Mortgage Free in Three Yrs

Dithering_Dad

Congrats to Taka for hitting her MFi3 target a year early and commiserations to Desperate Housewife for the miscalculation. I know exactly what you mean when you say you feel like you've gone backwards. I was the same when I used to include my offset savings in my mortgage balance signature. It was all going swimmingly until I paid my tax bill (thats what the offset money was put aside for) and ended up with my mortgage going back up by about £5k! :eek:

I don't count the money in my offset anymore

esthomizzy

firesidemaid wrote: »

i too am trying to get my head round those sums, eso.

Thanks guys

I am so poor at explaining things. Perhaps a spreadsheet with help (well I can't even seem to do the photobucket insert which used to work but a jpg of the spreadsheet is in the link below now). Especiallly since I was doing the figures a little blind before, doing the adding and subtracting in my head. Now I've done it properly the gains look even better than before. Of course I have no idea whether this will come out properly so if it's mashed up and anyone actually wants to see it (for pure insane curiousity) then pm me. My LTV is between 25 and 30 so I should be ok for the product I want. The max the website claims for my income multiples is 216k but that is the max I would want as well. I don't really mind sacrificing my savings because the real problem with my current mortgage is that they wont allow payment holidays or take into account previous overpayments if I ever get into difficulties so that's the sole purpose of the savings not already being paid off the mortgage. Additionally my regular payments are very high and if I were forced to take a much lower paid job I would really struggle so I need that money to be able to pay the mortgage while I get myself back on my feet. Changing would give me much greater flexibility as my contractual amount would go down to £768 (interest only). I wouldn't pay that of course I would maintain a 1650pcm payment in total which would make my term about 14.5years (compared to the 17.2 it is on my current payments and rate). Obviously beyond the fix term I'd have to make the payable rate for whatever the rate is then to stick to my chosen term but I'd have to do that anyway even with my existing product.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y245/esthomizzy/temp/fig-1.jpg

esthomizzy

hmmm that worked very poorly. TallGirl how do you insert our spreadsheet for the challenge?

jobbingmusician

Hi folks - sorry I've been out of touch for such a long time, and didn't update for the last spreadsheet - life got on top of me!

I'm still unemployed, but still managing to overpay the mortgage, and the balance is now £17,801.18

And I now have some excellent work - I'll be self-employed, but with a largish contract which will bring me in enough to live on for 2-3 days' work a week, and have a great business idea which this will let me develop. I am holding off jumping right in until next month, so that the tax is tidy!

setmefree2

jobbingmusician wrote: »

still managing to overpay the mortgage, and the balance is now £17,801.18

well done :T

mountainlioness

Hi all

Long time no post from me! We haven't been overpaying for a while as we're on an uncollared +0.38 tracker and Mr Martin's OP tool said it wasn't worth it... though with savings rates plummeting, we might change our minds soon...

But enough of that - I have news!!

We're expecting our first in September!!

All very exciting... and also expensive.... so we're trying to save manically for the next 6 months so we're in a good position. Trying not to fall into the trap of buying everything that the baby mags say you need, and brand new, so we're hoping to be relatively MSE about it. The major outlay will be the travel system, which needs to be super compact to fit in the boot of my car, which we're def not changing (DH has an estate anyway, so at least one of them is a bit more family friendly)

Hope you're all well - just wanted to share!

MoneySavingNovice

Hello,

Given that I have now managed to complete the original target - and have a revised target, (see earlier post)........ do you think that my new signature makes any sense?

I am trying to get a lot of information in a very small space and to be honest I’m not sure.

Thanks

Dithering_Dad

It is a tad confusing , but then I'm easily confused these days.

I don't think your original target is as important a figure as the ones showing where you were at the start of the challenge and where you are right now. They're the ones that show people how well you're doing.

AnW'sMum

mountainlioness wrote: »

But enough of that - I have news!!

We're expecting our first in September!!

What wonderful news congratulations to you both :T what an exciting time.

AnW'sMum

MSN I am inclined to agree with DD. Sometimes less is more with signatures Some people may be so confused that they don't even 'read' your signature and given that you have done so well would be a shame if others struggle to understand exactly how much you did/now owe.

Don't forget people that we are fast approaching our 2nd anniversary of this challenge. As soon as you know your balance for the end of March (early Aprl ) then please let Tall Girl know so that she can get the chart updated ready for posting in April. The sooner you get your figures in the easier her job will be. I wonder how many green stripes will be on the next chart.