FlashBarry's £97k in 3 years MFW mission!

YoungBusinessman

Hi flashbarry you are doing very well! Me and OH are completing on Friday, will have mortgage of £100k at 21 years old. We might "take it easy" compared to you but will try clear our 20 year mortgage in 5 years. Then we will move house and use the rental income to part fund(plus current mortgage payments+op) so payments should be hefty. 2 houses mortgage free in 15 years(age 36) is the goal.

YoungBusinessman

What I don't get is how you get your rate down to 1.4! Must be a low LTV?! Or how does that work?

FlashBarry

YoungBusinessman wrote: »

What I don't get is how you get your rate down to 1.4! Must be a low LTV?! Or how does that work?

Nope - we took a 100%, 35 year mortgage (!!) about 6 years ago. This was initially fixed at about 7% for 2 years and then it would drop to 0.9% above BOE base rate. At the time, the rate was quite high, but they didn't expect the BOE rate to drop SOOO low.

Good luck with your plans YoungBusinessman. I wish I was as switched on to Mortgages when I was your age. Come to think of it - I have paid more off the Mortgage since joining this forum 4 months ago than I have in the previous 6 years! :eek:

YoungBusinessman

Wow, that finishing sentance could be a quoted advert for this forum! Doubt we will overpay from the off, will wait and save up big fund first, maybe offset it if we can.

FlashBarry

Quick update -

Still keen on my challenge and everything is still on track. We feel like we have made some fantastic progress so far (97k mortgage balance in August 2012, £83k today!).

My sports car STILL hasn't sold

I just hope I can sell it before mid June, as that is when the insurance/tax/mot/service is due and I REALLY can't afford to pay that while maintaining these mortgage payments. Fingers crossed for a sale in early spring!

When I get the ~£12k cash for the car, I am currently looking to keep this as my emergency fund and not dump it into the mortgage. Any tips for making the most of that money?

So, everyting is going well, but we are kind of craving a holiday. I think thats just the long dark nights causing that though!

FlashBarry

Hello all,

We've been paying £2k+ into our Mortgage Offset religiously each month since starting our challenge in August 2012. The result - knocking the mortgage down from £97k to "just" £75k in 8 months which we are absolutely thrilled with! (Thanks for the inspiration MSEs!)

Everything is going swimmingly and despite the overwhelming scale of the challenge, we have been determined to clear our Mortgage within 3 years.

HOWEVER......

I have some news for my fellow MFWs which may change everything....


>>>>> In October, I'm going to be a Dad!!<<<<< :beer:


We are delighted with this news and it was all planned. I'm really excited and it's something we have been talking about for a while.

Financially, it means it is now impossible to complete our Mortgage challenge. Right?

I'm expecting a big drop in income as my lovely Wife goes to statutory Maternity pay and it will be impossible to maintain our considerable overpayment/offset contributions. A rough calculation shows that we could probably afford £700/month offset payment, but this assumes our outgoing will not increase at all after baby arrives.

Has any other MFWs been in this position before? Should I put my challenge on hold during this magical time, or should I press on and scrimp as much as possible?

chirpchirp

OOOh Congratulations!


I guess you need to think about what sort of parents you want to be. When mine were that age we certainly didn't do things the MSE way, it was all branded nappies for us and I wouldn't change that. Others are very happy using Terry nappies.

Are there grandparents? If so, I'm sure if they can afford it they will be only too happy to buy certain things for their grandchildren ie pram or cot so it needn't be too expensive for you.

QB_Wolf

Mmmmm I started my MSE journey the week our second child was born, you can OP but it's definitely harder on one salary rather than two, good luck and congrats.

FlashBarry

Thanks!

We have been looking though FreeCycle/Gumtree/eBay for baby bargains and we just bought a beautiful Oyster travel system at a fraction of the cost of new.

Even in pregnancy, the costs are creeping up. Pregnacare vitamin tablets - £40 per trimester?! (and thats 3-for-2 prices!) Plus all these pickles and Jelly Tots.

We'll aim to keep those extra payments going in, but my timescales may be extended...

QB_Wolf

FlashBarry wrote: »

Even in pregnancy, the costs are creeping up. Pregnacare vitamin tablets - £40 per trimester?! (and thats 3-for-2 prices!) Plus all these pickles and Jelly Tots.

and I bet your wife wants some weird stuff too!!