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So after getting some inspiration reading some of the other threads in here, and realising I want to aim for the MF club, I thought I would post my own diary. Hopefully it'll help keep me on track...
So original mortgage £106000 taken out in 2007 but stupidly have made no overpayments until now which I kind of regret as we certainly had the means
. Current amount owed is a shade under £93000 and we have no other debt. Equity in the house is about 50 to 60k
I am thinking of it now as we just had a new son born two weeks ago and i want to get us on the best financial footing i can as well as maybe moving to the next rung of the ladder within the next 4years. We have some savings (£45k ish) but given the paltry returns currently, its barely worth the accounts the money is in. Currently on a 2 year fix @2.49% only started earlier this year but can make overpayments of up to 10%.
We already save anyway but I've never looked after it particularly closely (or well) so it's time I became a little more financially aware. I know we have some fat we can trim without even starting on our unnecessary luxuries. So this week I did the following:
Next up I plan to look into cashback sites and ebaying some of the stuff we don't use/need.
Target for 2013 is to pay off £9300. I am toying with two options:
1) Using some of our savings now and then saving whatever we can afford monthly to replenish savings
2) OPing whatever we can afford to monthly till December and then topping up the remainder of the 10% OP if needed with savings at the end of the year.
Not sure which to go for. Guess 1 will save me more interest but 2 is clearly best for maintaining savings.
Cheers F&F
So original mortgage £106000 taken out in 2007 but stupidly have made no overpayments until now which I kind of regret as we certainly had the means

I am thinking of it now as we just had a new son born two weeks ago and i want to get us on the best financial footing i can as well as maybe moving to the next rung of the ladder within the next 4years. We have some savings (£45k ish) but given the paltry returns currently, its barely worth the accounts the money is in. Currently on a 2 year fix @2.49% only started earlier this year but can make overpayments of up to 10%.
We already save anyway but I've never looked after it particularly closely (or well) so it's time I became a little more financially aware. I know we have some fat we can trim without even starting on our unnecessary luxuries. So this week I did the following:
- Switched ISAs to get better rates
- Switched current account to Santander 123 (have a Santander mortgage)
- Started budgeting to free up a little more cash
Next up I plan to look into cashback sites and ebaying some of the stuff we don't use/need.
Target for 2013 is to pay off £9300. I am toying with two options:
1) Using some of our savings now and then saving whatever we can afford monthly to replenish savings
2) OPing whatever we can afford to monthly till December and then topping up the remainder of the 10% OP if needed with savings at the end of the year.
Not sure which to go for. Guess 1 will save me more interest but 2 is clearly best for maintaining savings.
Cheers F&F
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I personally think you have a good amount of savings so if the interest you pay on the mortgage is higher than the interest you get in your ISA I would go for option 1 and rebuild savings throughout the rest of the year...
Play with the OP calculator on here or elsewhere and put the ideas to the test-its scary how much any OP will save you in the long run!
It's embarrising to admit this, but I knew nothing about offset mortgages until I started looking into paying down the mortgage a couple of weeks ago, though i was aware of trackers. I have just always just automatically defaulted to fixed rate mortgages so I knew the payment would not change. But will definitely consider one once I am out of the fix (march 2015).
I quite like the idea that the second option gives me a bit more flexibility should something bad happen in the future - i.e I could revert to the default lower payment without penalty and just stop the overpayments. But I don't want to do that if its going to cost me more in the long run.
Why are these decisions never easy? ;-)
If you merely lower the payments then you will still be paying the mortgage over the same amount of time but will have more spare money to add to your savings.
Not sure I've explained that well, if I haven't I'll have another go.
In 2014, I plan to be a little more organised, OPing regularly through the year, that way I can continue to build my savings too. So 2014 target is a shade over 8K given 10% per year is my max until I get off this darn fixed rate and onto a more flexible mortgage.
But in 2014, we have some work to do. We are budgeting to some extent, but we are still wasting way too much money on frivolous stuff we don't need. Need to get that under control, any tips on getting buy in from the other half?
Cheers and Merry Christmas to all
I wasn't as lucky as you and got hit by massive negative equity so I only managed to get 84% ltv so it is nearer 3% but compaired to the 6% I was on before to me that is amazing.
Outstanding 02/12/14 £107652.40 LTV 76%