Determined this is my last debt diary

clearmydebts

Lara44 wrote: »

That is fantastic CMD! What a difference a year will make, if you are hitting December with only £6700 to go! Think of all that frivolous spending you'll be able to do at some point next year when you are DF I hope you will have a nice holiday to celebrate.

Really lovely to see you on here Lara. I hope you are taking care of yourself as well as working xxx

A holiday, lol I wish! Then it will be straight into saving for a house deposit which will take a good 12 months I think. My priority is to have a secure home for my kids now, so holidays can wait! As soon as I have the keys to a new house though, I will be booking a great holiday for us as a family. Just need to keep on the straight and narrow for the next 18 months or so!

clearmydebts

Got our first car today! I did end up having to put the deposit for the car insurance on the credit card but hope to pay that off this month. We paid for the car outright though so no more debt there. Now I just need to learn to drive it!

OH and I have been having discussions this week about whether we should sell our UK flat and use that to buy a house over here. I hate the thoughts of selling it as it is a good investment, but logically the market has started to move again here (in the area we want) and a good deposit would enable us to buy a 4 bed in the exact location we want. That flat was meant to be our pension fund though.

Head is a bit scrambled!

Dinah93

How long would it take you to save a deposit? Is the market rising quicker here or over there? Ie is the growth on the flat outstripping the growth in the area you would like to buy? You don't want to be saving every month only for your goal actually to be getting further away, maybe instead of saving for a deposit you should start to put that money into an actual pension fund instead and sell the flat now to buy the house?

Congrats on the first car, what did you get? How close are either of you to your test?

clearmydebts

Dinah93 wrote: »

How long would it take you to save a deposit? Is the market rising quicker here or over there? Ie is the growth on the flat outstripping the growth in the area you would like to buy? You don't want to be saving every month only for your goal actually to be getting further away, maybe instead of saving for a deposit you should start to put that money into an actual pension fund instead and sell the flat now to buy the house?

Congrats on the first car, what did you get? How close are either of you to your test?

It would be December 2014 before we had the money to buy a house. Prices aren't rising at the moment, but houses are selling in the area we want to buy in. It's a desirable area.

OH is in agreement with selling the house in theory but thinks we should put our heads down and learn to save properly as the last time we did that was 10 years ago for the flat. And even with that, our parents gave us half the deposit.

Lara44

Congrats on the car CMD Hmm it's a difficult one with the flat. Maybe it would be good to see an independent financial adviser and discuss with them other pension vehicles and how much you would need to contribute per month if you sell the flat? Then you would have more information on which to base your decision. Ours said it is not good to put all of your pension money in the same vehicle, in case of a big crash or problem, so that might be something to think about. Scary how big a pot you need for a smallish pension.

I reckon once the debt is paid you'd be able to divert a big chunk of the repayment money into savings or a pension? As you are expert DFWs saving might not be such as issue.

clearmydebts

Thanks Lara. Good advice there. I don't really know why we are holding on to the flat to be honest. We like the flat but not the area/street its on.

Sorry Dinah, never answered your question about the car. I think we might be test ready around January time. In the meantime we will drive around with either my Mam or Dad. Can't wait for us to get our test cos the insurance was €1538 yesterday :eek:

Meant to be taking the kids to softplay but it has just started to lash rain. It is a 20minute walk there. Max won't be impressed. Frustrating that the car is parked in the drive and I can't take it out yet.

Dinah93

Eeek to the insurance! Although from what I hear Ireland is very expensive for it (NIMs dad was an insurance broker all his working life). I know my BIL's first insurance on a corsa when he was 18 was over €5k!

clearmydebts

Dinah93 wrote: »

Eeek to the insurance! Although from what I hear Ireland is very expensive for it (NIMs dad was an insurance broker all his working life). I know my BIL's first insurance on a corsa when he was 18 was over €5k!

Over €5k. Wow - that is high!

castlelough

Well done ClearMyDebts you are doing so well! In such a short time you have cleared so much debt!
Best of luck with the new car, and well done for not going into debt for it! :beer:

clearmydebts

castlelough wrote: »

Well done ClearMyDebts you are doing so well! In such a short time you have cleared so much debt!
Best of luck with the new car, and well done for not going into debt for it! :beer:

Thanks CL x