Only just had my offer but I'm a MFW!

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Morning Lee111s, how fantastic that you have this mindset so early in your mortgage days. This will be an interesting diary to read. Lulabelle is right, keep posting as it really does help the motivation.

Good luck, Tilly

R_P_W

I agee with above posters that is it very good you have this mindset from day 1.

All I would add is that there are all kinds of unexpected costs/things to buy that you maybe dont budget for. Although if it is a newbuild hopefully things like decorating will be very straightforward.
I would strongly recommend you spend the first 6 months putting any spare money into savings rather than overpaying. You really do need a savings buffer of between 3-6 months expenses.

Once you have this then start overpaying.

lee111s

Thanks for all the support, I'm here to stay and will keep everyone updated on progress!

Thanks RPW - I fully plan on having a savings account set up alongside my overpayments. Once I'm settled and know exactly how much my outgoings will be I think I'll have more than enough spare cash to save and OP but I'm not getting too far ahead of myself. If I don't, then savings will take precidence until I have a few grand then I will OP

I think the bathroom will wait until next year as I've just found out my parents are retiring at 50 (lucky !!!!!!s) and going back part time. They're kindly going give me some money from their lump sum payouts which will be a great help. I also have some shares maturing at work in 3 years which will be about £9k providing nothing drastic happens, either way I'm guaranteed to get back the £3600 I've put in over the 5 years of the scheme.

Hoping to hear from the solicitor next week to say that contracts are ready to be exchanged! Exciting times!!

lee111s

Been a while since I made this post but a lot has happened!

My girlfriend has moved in with me, I've done every room in the house including bathroom and kitchen, sorted the garden out and still managed to have a little bit of fun along the way!

Having spent a lot of my money on the house I decided to treat myself in October and took out a loan and bought myself a Lotus Elise. At an interest rate of 4% and with some work shares maturing in 18 months which will be enough to clear the loan, for the £300 or so interest it will cost over the 2 years, I felt it worthwhile to do it!

I'm still commited to being a MFW and have subsequently made my first overpayment in December of £450 and will be making another payment of £600 this week. Another payment of £500 in February will get me under my £100k target while in my first two year fix

I'm in the process of remortgaging to Nationwide to their flexclusive tracker deal which is going to take 3 years off the term and reduce the payments by around £95 a month.

I'm still undecided as to whether then pay down the loan which has the higher interest rate, or smash it off the mortgage and take advantage of the low interest rates!

I'll be updating this thread more often now that I'm in a position to be actually paying down the mortgage and have properly embarked on my journey of a MFW!

lee111s

First overpayment of 2015 done today, £600 off! Takes me down to £100400 with still two more payments on this fix, plus hopefully another £1000 overpayments before the end of March. Looking at owing £99,500 when the remortgage goes through. I've applied for £100k as wasn't sure exactly where I'd be but any surplus will be paid off the mortgage right away.

elantan

Woo hoo mortgage free plans, room renting and a pension at your age ... well done, thats a huge step in the right direction

lee111s

Some good news today, had my remortage approved by Nationwide so the offer is in the post. Wooohooo!

It's £90 a month cheaper and 3 years off the term. I plan to overpay another £1000 before the remortgage goes through on April 1st, should take me down to owing just over £99000 which I'm very happy about.

I'm unsure what to do after the remortgage though with regards to overpayments. I think I'm better off overpaying my loan as that has the higher interest rate of 4%. If I stick to it I can get it paid off in just over 14 months from now which would then allow me to get back to chipping away at the mortgage. I can then use the return from the sharescheme to pay down the mortage when they mature in August 2016. Thoughts?

egoode

Congrats on what you have managed to do so far. I think you are definitely better off paying the loan down first. It's generally the normal process to overpay on the higher interest one first.

lee111s

Yeah that's what I think I'll do. Hopefully the BOE base rate stays where it is for a while as I've take out a tracker. Still, the rate would have to raise by more than 1% before I'm any worse off, and with Nationwide I can lock in a fix at any time.

Miss_Moneysaver

Hi,




You certainly have a plan. I wish I had thought about overpaying when I was 25 too! Mind you, I was 26 when I bought my first house with hubby.


We should have overpaid for a few years but went on many holidays instead. Now we have a bigger house, 2 kids (and pay childcare) and I went part time! So, our income dropped dramatically!
I do overpay now though and hope to be mortgage free before 45!