a buffer) into the mortgage we are now starting to look at what we can regularly overpay.

We have 2 timescales. From now until the end of the year, our earnings are boosted from bonuses so we will have extra cash about. From 2012, money, whilst comfortable, will be less.

So, my targets are as follows:

By end of 2012: Mortgate down to £55,000
From Jan 2012: Regularly overpay by £500 per month
MF Target: 2017

Thank you all for giving me the inspiration to start on my journey!

Claire

goobergirl

Welcome and good luck on your MF journey:beer:

ClaireT13

Thanks Goobergirl! I'm very excited and driving my husband amd talking about it!

dimbo61

Well Claire that was a very large savings pot you emptied! and well done on getting your debts down to £44K.
When does your current deal end ? are you on a good rate or do you plan on remortgaging ?
Keep the £30K emergency pot unless it makes sence to clear the mortgage early to save on fees

goobergirl

ClaireT13 wrote: »

Thanks Goobergirl! I'm very excited and driving my husband amd talking about it!

I have been doing same to mine since my MF lightbulb moment last month. Just wished i'd had it earlier!

newgirly

Wow, that must have been a good feeling to pay a huge chunk like that off in one go, I'm sure you will get rid of the rest quite quickly now you have the mfw bug! Good luck, newgirly.

AuntieMabel

Hello :hello:,

Welcome to the gang

What a fabulous difference you've made to your mortgage by using some of your savings! You're doing exactly the right thing keeping a healthy safety net though - just in case.

I know £70K is still a lot of money but with that amount you can begin to see the teeny dot of light at the end of the tunnel.

Good luck, I look forward to seeing you progress and celebrating your success

ClaireT13

dimbo61 wrote: »

Well Claire that was a very large savings pot you emptied! and well done on getting your debts down to £44K.
When does your current deal end ? are you on a good rate or do you plan on remortgaging ?
Keep the £30K emergency pot unless it makes sence to clear the mortgage early to save on fees

Hi Dimbo61

Our current mortgage is @ 2.5% with Nationwide. We are lucky as we benefitted from our fixed rate ending and ending up on this variable mortgage. We don't currently have any plans to remortgage. We are thinking of possibly buying a small buy-to-let property once we have paid this mortgage off - which I am hoping will be well before the target date I have set!

I know you're right about the emergency fund. I keep thinking about taking it down to 20K and paying 10K into the mortgage and building back up to 30K instead of OPing - what are your thoughts?

Thanks for the encouragement!

Claire

ClaireT13

Thanks AuntieMabel and Newgirly. It's nice to have people to help keep me motivated. My husband is driven to clear the mortgage but isn't quite as enthusiastic as me.

I know you guys will keep me going!

Thanks

ClaireT13

I haven't posted in a little while. I just looked at our accounts and we had gone over our buffer of £30K so I just paid in £1205.00 into the mortgage to bring it down to £73000 :j:j:j

I will probably wait until early next month to assess how things are going before putting in anymore. DH's bonuses have been lower than predicted so thinking by year end we'll probably be nearer 60K than 55K but I'd be happy with that.

DH and I were discussing summer holiday plans and for our family of 4 it was costing around 2K to go away for a week so we are thinking of having some nice days out instead and saving the money. The kids are young so they won't notice the difference.

Next target will be to get the mortgage down to 70K. May not be completely acheivable next month but definitely by early September.

Onwards and upwards!

Sepa74

Hi Claire,

Welcome to the board! The days out with the kids sounds like a fun alternative to the holiday, just don't forget you guys need a holiday too, so don't spend the time doing chores around the house!!

You sound like your heads are screwed on with the finances, but you might find completing an SOA (http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html) helps crystalise further savings possibilities. If you post it on here, people will also give you feedback on it which can also help.

Good luck with your goals! I look forward to following your journey.