How did you get your partner on board?

Bufger

My partner doesnt take as much interest in Moneysaving as I do. She is very good with money but she wont actively take part in the future planning of Money. I've been trying for a long time to get her interested or even excited about overpaying the mortgage but whenever the subject comes up she always moves the subject on to other things.

Does anyone else have this? have you just given up and have one of you sort out the overpayments and saving for OP or do you still battle to get them on board?

If you managed it, how did you manage it and what do they think now?

Calfuray

Compromises and bargaining

For example, Mr Cal is in charge of paying for grocery shopping, and I'm in charge of OPs and saving for future. That way if he wants a takeaway etc, it doesn't come out budget I've set. I do feel a bit guilty sometimes that he is paying for the food, but I save and OP 2x what he pays so it is fair for us.

And recently, he decided he wanted FibreOptic BB, which I agreed to pay for, as long as we change SO to bank for mortgage - another monthly OP

Lois_E

If your partner is good with money and happy for you to OP then you've got a better deal than a lot of people. Believe me, that's a lot better than a partner who keeps overspending and resents any attempts to discuss cutting back, which was what my X was like.

You may be able to get her excited about OPing, but even if you never do, we are all still here for you to share your journey with.

Pennywise

Do some sums.

Tell her how much you'll pay in interest over the next 10/20 years if you carry on paying the normal amount.

Then show her how much interest you'd save if you overpay by say £50 and £100 per month.

Highlight how much money you'd save over the life of the mortgage and then relate that to holidays, cars, gadgets, shoes, or whatever floats her boat.

Given the facts in front of you, it's an easy sell.

Alion

I tried the big picture with my husband but he didn't see the point. Then I broke it down to something more immediate. Friends of ours had just moved to a family home and their mortgage had gone up to £2k a month (!!!) which is considerably more than we could ever afford.

I worked out what we were paying and if we moved in 5 years' time what we'd owe and how much we'd be borrowing and repaying and it was really scary stuff. Then I put in a manageable overpayment and showed how it meant we could afford what we wanted in the timescale that worked for us.

I broke it down into 5 annual targets to reach that goal, all of which we beat because he jumped right on board.

It took us a little longer as house prices kept going up in this area when everywhere else was going down, but we made it and we've recently moved into our new home with mortgage payments only slightly higher than on our last one and very much in line with what we can afford.

We haven't discussed overpaying this mortgage yet, we've got other drains on our cash, but he's got the bug so I think it'll be easy.

happycamel_2

I tell hie can spend 25% of the interest we save on stuff he wants. I've just made our big OP for the year so he's using his allowance and his bonus to buy a new laptop!

QB_Wolf

I haven't really convinced my wife about overpaying even with sums and graphs etc, but I'm lucky as she's a bit of a bargain hunter anyway and isn't frivalous with money, so I don't really worry her about it to be honest.

Sh would like to move but I've spelt it out that this is not possible until we can increase the equity in the house by OPing.

Bufger

QB_Wolf wrote: »

I haven't really convinced my wife about overpaying even with sums and graphs etc, but I'm lucky as she's a bit of a bargain hunter anyway and isn't frivalous with money, so I don't really worry her about it to be honest.

Sh would like to move but I've spelt it out that this is not possible until we can increase the equity in the house by OPing.

This is the same situation with us. We'd like to move in 3-5 but without overpayments its not possible. I wouldnt want to have a standard mortgage payment to be any bigger than it currently is so we'd have some work to do to get that equity in the property first.

edinburgher

My wife really isn't interested. She is involved in the big decisions (i.e. 'we have a windfall - should we a)? b)? c)?') but she doesn't really care too much about the day to day.

It can be a little frustrating at times (I worry that I bore her with the details too much, but she doesn't really get involved).

To date, small victories have been the greatest. For example, she now looks for discount codes, cashback and points opportunities pretty consistently. The girl I met 6 years ago wouldn't have done this!

I have largely given up trying to change her on topics such as OPs and investing, but I continue to love the trust she shows in me as I try to steer our finances towards a happy future :beer:

RevolvingDoor

I think I am more enthusiastic than my DH about overpaying but he is on board with the idea of reducing our mortgage.

I have taken over calling up to overpay as we can't do it online but it is enjoyable so I don't mind doing it.;)

Bufger

RevolvingDoor wrote: »

I think I am more enthusiastic than my DH about overpaying but he is on board with the idea of reducing our mortgage.

I have taken over calling up to overpay as we can't do it online but it is enjoyable so I don't mind doing it.;)

i'm thinking of making it a monthly family trip. Its about 1 mile to our local Natwest branch and there is also a grocers, butchers, pub and cafe there. I was thinking on a saturday at the end of the month we'd all take a walk, overpay and have one small treat as a well done for the OP like a coffee, a beer or something. That'd make overpaying a family event literally and it might entice her some more.