Mortgage Free in Three Yrs

Jonesy_Bonesy

OK. Found out this week that I've not been accepted for the voluntary redundancy I applied for months ago. In retrospect, and given the state of the economy and where it is headed, I am not too dissapointed, although I will still be looking to move to a job I enjoy and does not stress me out too much.

On a more positive note, I have just moved some money into my savings account to give me a total saving of £80K, with a fixed interest only mortgage of £95K, so my outstanding balance is only £15K :j Well ahead of target and should be mortage free by the end of this challenge.

Bonesy

Superfast_Gran

Jonesy_Bonesy wrote: »

OK. Found out this week that I've not been accepted for the voluntary redundancy I applied for months ago. In retrospect, and given the state of the economy and where it is headed, I am not too dissapointed, although I will still be looking to move to a job I enjoy and does not stress me out too much.

On a more positive note, I have just moved some money into my savings account to give me a total saving of £80K, with a fixed interest only mortgage of £95K, so my outstanding balance is only £15K :j Well ahead of target and should be mortage free by the end of this challenge.

Bonesy

Wey hey, well done you - I'm so jealous, but happy for you.

Good luck with the job hunting too! OH's talking about going back to being a butcher - from a home care assistant in the community - no difference - lol!!

molit

Would like the collective opinion from you guys- as I mentioned in a previous post, I am moving into a house I have had an offer accpetd on, and I am looking to rent my current place out. My mortgage deal is coming to an end on this palce, and there is no prblem with getting lenders (a&l) approval to rent out afaik (touches wood, and hopes he hasntt tempted fate) . I am wondering whtehr to remortgage or not, or leave the rate at the SVR with the current lender. The reason this has copped up is that to tranfer to a decent fixed rate, interest only, would cost about 1k (1% of mortgage), the rate is better, but by my reckoning it would only save me about 80 a month. Bearing in mind, although I am not planning to, I might want to take some equity out of my current house (e.g. the btl to be) I am tempted to leave the mortgage on the btl to be as at SVR, at least in the short term.

I am not planning on becoming a btl king, and will sell when the market starts to pick up

ailuro2

I'd save the £80 a month, although I might wait a month or two to let the interest rates settle/libor rate settle etc. before tying myself in to a fixed rate.

MoneySavingNovice

Some Good news from me.

I've met my objective!

I started out with the target, from having an overall debt of £65k - funded by the mortgage to no debt at all, but also no savings!

As from now my position is that I still have debts of £38k - £10k at 0% on a number of Credit Cards and £38k in a flexible mortgage - current rate 2.89%, and also £38k in the bank (actually I have around £700 more than this but I will need this to pay my Oil bill in the next two weeks and for Christmas so I am not counting this)

i.e. £38 k savings less £38 k debt = £0

I have decided that as a new target , and given the current economic climate, to retain £38 k in the ISA’s and aim to pay off my £28k mortgage by the end of the MfiT challenge.

This will leave me with £38k in Savings and £10k in debt - overall £28k better off!

This is going to be difficult - but worth a go!

:beer:

Trying_to_be_good

Great news, MoneySavingNovice, on achieving savings to equal your debts! And good luck with the new 'venture' to save even more - don't we all sound grown up and in control of our financial situations!

1274

Just wanted to post to say I've cleared another 5K off my mortgage in the last couple of weeks, so I have now managed to reduce it by 100K in a year. I know not all of you have this sort of disposable cash, but the lessons I've learned could apply to everyone:

• The beginning of mortgage reduction is really dispiriting. I had quite a few posts in the early months of 2008 when I despaired of seeing the figure ever go down, since the drops were so small, but the pace accelerates the more you pay off, so stick with it guys. Throw the odd tenner at the mortgage and it will help
• Using MFIT gives you a very positive goal. Before I joined, I'd been quite relaxed about making overpayments, which were fewer but for large amounts. Now I throw every spare £10 at the mortgage. Online banking helps a lot, because some weeks, all I've managed to overpay is £10 or £20. If I had to find a bank or write a cheque for that sort of amount, I probably wouldn't have bothered, but with a few clicks it's easy
• Interest rate cuts have helped, but the best thing is to have an unlimited overpayment mortgage or a flexible one so you don't have to worry about every small payment and whether it takes you over the limit
• The DFW board has helped me be more conscious of all my spending. I haven't cut it back like they do because I like my treats, but at least I now have an awareness of how much I spend and how much I need to live on (£16K for a year). I used to have a large salary, so where it all went above this figure I have no idea:eek:. With their advice, I've switched gas and electric, got deals on my mobile, used Tesco vouchers, stopped going to the cash machne for £40 a time and now take out £10. I've also been saving pound coins which pays for nights out at the pub.
• Finally, don't set your goals too low or too high. The former means you may be disappointed and the latter isn't challenging enough. Currently 67% of my expenses are mortgage payments and overpayments. I can't wait to be rid of this millstone and am setting a new target of October 2009 to clear it all.

Dithering_Dad

1274 wrote: »

Just wanted to post to say I've cleared another 5K off my mortgage in the last couple of weeks, so I have now managed to reduce it by 100K in a year. I know not all of you have this sort of disposable cash, but the lessons I've learned could apply to everyone:

• The beginning of mortgage reduction is really dispiriting. I had quite a few posts in the early months of 2008 when I despaired of seeing the figure ever go down, since the drops were so small, but the pace accelerates the more you pay off, so stick with it guys. Throw the odd tenner at the mortgage and it will help
• Using MFIT gives you a very positive goal. Before I joined, I'd been quite relaxed about making overpayments, which were fewer but for large amounts. Now I throw every spare £10 at the mortgage. Online banking helps a lot, because some weeks, all I've managed to overpay is £10 or £20. If I had to find a bank or write a cheque for that sort of amount, I probably wouldn't have bothered, but with a few clicks it's easy
• Interest rate cuts have helped, but the best thing is to have an unlimited overpayment mortgage or a flexible one so you don't have to worry about every small payment and whether it takes you over the limit
• The DFW board has helped me be more conscious of all my spending. I haven't cut it back like they do because I like my treats, but at least I now have an awareness of how much I spend and how much I need to live on (£16K for a year). I used to have a large salary, so where it all went above this figure I have no idea:eek:. With their advice, I've switched gas and electric, got deals on my mobile, used Tesco vouchers, stopped going to the cash machne for £40 a time and now take out £10. I've also been saving pound coins which pays for nights out at the pub.
• Finally, don't set your goals too low or too high. The former means you may be disappointed and the latter isn't challenging enough. Currently 67% of my expenses are mortgage payments and overpayments. I can't wait to be rid of this millstone and am setting a new target of October 2009 to clear it all.

Wow, what an incredible amount of money to shift in just a year!!

Great advice too, all things that every MFW shoudl be looking at. My own minimum outgoings are £33600 per year, so I think I'm going to have to revisit my figures again! - Though this does include investments that I pay on a monthly basis.

AnW'sMum

Some great posts, well done to you all. Looks like there will be some more green bands on the next chart which is due out in January.

Please don't forget to PM TallGirl with your up to date balance early in January (TG will give a final date for the chart) Even if you have not made any overpayments in the last three months but just your normal repayments, please update us with your totals. It keeps your name on the chart.

taka

1274 wrote: »

Just wanted to post to say I've cleared another 5K off my mortgage in the last couple of weeks, so I have now managed to reduce it by 100K in a year. I know not all of you have this sort of disposable cash, but the lessons I've learned could apply to everyone:

• The beginning of mortgage reduction is really dispiriting. I had quite a few posts in the early months of 2008 when I despaired of seeing the figure ever go down, since the drops were so small, but the pace accelerates the more you pay off, so stick with it guys. Throw the odd tenner at the mortgage and it will help
• Using MFIT gives you a very positive goal. Before I joined, I'd been quite relaxed about making overpayments, which were fewer but for large amounts. Now I throw every spare £10 at the mortgage. Online banking helps a lot, because some weeks, all I've managed to overpay is £10 or £20. If I had to find a bank or write a cheque for that sort of amount, I probably wouldn't have bothered, but with a few clicks it's easy
• Interest rate cuts have helped, but the best thing is to have an unlimited overpayment mortgage or a flexible one so you don't have to worry about every small payment and whether it takes you over the limit
• The DFW board has helped me be more conscious of all my spending. I haven't cut it back like they do because I like my treats, but at least I now have an awareness of how much I spend and how much I need to live on (£16K for a year). I used to have a large salary, so where it all went above this figure I have no idea:eek:. With their advice, I've switched gas and electric, got deals on my mobile, used Tesco vouchers, stopped going to the cash machne for £40 a time and now take out £10. I've also been saving pound coins which pays for nights out at the pub.
• Finally, don't set your goals too low or too high. The former means you may be disappointed and the latter isn't challenging enough. Currently 67% of my expenses are mortgage payments and overpayments. I can't wait to be rid of this millstone and am setting a new target of October 2009 to clear it all.

Well done 1274!! Thats a fair bit to manage in a year! I agree - there are so many painless changes that can be made that free up money that is otherwise wasted! Even choosing a couple of slightly painful changes help too - I guess its what is a priority to you!