Its days are numbered ...

DawnW

I have worked out that the mortgage is now only £1k more than our accumulated savings - so, another 1k off the mortgage, or on to savings (or more likely a bit of both) and we will be 'neutral' in that we have as much saved up as we owe - perhaps next month (?)

Nice to know that we could pay it off if need be (ie if our income suddenly dropped), and the house couldn't be taken off of us I don't want to empty the ISAs and leave us without an emergency fund though (and we need to get the roof done fairly soon :eek:), so won't be paying it off in full just yet. We are definitely aiming to get it paid by the end of the year though! OH is due his occupational pension in the autumn, which will be very modest as he was not a high earner, but will include a lump sum. We are hoping that this will be enough to pay off the remainder. Of course, it may not be. Hmm challenge is for this amount to be as small as possible by that time :cool:

He will continue with his self employed work, as he is not due his state pension for another 5 years. He will be able to claim his work pension at 60 due to long service. I will also continue to work, as we would struggle to live on his pension and tiny SE earnings, even frugally, due to things like fuel bills and council tax being so expensive :eek: I wish I had a skill like he does which I could do on a SE basis (he makes lovely things out of wood, and also does other rural craft things) but I am cack handed and doubt if there is much of a local market for writing things, sorting out endless problems, spending large sums of money and arguing, which is pretty much what I do I have done consultancy in the past, but like the feeling of a regular salary when not much else is coming in :eek:

I might reassess and investigate working part time though We have a lot of changes coming up at work in the autumn, and there is no way of knowing at the moment how this will work. So, what with one thing and another there will be a lot to consider later in the year....

ammonite

Wow Dawn you must feel so great being so close to being neutral! I have opted for this style of saving/overpaying as we may need access to the money in the next 2 years or so so I am loathed to pay it to the mortgage company. I've been stashing it in savings. We are a little bit behind you and only have ~6% of our total outstanding mortgage in savings but we will get there, plus we have only had the house 4 years so not doing too badly!

Diaries like these are an inspiration, well done you

DawnW

ammonite wrote: »

Wow Dawn you must feel so great being so close to being neutral! I have opted for this style of saving/overpaying as we may need access to the money in the next 2 years or so so I am loathed to pay it to the mortgage company. I've been stashing it in savings. We are a little bit behind you and only have ~6% of our total outstanding mortgage in savings but we will get there, plus we have only had the house 4 years so not doing too badly!

Diaries like these are an inspiration, well done you

Thanks Ammonite. You are 'behind' me considerably in age as well, I expect! We have had our house for 4 years as well, but didn't buy till we were in our 50s. We were totally priced out of the market when we were young (a bit like many young people today - it will happen guys, if you make it, it will just take longer ) and brought up our family in accommodation tied to OH's job :eek:

We were so skint that we got into quite a lot of debt as OH was low paid, and at that time, nurseries were only for either the very deprived or the well off - most mums stayed at home with the kids at least till they went to school - and the debt didn't get paid off (though we made regular payments as required obviously) until I took myself off to uni, got some qualifications and got a decent job. With the huge fees etc I am conscious that this is not an option for most people in that situation now (it was a bit far out even back then tbh ). We then paid off the debts and saved... and saved until we had over 50% of the cost of a modest house in our area (fairly pricey SW, though not daft like London :eek:).

We procrastinated for ages, not having any experience of the housing market, till one day we realised that we were both at risk of redundancy and it (might be) now or never to get a mortgage :eek:, and somehow we would pay it once we had it, same as we had those other debts years before. So we put down a big deposit on a modest Edwardian terrace. I got made redundant, but had a new job to go to as soon as I left, and OH kept his job, so we could have kept saving for longer and perhaps got the country cottage with a bit of land of my dreams However, we do like it here, OH has now left his job voluntarily and gone self employed.

To continue the saga, we had to rent out the house for 3 years as OH's employer insisted he continue to live in the tied accommodation. I cried when we had to hand over the keys

The feudal system is alive and well :mad: The tenants were a bit of a nightmare - often late with rent, and when they went left lots of rubbish and a bit of damage - I know this could have been considerably worse :eek:, but all put right now

We are not on any housing 'ladder', unlike many of you young folks. We are staying put! We live pretty comfortably at the moment as I am quite well paid (OH's little business makes very little). So, my determination to pay off the mortgage is based on all those years of insecurity, and the feeling that once it is all paid, nobody will be able to force us out of our home whatever happens

ammonite

Hearing the full story makes it even more inspiring well done you

We think we are staying put here too, we love the house we have done a lot of work to it (gutted the whole place and rebuilt parts) but could live at home with parents whilst we did that luckily and all of the family including my husband are very handy so could do a lot ourselves. We just picked up a total bargain of a house for the area and apart from wishing it was slightly bigger upstairs, it is perfect for us. The road and neighbours are lovely which is important as is the area.

I had a dream of being mortgage free by 30 as we were excellent savers but whilst the mortgage is reasonable the bills and general living (we are quite conservative spenders) cost a fortune so we are not left with a lot to play with at the end of the month. I think 40 is a very reasonable estimate which would half the mortgage term so that is the current aim. If something amazing happens in between then great but I'll be working part time from next year so money is only going to get harder to come by!

We will get there though!

lincoln-potter

A nice little story there Dawn, you've done very well!

unhappy_shopper

Thanks Dawn for relating to us your experiences. We were also slow-starters, having lived abroad in staff accommodation for quite a few years after our marriage, bought our first home in our early 40s. I think buying our home so late inspires us even more to be shot off the mortgage as soon as possible to make headway for retirement savings. :-)

misscousinitt

Thanks Dawn for sharing your full story with us...you have done fantastically in the face of everything.

MCI

xxx

DawnW

Annoying day at work :mad:

Spends alert - I have booked my car in to have its cam belt changed, as it approaching the mileage at which cars of its brand need this done. V. boring way to spend lots of money though very necessary from what I have heard :eek:

OH has been busy today - he finished the butchers table he has been making, and it is now in pride of place in the outhouse waiting for him to catch a fish to be prepared on it, or more likely for me to cover with plants :rotfl:

He also put up a lovely wrought iron archway thing that he was given at the bit of the back garden where it narrows towards the gate (due to his workshop being there) and degenerates into an ugly concrete passageway full of bins. I will plant a lovely climbing rose to grow over it, and camouflage the ugliness

A couple of small annoyances - 2 ebay items haven't arrived so need following up, and I need to phone First Direct to ask why the standing order I set up into my new regular saver account doesn't seem to work. Also ring the National Trust as their direct debit does not seem to have transferred over. OH had to ring about 2 of his yesterday as well :mad:

All ok apart from that (and work, obviously) so shouldn't complain, well, except to ebay sellers and bank obviously :rotfl:

I am cooking up a big pan of vegetable curry for work lunches, as I seem to have a glut of bendy vegetables, so better go and see how it is getting on.

megela

I had enormous problems swapping banks as well.

They couldn't even move a d/d for the mortgage payable to themselves from another bank !!

I also had at least 3 others contact me to say they'd had problems collecting the d/d that month.

I thought banks were supposed to make it easy for you!!!

Hope it sorts itself out for you.

DawnW

Sunny here again this morning, though I hear it is about to get wet, cold and windy again

More spends today - OH is going to buy trellis panels to put on top of a low wall, to improve security and for our loganberry to climb along. Still, it will improve our garden, and I don't think we will need much in the way of groceries until I get paid next week.

He caught 2 trout last night, so we will have those this evening, with some new potatoes and salad, and I have veggie curry for lunch (nice and filling, so hopefully will help stop me getting hungry and eating rubbish). Having said that, the staff shop in our complex is now so bad that it is easy to go in search of a treat and come out without buying anything as there is nothing you fancy unless you want chocolate or crisps. They used to have lovely yogurts and flapjacks, but nothing very appetising since it was taken over by a franchise.

Oh well, better get ready for work - look at the time :eek: