Keeping up appearances.......

HappyNow

triple-choc-chip Must admit, I wasn't sure which announcement warranted coming first, but as this is a DFW thread I went with that! Thanks for the congratulations - it's going to seem a loooong time to January!

savingmore Thankyou for the congratulations. And sorry I missed your post last year. When I came to sign in yesterday I noticed that my last sign-in date was July 2020!

maggiem Thankyou very much. I spent yesterday afternoon and evening looking into the best way to tackle the mortgage and I have a plan. Details to follow!

HappyNow

OK, so when I said above that I have a plan to repay the mortgage, that might have been over-stating it a bit! I kind of do have a plan, but it's a bit half-a$$ed. It's also a bit boring, so feel free to ignore me - I'm mainly typing out loud.

Mortgage info  We owe £22,332 via Nationwide, interest rate 2.1%, monthly payments £269, to end December 2028.
I *think* that's pretty decent but I'm not sure. What I do know is that I need it to be fully paid off by January 2025,  my retirement date. Our household income will drop when I swap my salary for state pension. Not only that, if I should die while working (nothing like a pandemic to bring on the cheery thoughts!) Mr H will get a good payout from my work pension and can clear the mortgage and live comfortably. However, if I die AFTER Jan 25, my pension dies with me and he will just have his own state pension plus the remains of his SIPP. So, the mortgage must be gone by January 2025. (I should add here that I'm in good health and feel great, but pandemic).

The plan
My small work pension will give a lump sum of £7200 in Jan 2025 and that is destined solely for the mortgage. That means there's £15132 to find over the next 43 paydays. The normal monthly repayments should take care of roughly £10500, so I need to overpay about £4632 over 43 months, so £108 per month. I can manage that. BUT my company do something called a Shared AVC, which means I can sacrifice part of my salary before tax and NI, so a pension contribution of £100 costs me only around £70. I'm wary for two reasons. Firstly - it's a short period of time, and if there's a market crash at retirement I could have a shortfall. Secondly - I'm paying interest on the mortgage (about £30 per month) so that partly offsets the benefits.

Conclusion I don't know what I'm talking about so need to ask on the Mortgage board 

milann

Good to see you back. Sorry about the dog...they become a big part of our lives.
Big congratulations about expecting to be a Grandma.....there’s nothing better  😍 I wish my gks lived closer. You are so lucky being able to spend time looking after baby.
Well done on becoming debt  free 👏👏👏👏
I can understand why you want to be mortgage feee before you retire.....and yes the pandemic has made us all think. Work offered me early retirement through ill health....I’m still waiting for an answer from the pension folk.....but one of my big considerations was. If dh pops his clogs before my state pension kicks in I’ll really struggle whilst both of us are around I should be ok 😳😳

Seasidegal58

Hi Happy - it's great to see you posting again!👍

Great news about Little Miss Happy - you all must be thrilled!  And of course congratulations on your news that you are finally debt free apart from the mortgage!  It'll be fantastic to finish that off by the time you retire.   

Incidentally if you are worried about the market crashing in respect of the AVC, can you not check with your provider to see if you can put it into low risk investments i.e. cash/bonds, which is the acceptable practice as you have under five years till retirement?

And I'm so sorry to hear about Donkey Dog - you have given him a lovely life though since his original owner passed away. 💕

BalanceBy50

Congratulations @HappyNow on the DFD & becoming a grandma 😁. My two boys had a fantastic vocabulary from early on and I put it down to grandparents looking after them 2 days a week (went to nursery one day too). Grandparents leave their jobs and just talk & play I found. They were really large in walking but could talk well 😂. I am sure your mortgage plan will work too xx

grannyx2

Hey just popping in to say’ Who are you? not really obviously of course I remember you 

Congratulations on your debt free day (how bizarre and lovely that we both did it on the exact same day) and good luck on your mortgage free date. Massive congratulations on baby news 

lots of love Granny x 5 (plus 3 step gks) xxxx 

Honey_Bear

How wonderful to hear from you again, Happy!  Huge congratulations on paying off all the unsecured debt and the £200 premium winnings are a lovely (and hard-earned, well-deserved!) bonus.  You didn't half put in some effort to paying it off, particularly in the early years.

Huge congratulations on your impending grandmotherliness!  And you get to spend time with the mini-one when s/he arrives; how lovely for you both!

I'm sorry to hear about dear old Donkey Dog.  I know you haven't had him forever but you've known him for a long time, and it's hard not to love them when they become yours.  As someone who only adopts older dogs I can attest to the fact that it hurts just as much to lose them even if you've only had them a year or three.  They have a sneaky way of worming their way into our hearts almost without us realising it.   (((Hugs))) all round.

 

FlacosFloozie

Just dropping by to say congratulation! Both on clearing the debt and the new baby.