Mortgage Free in Three Yrs

jetfighter

I would love to join in with this as I'm desperate to start making overpayments, but I'm embarrassed to say our mortgage has increased in size (by £15,000) since April, not reduced, as we took out more on it! :embarasse It would take me a while to even get my repayment amount back to £0.00, though I would like to join in the challenge... hmmm.

I also wouldn't want to bring the group total down by £15,000 by adding my minus figures to the list! :embarasse

Any ideas?

dawnylou

Hi TG et al,
I missed the last update and so am down as not having made any overpayments. Below is a summary of the extra payments I have made since the beginning. I know it's not much, but better than nothing!
30th April £25
10th Aug £195 (£50 cheque from Yougov, £55 cheque from Northern Rock, £50 from selling wardrobe, £40 from carboot)
16th Aug £78 (Rpoints)
Total so far = £298

Won't be making any more overpayments until after Christmas now - I am currently taking part in the '£1,000 in 4 Months Challenge' and aim to pay everything I raise in that challenge off my mortgage too

Dawnylou
x

Desperate_Housewife_2-2

jetfighter wrote: »

I would love to join in with this as I'm desperate to start making overpayments, but I'm embarrassed to say our mortgage has increased in size (by £15,000) since April, not reduced, as we took out more on it! :embarasse It would take me a while to even get my repayment amount back to £0.00, though I would like to join in the challenge... hmmm.

I also wouldn't want to bring the group total down by £15,000 by adding my minus figures to the list! :embarasse

Any ideas?

---

Hi Jetfighter, welcome to the thread, I say go for it. Don't worry about reducing our figures, it doesn't matter! If you feel strongly about trying to reduce your mortgage then give it a whirl, you've nothing to lose.

A couple of years ago I decided that paying off the mortgage was the thing for me and I've been working towards this. Its a long term goal but I think its worth it. Think of the money you'll save in unpaid interest over the years.

I've been watching the news and thinking about the banking sector (what with the Northern Rock debacle) and glad that all my money is tied up in bricks and mortar because it doubles up as a roof over my head too! I'm looking forward to the day when I'm living rent free!

On the other hand, don't kill yourself trying to achieve the impossible, if its not right for you then don't. Its a personal decision and one only you know the answer to.

Good luck!

AnW'sMum

Everyone should have reduced their mortgage now unless their entire mortgage is on I/O and they have only made the regular monthly payments. The information that Tallgirl needs by PM is 1. Your challengee number 2. Mortgage balance at end of Sept/start of Oct (which will include regular payments and overpayments).

Any overpayments you have made please share on the thread with the rest of us. How you raised/saved the money with hints and tips for others. I think this next quarter will be the toughest in the year with the run up to Christmas so we really do need to help keep each other motivated.

Keep going guys you are all doing a great job.

Kaz2904

Kiwi I did once consider this sort of mortgage but know that we are not disciplined enough to be able to run the mortgage well. I think that the only reason we are achieving so well is because the money goes to the mortgage and we can't access it.
I have to admit to feeling gutted at the moment because my signature looks dreadful and I know it won't even begin to level out until christmas.

I had a nasty shock the other day when I checked our new car tax- £180 for the year. When we bought the car we got a 1.6 because it was the smallest "family driving across France with loadsa wine in" type car that we could get away with. Now I wish we hadn't bothered. I might as well have a 2 litre monster as it won't cost me any more in tax.
We have been looking around now for a people carrier o try and find one with enough leg room in it for all of us because whoever has to sit behind DH gets squished.
My Aunty has got a little Rover which she is going to sell for about £500 (1.1 engine) and we've seen a Nissan largo Highway star on ebay.
Well I'll be completely honest- it's me I want it. DH said it looks like the A-Team van but I think it's fab. For once DH is being the voice of reason and saying no not until we go on holiday so I don't know. Probably won't get one yet but would love this car type.
We have 2 cars to get rid of to get these 2 new ones and would maybe get £500 for our 1.4l Astra and £1500 for our T reg 1.6l Focus saloon. That would mean adding an extra £3000 + to the pot. The alternative is to sell the focus, get a largo to take on holiday, bring it back and dump it on ebay and then just run the 2 little cars. It would be cheaper to buy and sell a largo at a few hundred quid loss than it would to hire a people carrier for 3 weeks and get the roof box on it and worry about getting it from England to France.
So I have this thing shrieking at me buy me buy me!
The plus side is that there are loads of them on ebay as they are popular imports so I should still be able to get one if and when we do it.
The other option is to buy a boring but safe chrysler. I showed the girls at work and they can all see me driving the mad car not the grown ups car.
TBH, I bet we'll end up taking the same focus on holiday as we have now unless it dies before then!

I've just heard that Northern Rock shares went up by 9% this morning. I told DH that we should buy some but haven't got the first clue about buying shares. I did google it the other night but am still none the wiser. Anyone here got any experience of this?
Anyhoo, I'm wittering now and need to go to bed. TTFN, Kaz.

Desperate_Housewife_2-2

AnW'sMum wrote: »

Everyone should have reduced their mortgage now unless their entire mortgage is on I/O and they have only made the regular monthly payments. The information that Tallgirl needs by PM is 1. Your challengee number 2. Mortgage balance at end of Sept/start of Oct (which will include regular payments and overpayments).

Any overpayments you have made please share on the thread with the rest of us. How you raised/saved the money with hints and tips for others. I think this next quarter will be the toughest in the year with the run up to Christmas so we really do need to help keep each other motivated.

Keep going guys you are all doing a great job.

---

I agree, xmas is well on the way and we all need to pencil it into our budgets (if we haven't already) I have a xmas budget but no matter how much I save it never seems enough. This year its going to change...I have budgeted for January! Its a long month as payday in December is early and Jan is usually a 5 week month. I find I can scrape by xmas but the long hard slog of January is worse.

So to recap, quick tip...stuff some readies away for Jan!

Dithering_Dad

I've just invested 3k in a S&S ISA in HBOS, Northern Rock and Alliance & Leicester shares. I am using the money from my Offset account. I almost did it yesterday but bottled it and then missed out on the huge rises :rolleyes:.

I've decided to modify my 3 yr challenge somewhat - I will pay off 2/3rd of my mortgage (leaving me with a 50k mortgage), get my pension pot up to 100k and use both my wife & my ISA allowances (7k x 2 x 3 = 42k). I'll also retain 8k in cash saving.

Effectively I will still be mortgage free as I will have offset it with my ISA and cash savings. I just don't want to lose out on my ISA allowances during the 3 years of the challenge.

TallGirl

I think it is quite scary with the mortgage market at the moment. Northern Rock has been lending 125% on mortgages by adding secured personal loans to the 100% mortgage so they are bound to be exposed if interest rates goes up. However the other banks could get hit as well and what about the real subprime mortgage lenders.

I have bank shares in Denmark and they have taken a huge hit too so think I will stay away from shares at the moment. I am still happy to clear my mortage but I agree with DD keeping your ISA allowance is worth it but I just don't have the spare cash to do both.

I think a lot of people are going to suffer with all of this but at least all savers should do well. Bring on the MFI3 - I want to be a saver too.

Trying_to_be_good

As you can see from my sig I'm sticking the max amount in my cash ISA each year, and assuming I'll use it to pay off the mortgage when I finally have enough to pay it all off - my own version of an offset, I suppose, as I can still use the money if I need to.

I put £50 into a S&S ISA, too, but want to concentrate more directly on the mortgage so won't be maximising the S&S ISA.

catshark88

I agree Tallgirl. It feels like a good time to be battening down hatches a bit. We are exposed to the markets through DH's job so I will be staying away from buying shares at the mo (though tempted to get some N Rock stock). I see the value of ISAs but am going to stick to mortgage repayments for a while, we are more easily motivated not so spend that way!

I really feel for those on 125% mortgages though.