The "Pay ALL your debt off by Xmas 2012" challenge - PART 2!!!

antonia1

GreenSaints wrote: »

Antonia - what are you an engineer in? I am one too in construction

I'm a fire engineer. No, I don't fix fire engines (my nephew thinks I do), I design buildings to be safe in case of fire. And I do some research as well, which usually involves setting fire to something and seeing what happens. Lots of fun, but the pay would be better if I worked for a normal consultancy. What do you do?

kerri_dfw

antonia1 wrote: »

I'm a fire engineer. No, I don't fix fire engines (my nephew thinks I do), I design buildings to be safe in case of fire. And I do some research as well, which usually involves setting fire to something and seeing what happens. Lots of fun, but the pay would be better if I worked for a normal consultancy. What do you do?

I read that as "I'm a fire engine" oops

I'm in a bit of a mess, I can't work out why I don't have the right amount showing on my spreadsheet and can't work out where it's all gone wrong I didn't have a cash column or an additional income column but it's 10 sheets and messy bah!

HelenPie

mf0u1098 wrote: »

Thanks both of you (and GreenSaints!).

"So in one hand you have freedom from debt and HSBC, in the other you have around £1000." This exactly my dilema in one sentence.

At least it would allow me to have a deposit for a house effectively 8 months sooner than originally planned... I've been imagining making that final call and paying off the last debt and the feeling of absolute freedom. But am I willing to feel that at a cost of £1000...? I think you can guess at how hard this decision is for me...

I really need to think about this without the distractions of being at work but I think deep down I'm resigned to the answer, I would be an idiot to not take the money even though I have to wait 2.5yrs for it... I think I just need to convince myself that it's the right thing to do and that I won't have failed this challenge as I'll have the money in another account so I can buy a house that much sooner...

You can tell I'm typing as I'm thinking!

AAARRRGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! Why are these decisions so hard?!!! xxx

Have you thought about negotiating with them (she says, trying not to laugh - though you said the last lady was nice) to pay it early but pay the full term's interest upon settlement and they still give you your rebate. So if my calculation was right and the total interest payable if you run to term is about £733, you volunteer to effectively pay them the current loan balance plus that £733 (so they still get all their money) but you still get your rebate. They are not losing out and neither are you. It might be worth a try. The glitch is that clearly you don't have the full balance to repay now without refinancing so assuming that they would do it, you have 2 options:

Take out a new loan now (6.2%) to pay back as described above. So you get your net £767 back from them but you also pay the £177 interest on the new loan. Still £590 better off.

Or

Save what would be your overpayments until you have enough money to pay it off and then negotiate with them at that stage (riskier, obviously).

I hope that makes sense. And clearly I'm just assuming my numbers are right for illustrative purposes.

H x

GreenSaints

kerri_dfw wrote: »

I'm also another in the not paying off student loan earlier camp. We need some of those WWMD wristbands (what would martin do)

This is WMWD (what Martin would do)

Yet for those who've been badly burned by debt, or have no self-control, sometimes it's best to ignore the sums and do what you feel comfortable with. If you'll just end up spending or wasting the cash, then at least overpaying the student loan is playing it safe. It's far better than ignoring the fact you've no self control or frivolously building up more borrowing.

I have been badly burned and have no self control, unless it's debt repayment!

GreenSaints

antonia1 wrote: »

I'm a fire engineer. No, I don't fix fire engines (my nephew thinks I do), I design buildings to be safe in case of fire. And I do some research as well, which usually involves setting fire to something and seeing what happens. Lots of fun, but the pay would be better if I worked for a normal consultancy. What do you do?

I'm a Building Engineer, but I work in pre-construction now. I know what a Fire Engineer does. We need a good Fire Engineer as all our consultants are rubbish!

kerri_dfw

GreenSaints wrote: »

This is WMWD (what Martin would do)

Yet for those who've been badly burned by debt, or have no self-control, sometimes it's best to ignore the sums and do what you feel comfortable with. If you'll just end up spending or wasting the cash, then at least overpaying the student loan is playing it safe. It's far better than ignoring the fact you've no self control or frivolously building up more borrowing.

I have been badly burned and have no self control, unless it's debt repayment!

Oh I wasn't meaning to group the two together. I'm all for paying off debt quicker and each to their own. As you said you have a house, my reason for not doing so is I need a deposit, when I've got that it'll be bye bye student loan

rdchick

Just worked out that all my naughty bank/catalogue/credit card debt is under £7000 now which is what the RAF will be looking at in November... they won't know/care about what I owe to mum and dad (currently £1350) this is pretty awesome That has made me happy xxx

rdchick

As for student loans... yeah I'm probably never gonna pay mine back! It's £20K! I shall let my employers sort it out (by paying me more :rotfl:) as I am still on the bottom rung of £15K! xxx

antonia1

GreenSaints wrote: »

I'm a Building Engineer, but I work in pre-construction now. I know what a Fire Engineer does. We need a good Fire Engineer as all our consultants are rubbish!

Yeah, pre-construction is where all the fun is. I love sitting in design team meetings listening to architects talking about "feature portals" and the like. I actually had to ask what they were talking about, apparently they meant doors (why not just say doors then?!). Less fun is when you get a phone call halfway through build by someone saying "we forgot to put the structural fire protection on, do we really need it?" :wall:.

Unfortunately for my profession there is a lot of fairly dubious fire engineering consultants around, we have a right laugh doing third party reviews sometimes.

jakes-mum

Jemma, personally if it was me, i'd hold out for the £1500 or try to negotiate a way of getting it whilst getting DF by xmas, I do love free money If I had the money to pay the loan off sat in a high interest account (prob one of those high interest 60 day notice ones to stop the temptation) then I'd still see it as me being DF even though the loan is still there as affectively I have paid it but im just making the money work for me before the grubby bankers get their mitts on it, rather than them padding out their bonuses early.

I really dont see it as any different to credit card stoozing