£41K, MF in 2? Is it possible?

The_Wiggles

It took a while to persuade my husband that we should overpay the mortgage! We really want it clear so that we can have a rethink about life. I want to take the family travelling for a year and want to start saving towards it. We've set ourselves a target to clear the mortgage in 2 years time.

Started Jan 2010 £114600
Jan 2011 £85798
Jan 2012 £71195
now (June 2012) £41221

I am a teacher and my husband is a researcher. We've both taken on additional work and any additional income we earn goes straight into the mortgage. I can see the end in sight. We are hoping to be mortgage free in 2 years. Is it possible? We are on 2.5% interest rate and currently can overpay each month by between £750 and £1000. It feels like this last bit is a struggle!!

Malski

At the rate you've cut your mortgage down I don't see why you can't do it, stay positive and keep going :-)

gallygirl

It would be boring if it was easy . Good luck

Barbeduk

Flipping' eck those are some overpayments! If you keep it up you're definitely going to do it. Are you making cut backs elsewhere or just using the increased income?

YoungBusinessman

You have done fantastic and come so far already. Even falling short and not managing in the 2 years, you will still be very close. Good luck and stay positive.

The_Wiggles

We were given £15K by my parents but the rest has come from us. Anything we earn extra we put into it. My husband's freelance is erratic but is usually a few thousand a time (three times a year). My exam marking is peanuts.
Every month as our overpayments are over £500 I get the bank to recalculate the monthly payment rather than reduce the term. I then increase the amount of the overpayment. It's quite motivating to see that even small overpayments can have a dramatic effect. When we started overpaying we could only afford £130 a month. Now we overpay by £700 to £1000. We have chosen not to do any house improvements and we live a pretty frugal life. Lots of walks with the kids on holidays which are free! I kind of fell into overpayments when we came off a fixed rate....I am so glad we stuck at it as my husband wasn't keen. I have only just discovered this site.....wish I'd found it years ago! I teach a course in a sixth form college on personal finance and have shown the sixth formers how overpaying can really effect your mortgage. They were amazed! Wish someone had shown me when I was younger!
Thanks for all your encouragement.

RosieTiger

Money should definitely be a topic in school so that everyone begins to understand that there are no easy ways when it comes to borrowing - our low interest long term loans for houses are the ones we all should have understood better before we signed up!!!

The_Wiggles

Been a year since I last wrote. Here's my journey to be mortgage free:

Jan 2010 £114600
Jan 2011 £85798
Jan 2012 £71195
June 2012 £41221 (£15k given to me by my parents)

I then asked if I could be mortgage free in 2 years?????

August 2013 £23000

I am going full time for a year and hope to be mortgage free by this time next year.....I am buying myself a table tennis table as a reward!!!!!

We mucked up and put an overpayent into the wrong account. It took about 10 phone calls and 2 letters to get Nationwide to transfer it over. I complained to customer services who admitted a catalogue of errors and refunded us £50 (they tried £25 at first) but agreed to £50!!! Don't stand for dodgey service from your bank!

Bufger

Wow, this has to be some of the most successful overpaying ive seen yet. Would you mind doing a SoA so other people can get a gauge on whats possible vs what incomes/lifestyles? Its always good for some people to know others with the same income can achieve so much.

The_Wiggles

Hi Bufger
Sorry....I am new to this forum. What is a SoA?

Bufger

The_Wiggles wrote: »

Hi Bufger
Sorry....I am new to this forum. What is a SoA?

Hi, sorry I sometimes get caught up in the acronyms people use on this site!

SoA = Statement of Affairs. You can google it and get an online calculator to do the hard work for you. Basically you put in your income and outgoings and it'll show you how efficient your household is, how much you should have spare at the end of each month etc. You can then publish it for others to see so they can look at how they could do the same things to reduce their outgoings.

Through seeing other peoples SoA I noticed I was paying too much for my landline, grocery shopping and didnt have provision put aside for the regular things like haircuts, presents etc.