Countdown to Freedom

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Morning Radish, I checked it out last night. You must be delighted. I get a little nutty about new cars (I know they are never brand new, but still new to me) and I put my brolly, winter stuff etc in. Love it.

Enjoy the moment, tilly x

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Plans for this week:

Home:
Catch up on filing in study

Health:
2 walky/jog
2 x shred it
Manicure - treat from Xmas

Money:
Payday looms so switch funds
2012/13 ISA pot
OP pot

I have set it out this way just to see where the noise is and I am glad to see so much health activity - good news.

Have a good day.

Tilly x

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Hi all, well new lodger arrived a little unexpectedly, today. I had expected him next week, but not to worry. It has been a fun, if manic, evening and thankfully the room was ready. What is it with young lads and plans

So he is all unpacked and settled in, paid up and deposit paid. Liked his meal, so that was good to see and it means I have more people to cook for :j. I love having a house full.

Anyway, no MSE plans apart from a NSD which I guess is good. I am rather wishing the week away so that I can move money around. I have a few extra £ coming my way from a bonus, as I have been running a project, on top of my day job, to improve productivity in a couple of areas. That was a lovely surprise, I just want to touch it:rotfl:

No further updates and I think it will be a quiet week - fingers crossed.

Tilly x

SJ1

Hi Tilly

I would have been in a complete flap if he had shown up at ours a week early!! I hate surprises, unless they come in a small box and are glittery!

Great news on the bonus, I have one due in April although no idea what it will be! Very excited as it is my first one in my new job.

Quiet week - never!! I am planning a bit of marmalade making and was thinking of making some lemon curd. Pretty sure you made some a while ago... out of interest, what recipe did you use?

Lastly, and this is just me being nosy, why did you decided to go variable rather than fix with FD? Have you decided you can get the mortgage down quickly enough that if rates go up you won't lose out that badly?? I used to always vary our mortgages but with the last one as we had increased it I decided to fix as it made me a bit nervous it was sooo large so just interested on your take. I am kind of (don't tell George Osborne!) hoping that rates stay low until 2014 so I can benefit from them too. I have really lost out fixing at 4.99!!!!

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Hi SJ1,

Lemon curd - I always use the Mary berry recipe - google and it should come or pm me and I can send it to you.

On the mortgage front, we had two fixes in a row due to a large mortgage but as we will be OPing circa £3k a month, on top of the normal mortgage payment, then I believe we should be clearing big chunks each year - I hope to goodness I am right:eek: so no fix now,just variable at a good rate and fingers crossed it works.

Life is always a gamble but we could always jump into a fix if needs be. My DH is really interested to see what the mortgage will be a year from now. Not just on a spreadsheet, but on the mortgage statement. Not sure he really believes me........

Night tilly

SJ1

Thanks Tilly

I have a Mary Berry book so will have a look, bound to be in there! I regret fixing a lot this time around but it did seem like a good idea at the time. For what it's worth I think that you are probably right. My view is that it will take the powers that be all of this year to sort out the euro and that will have a knock on effect for us so I think that 2012 will be v low growth and 2013 a slow recovery year. So I reckon it will be mid 2013 before we see any interest rate rises, but then this could change over night the way the news is going at the moment!! Always interested in people's views on this subject and think that it depends on a number of factors, for me the big mortgage made the difference so if I got that down I would be much more amenable to a variable rate. That is my plan between now and 2014, to get to a more reasonable mortgage level so I have that flexibility....

Night to you too, have a good one.

SJ

katsu

We had 2 fixes to start with as we needed the certainty/didn't have the spare cash. Our last remortgage we went variable as our IFA said rates were unlikely to rise as fast and high as they would need to be, to make us lose out on the deal. We have reached a position where we can afford to have rates rise a bit, so having a lower monthly payment provides funds for OPing and saving.

We are just coming up to our remortgage this spring and I can't wait to see what our IFA suggests.

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Morning SJ1 and Katsu,

The fixing business is always a dilemma, as I know I have regretted our Spanish bank one. We have been paying 5.39% for the last 5 years and in that time, if we had been variable, by now we would be almost mortgage free, which is difficult. However, we fixed for the same reason as you SJ1. We needed to have peace of mind, since we bought a property abroad, for when we retire.

We could have bought a small place, but we chose to go for the location and this came at a price, which is something neither of us regret. It has held its value well and is simply glorious.

It is pretty galling to think though, over the last 5 years we have paid off about the same amount which we will clear in the year from March 12. That could keep me up at night, but on the positive side, we will be clearing it that much more quickly, so we reduce our interest due, which will help to balance out the cost of the whole loan over the 12 year mortgage period (the whole length of the mortgage from start to finish).

I hope that all made sense. I really hope that the rate stays static for the foreseeable time, but it would just mean we go back to clearing it over a larger time, with less and perhaps even no OPs.

Roll on March.

I have another 19 years of working, and I would like to think that come 4/8/16 (which I still haven't put into my signature), I can start using my money differently in readiness for retirement.

Have a good day and I really appreciate the openness of our discussions and having people to 'talk to' who get it. Thank you.

Best wishes Tilly

lulabelle1

Hi Ladies
I'm part of the fixing for the last 5 years club too. The same reasons as you all - it as affordable but couldn't risk the rates increasing at the time. Part of our mortgage came out of the 5.39% fix a month ago and the rest will come out of 5.69% in July.
We're with Nationwide and revert to their BMR of 2.5% so we are just going to stick with that the for the time being and OP as much as we can and then take a view on it once the rates start to increase.
If I was a gambling woman (which I'm not, hence the 5 year fix), then I would say that the rates will stay as they are until 2014, but now I've wrote that, I've probably just jinxed them!!
Have a lovely day, L

sweetdaisy

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS wrote: »

I have another 19 years of working, and I would like to think that come 4/8/16 (which I still haven't put into my signature), I can start using my money differently in readiness for retirement.

Morning Tilly

I just went on the DirectGov website to work out my State Pension age and it is 68! So, I have another 35 years of working :eek:, so I am not even half way through my working life. I need to hurry up and pay off the mortgage then I will be spening a lot of time on the 'Pensions and Retirement Planning' Forum .