Mortgage Free in Three Yrs

farhad1965

setmefree2 wrote: »

Hi Farhad,

When I saw how much you were going to save in a month I thought you'd put the point in the wrong place - then I looked at your signature.....boy that is a big one:eek::D Good luck

When we got an offer for our last house couple of years back (after a year on the market) and started looking for a new bigger house that ticked all the boxes, we ended up £200k above what we previously imagined as our maximum. That £200k ended up on the mortgage ofcourse. By the time I get to £300k balance, I am hoping that the house be worth £850-900k.

farhad1965

heckmondwike06 wrote: »

I'd be interested in your experiences of paying off large amount - do you normally pay in in cash or cheque method? Halifax's mortgage department takes it times to send you an updated statement following an overpayment. Do banks deliberately take their time when you make the overpayment?

heckmondwike06

I overpay electronically to the Woolwich (Barclays). Not cash or cheque. Payments of £1k or £2k go easily, but the last payment I made was £30k and my bank said it will go after a manual check. This was to make sure I had not meant to send £3k. Took 3 days to clear from my First Direct a/c to the mortgage account. Woolwich (Barclays) only send me an annual statement, so I just call them to check my outstanding mortgage balance.

heckmondwike06

Hi farhad,

Thanks for sharing your experiences.

Is your pension in in SIPP plan? And is it invested in some of investment funds, do you get a good return on your investment per year? Also, I know that Goverment pays 28% to anybody's pension fund when you retire you can take 25% as lump sum and rest as monthly payment (subject to tax I guess, but at what rate?).

I would be interested in your views.

farhad1965

heckmondwike06 wrote: »

Hi farhad,

Thanks for sharing your experiences.

Is your pension in in SIPP plan? And is it invested in some of investment funds, do you get a good return on your investment per year? Also, I know that Goverment pays 28% to anybody's pension fund when you retire you can take 25% as lump sum and rest as monthly payment (subject to tax I guess, but at what rate?).

I would be interested in your views.

My pension is a Private Pension Plan with the Scottish Widows. Current % allocation is:

5% Property
10% Cash
10% Corporate Bond
10% Indexed Stock
15% JPMorgan Cautious Total Return
20% Invesco Perpetual High Income
10% Schroder Income
10% Merrill Lynch Emerging
5% Newton Oriental
5% Fidelity European

I am paying £700/month premium (via my own Ltd company, not from taxed income). Likely to up it to £1000/month from April, rather than let it go to Darling & Co!


Return has been good in past 5 years - averaging around 10%

As I have recently had some problems with Scottish Widows (direct debits getting cancelled for no reason) and some low cost SIPP offerings out there which will be able to include Protected Rights (from Oct 2008- hopefully), I think for the longer term I will be going down the SIPP or fund Supermarket pension route..... as guided by my friendly IFA.

heckmondwike06

Hi Farhad

Thanks for the info. Really interesting stuff.

I have my own limited company as well and keen to start my pension fund. How does your pension model work in accounting terms?

Many thanks,

farhad1965

heckmondwike06 wrote: »

Hi Farhad

Thanks for the info. Really interesting stuff.

I have my own limited company as well and keen to start my pension fund. How does your pension model work in accounting terms?

Many thanks,

It shows as a company expense.... so your monthly profit that gets hit by Corporation Tax is less. And no need to take a big salary from your Ltd Co. to pay the pension premium from.

Regards FARHAD

heckmondwike06

That's excellent stuff. Thank you again Farhad.

I'll get on phone to my accountant next week to get the ball rolling.

cupid_s

Farhad, £91 is a great saving per month - it'll all help towards the mortgage free goal.

With regards to my MF quest, I'm not sure if it'll finish very early as we really can't decide whether to sell the house. Any advice from you lovely lot would be great.

I'm a student but will (hopefully) submit my thesis about april time. I'm currently applying for jobs. Problem is none are in (or even near) leeds. However DH has a job he loves here and so we would only move from leeds if a much better opportunity for one of us came up. But if I was to be offered such a position (there's one amazing perfect one I've applied for that if I was offered I could not turn down despite it being in America) surely it's not practical to tell them I can't start until we've sold the house.

This makes me think we should sell the house and then we'd be in a much better position to take up new jobs sooner.

But... we might not get jobs as good as DHs current one for months and months, and if we were to stay in Leeds all that time I wouldn't really want to live anywhere else because I love my little house to bits as does DH.

Neither of us can decide what's best to do - why is nothing ever simple?

Trying_to_be_good

Cupid_s

You have my sympathy! I have a beautiful home but have been 'working' away (albeit in the same country, only two hours away) for two years now. It's very tiring, and I had my home valued only this week as I'm not sure how long I can do a long commute/weekly commute for. It's a big decision that I keep putting off - I told the agent if someone comes in looking for a place just like mine, and is willing to pay over the odds, I'll consider it!

setmefree2

farhad1965 wrote: »

When we got an offer for our last house couple of years back (after a year on the market) and started looking for a new bigger house that ticked all the boxes, we ended up £200k above what we previously imagined as our maximum. That £200k ended up on the mortgage ofcourse. By the time I get to £300k balance, I am hoping that the house be worth £850-900k.

Hi,

I'm sure you'll make a packet and have a lovely house to live in as well:D Must have been abit scary signing the papers though. The day I woke up owing £250k I felt terrified :eek:and have been trying to rid myself of the feeling ever since. It was that feeling that if one of us lost our jobs we would be out on the streets - literally. However, we'd be all right now ( I think). How does it go - nothing ventured nothing gained and all that. I have a Woolwich/Barclays mortgage too - a flexible tracker. Did you know you can access the balance on line any time you want?

All the Best

SMF2