top up mortgage or?

Radsteral

Hello, Iwas wondering what would you do in my situation .
3 years ago i bought my house in south east london, strugled big time to get a mortgage then..had good deposit but wages werent up to it when it came to affordability
I m in a much better situation now, my 3 years salaries are at 43.000 each year...house bbought for 235000 , deposit 61 l and the last 2 years i have overpaid in total 25k , so loan left around 145 k .


my parents, live abroad, not british, and sold their flat , and gave me last year 50 thousand euros. and i got around around 20 thousand pounds in savings

currant rate 3.9 expires in february, currently 925 a month which can easily afford , specially when thinking my 2 lodgers almost pay 900 for the 2 rooms upstairs


do you think i throw all this money to pay the mortgage or go for another small flat ?
i like the idea i got from this forum to pay mortgage as soon as you can, but i m builder by trade..not used to easy life ,sitting on a spotless back garden having tea..
what do you think?

Yorkie1

As a builder, I imagine you're self-employed?

Have you made proper provision for a pension, ill-health meaning you're unable to work etc (other than just cash, or property BTL)?

Radsteral

thank you for your reply . at 37 , i believe i m too late for pension , unless i spend large ammount of money, though reading through with people s complaints regarding pension hopes, not keen on it at all

the second one, is something i have thought about a lot aand have invested for my wife to be work independend and it has started to pay of. she s finishing college with nvq3 for beauty therapy this year and already got few clients, ..easy for her to get a job with small pay ie 7-8 pounds per hour..considering that 3 years ago, she d hand her cv in hundreeds of places and no chance of a single repply , so have thought of her as a half back up;)
Being certain of things is great and i like that.. thats why im leaning more to pay the mortgage.. it will leave us with less than 100 k loan, hopefully to lower our monthly bill , which sounds great

Yorkie1

I don't know but I'll bump it back up to the top of the board for you.

R_P_W

Just a question - if you are wary of pensions and believe it is too late - what are you planning for your retirement????

Suggest you find out a few more facts about pensions and 37 isnt tool late!

myhouse_2

Pension! Sort it out - it's certainly not too late and it's tax friendly - I started mine at the same age. I intend to overpay on my pension to top it up but even if you don't, it'll still be worthwhile. With a good initial payment you'll be able to compensate for not starting early enough. Personally I would probably overpay the mortgage with part of your funds as well though, just for short term security.

Radsteral

rpv maybe i m being stupid though , i have had a direct debit for national insurance contributions for the last 10 years or more ..does that contribute to state pension?or its just what you pay for the fat cats?;)

maybe i m being stuppid too but if i reach 70 (by the time im 65 they probably puhed pension age to 80!) ..i would like to make a big big party and then dont care what s happens to me for the next 5-10 years ...if my son, decides i have been a good dady and helps ok, otherwise, still ok ..never been on benefits or begged on the streets but i know i addapt very quick to situations

my house--- if i havent contributed any, to kickstart it or to catch up like i missed from year 22 to year 37, how much roughly would i need to contribute for state pension to be even?

i love this country same as albania where i was born, though i got a feeling, by the time i reached 55, i would probably weight towards my albanistan more than my londonistan;)

thank you for your replies, and yorkie, thanks for your help too