New Member and a MFW

Ben-_2

Made my first over payment of 50 last week. Just got a new statement through, my interest has dropped by 26p per month, just from this one payment... That's mad!

Ben-_2

Another 50 pound this week.

I'm currently 26, i would love to be MF by 40

Been looking a where i can make some savings. Paid phone line upfront and that saved me 50 for the year

Hopefully i will see a pay rise in March/April. Last year, we received nothing, lets hope this year makes up for it :-)

Catanddogs

Hi and welcome
I phoned sky the other day and told them that we could not afford to pay £50 per month anymore....new payment is 25!! Just shows what a difference a phone call can make.

ztan

Good Luck Ben... you've got a lot on your plate.

Definitely agree with the others about getting some emergency savings behind you. Tighten the purse strings now whilst you still have 2 incomes and you wont have to keep them as tight when the baby comes along. It might hurt for a bit now, but it'll be worth it!

Bufger

Ben- wrote: »

Another 50 pound this week.

I'm currently 26, i would love to be MF by 40

Been looking a where i can make some savings. Paid phone line upfront and that saved me 50 for the year

Hopefully i will see a pay rise in March/April. Last year, we received nothing, lets hope this year makes up for it :-)

You could definately be mortgage free by the time you're 40. You have to learn how to snowball and live to your current means. Put it this way:

You're making £50 regular overpayments. Lets say thats monthly.
Once your TV payment finishes that £120 to overpay
Once your sofa finance finishes thats £50 to overpay.

If you never get used to having that money you wont miss it and you'll budget accordingly. That will be a monthly overpayment of £220. If you get a payrise add that to it (or 50% of it etc) and you're laughing, year on year your overpayments will accellerate and your interest will decrease meaning more of your monthly payments pay down the capital. You'll have it done in no time

SmileyG_2

ztan wrote: »

Good Luck Ben... you've got a lot on your plate.

Definitely agree with the others about getting some emergency savings behind you. Tighten the purse strings now whilst you still have 2 incomes and you wont have to keep them as tight when the baby comes along. It might hurt for a bit now, but it'll be worth it!

It took me 34 years to build up 5 mths emergency savings, but it barely needs topping up from me anymore. I just let it do its own thing (annual interest), and I might have to make a small deposit now and then.

Start small and you'll be amazes how quickly it accumulates, but I would agree with everyone that says you should have a emergency fund before you start to attack the mortgage.

You could always count it at as offset against your mortgage. Others do!:p

SmileyG

Ben-_2

Op 100 last month

Need to update sig as debt has also decreased

Phoned up mortgage company to also decrease number of years, not by too much, as I cannot increase it if needed. So taken two years off mortgage which only increased monthly payment by a small amount

Hopefully hear about my pay rise shortly

Ben-_2

Reduced term to 21 years... Only placed the mortgage up by 23 pound a month. With some more over payments each month will hopefully have cleared this alot earlier than the original date

My focus in currently on clearing my 0% credit card and getting a emergency fund behind me

jimmybrid

Hi Ben and welcome to MFW.
Have you checked out the Santander 123 current account? It pays 3% interest on balances over £1000 and gives cashback on direct debit payments for water, gas, electric, broadband, sky tv and council tax. Costs £2 a month but the cash back should more than cover it.
Cashback credit cards also work well, although you need to weigh up the cash back you will earn vs any annual fee on the card- some fee free cards are available.
Congratulations on the baby news, as a father of two (daughter 3yrs 3months, and son 7 weeks) the advice would be:
Don't be tempted to buy too many clothes in the first few months, they grow so quickly that they may only wear stuff once or twice. We already have a bin bag full of clothes our boy has outgrown.
Breastfeeding - not the easiest thing for your OH to achieve but the benefits are huge....much cheaper than formula, no messing about making up bottles, helps OH lose the baby weight (Mrs JB is now 3stone below the weight she was just before giving birth) and breastfed babies tend to be less susceptible to illnesses.
If you are looking at setting up savings for little bub then go for the Halifax Junior ISA, it pays 3% normally but 6% if you have an ISA with Halifax as well. You can open your ISA with just £1 although I went wild and put £10 in.

Enjoy your journey to Mortgage Freedom, and the journey of fatherhood.

Ben-_2

So, haven't updated for a while.

Thought I look back and compare my finanicial status.

Mortgage is now around 114'000

Loan is 2'400
Credit card is 3'400
TV is paid off

Emergency funds now stand at 750

So, it getting there. :-)