The long road to being mortgage free!

ammonite

Hello folks, thanks for stopping by after I've been away for so long!

Exciting news...we are in the process of pre-booking a mortgage, it is over 2% less than our current deal and hasn't cost us a penny to pre-book it. It is a 5 year fix. It will save us around £70 a month but most importantly it is an affordable mortgage for another 5 years.

If we find a better deal in the mean time we don't have to pay anything to "unbook" this mortgage so really pleased. It is also an offset mortgage which is perfect for us as we have a rainy day fund that I'm too scared to overpay in case we need it urgently, so the offset will help reduce the interest.

Our plan is to pay the existing amount plus another £100 so we will be overpaying around £175 each month, plus with the money in the offset account, we are on course to pay this off before we are 40 which is our dream.

I'm in full MFW mode again now, the cupboards are well stocked and I'm making time for surveys etc.

Due to our new addition I'll be taking a pay cut as I'm working less hours but there is a reduction in petrol costs there too by working less hours, plus I can't really put a price on spending time with the little one, I'd rather cut back elsewhere.

Excited to be MFW again with you all!

nattypants

Hey ammonite - welcome back:T

Brilliant mortgage fix, I'm looking into my new fix from next month (current product expires in November) and hoping to save a few ££s, so I can overpay a few £££s

ammonite

That's great Natty, I didn't realise you could pre-book mortgages, only after reading Martins email did I notice and enquire. I've been so worried about interest rates jumping between now and the end of the year!

ammonite

OK, I've said the C-word Just going to list here what vouchers I've got from surveys etc. in preparation for the big day...

Some to be confirmed and post to be updated as and when

Mothercare: £40
Tesco:
Next: £80
Argos:£33
Amazon: £20 (almost at another £10 on my credit card)
M&S: £25
Sainsburys:
Mamas and Papas: £100

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Hi Ammonite, hope all is going well your end.

Have you remortgaged yet? I'm not sure whether you will still be on maternity leave or working part time - good luck either way.

Best wishes Tilly x

ammonite

Hello all it's been a longgggggg time!

Mini-ammonite takes up most of my time and I love every second of it.

We pre-booked a mortgage in July (thanks to MSE newsletter for making me aware I could do this) and got 3.69% over 5 years for our new mortgage (compared to 5.29% that we had paid for the previous 5 years). The first payment has just been taken

Can overpay 10% each year and as our monthly payment has been reduced by £200 a month (due to paying off a lump sum and the lower interest rate) we only need to find another approx. £150 per month (on top of our old mortgage payment) to pay off the maximum for the year. We are in serious overpaying mode now and plan to pay off the maximum we can pay and save as much up to pay another lump sum at the end of the five years.

We don't envisage it will be clear at the end of the 5 years, but I am assuming interest rates will be higher then so it is in our best interest to pay as much off as possible now.

Still well within the limits of my dream to be MFW by 40...ten years to go in fact...not that I'm counting!

I'll try to update more, particularly now I'm in overpay mode!

Anyway, how are you lot? Who is now MF or very close?

shala_moo

Hi Ammonite - good to see you :wave::wave:

Great drop on your interest rate, bet you're saving loads!

Hope mini-ammonite and Mr Ammonite are well x

Miss_money_penny

Just popping on to say good luck! We're in a similar position. Hoping to get on to better rate in sept and use the saving to overpay. So easy to give it over to mortgage as would have been used to pay interest whereas you can knock off the term this way I have two babies and keep thinking in the next 6 years they'll be looking for piano lessons etc and will be great to have a small/no mortgage when they're that bit older

ammonite

Thanks Shala and Miss Moneypenny! Good luck with your MFW journeys!

We have now overpaid 22% of our mortgage overpay goal for 2014.I have reduced my hours in work this year so this is even more of a feat than normal.

Currently reduced mortgage term by 7 months!

ammonite

Wow it has been a long time since I popped in here, pleased to say we have been plugging away at overpaying and have knocked 76 months off the mortgage so far Currently on track to finish paying it by the time we are 40 (9 years to go, hopefully before) which was the long term goal, 11 years early.

Got some big expenditures coming up but the plan is to overpay the full 10% each year for the next 3 years until mortgage ends plus save up a lump sum so we don't need to get a new mortgage. Then once the mortgage has gone we need to pay back a lump sum which helped us with a deposit (hence why we might be "mortgage" free in about 3-4 years but actually repaid everything we owe in about 8-9).

LTV is about 17% as house gone up in price too

Hope all are well