Offset mortgage vs 2.79% 5yr fix?

RedMonty

Hi all,

Thanks for discussing my income I'm happy to tell you how much we earn if we meet face to face - I'm not as private as some are about incomes - but I'd rather not reveal it on t'interwebs.

We saved quite a large deposit through many years of work, no car, and living in a tiny very cheap 1-bedroom council flat. A combination of two deaths in the family and a second baby (yes we were already living 3 in one bedroom before) meant that it was time to move out, and the money was there to do so, several years ago.

Our house is worth more or less the same as it was when we bought it, but I'm not bothered - rather be paying out on mortgage than rent money - and we have a garden for our kids now.

I wish we earned £100k/year - safe to say nowhere near that (If I was, I wouldn''t be trawling through money-saving websites!) - but we were still putting away savings even when we were paying for childcare.

I was made redundant last year & became the main carer for our kids ( my partner is the main earner) but the good side is that after not paying for fulltime childcare any more, & not paying the taxes & expenses linked with work (suits, childcare, transport, work lunches etc) I'm only a little bit financially worse after redundancy. And it was lovely to get to know my kids again. They were becoming strangers to me while I was working fulltime.

Our youngest just became of school age so I'm now able to work again (no more bloody childcarers!) and in the middle of setting up a non-profit org with some advisors & volunteers. Might or might not work out, but thats the way the chips fall, and it's a low-capital-investment org. We have our first public meeting next month (no I won't give the org name here) and support from some bigger orgs in the same sector (our remit is different to theirs so we're not competing).

So back to houses, while we're still saving and interest rates are low, it makes sense to pay off as much as possible of the mortgage (& get a lender that lets us get our overpayment back) before rates go back up again.

Enough information for you?

Cheers

RedMonty