MF before I'm 30

originalmiscellany

Well done YoungBaker.
We managed to be MF in our early 30's and it is a great feeling.
Unlike you we didn't start immediately overpaying but did as soon as possible. We didn't bother with an emergency fund as we had/have an offset which allows you to dip into in an emergency, so I offset my savings into an offset if that makes sense!

Planning now will be ideal, especially as like you say children are on the cards as going down to one income is a challenge - just ask anyone on here who has gone through it.

Anyway, all the best to your financial pursuits and your 30 year MF target.

YoungBaker

OK, will dig out the mortgage agreement and t's & c's tonight then and see what it says about overpaying - the only previous restriction I remember reading from when we took the mortgage out was the 10% cap per year, which is from your January balance. (so £6800 this year).

And yeh, well that is the thing obviously we will have a lot of circumstances changes and don't know where we will end up or in what situation kids or otherwise, but want to get moving and get our savings built up.

Can I ask - I have seen in many other diaries people mentioning... Tilly Tidies? haha what is this?

Calfuray

I swear this should be a sticky :rotfl:

A Tilly Tidy was named after a user on here, Tilly. I think TillyTidy was coined by nattypants or gallygirl.

Anyway. It is the process of checking what is in your account, let's say you have £54.41 (Hopefully not!)
Then you would 'tidy' the pennies over to the mortgage, in this case you could tidy to the nearest 10p, £1 or £5 etc, so you could pay 1p, 41p, or £4.41, the idea being that you won't notice these small amounts coming off of your balance, but they will make a big difference to the mortgage. Rounding to the nearest £1 is the usual I believe.

Also, which bank are you with for the mortgage and we might know some more info about how to make OPs?

YoungBaker

Ah I get it Tht does sound like it would make a bit of an impact... how often do you guys check though and do it?

Our mortgage is fixed with Santander for 2 years then we go onto their SVR, so after the 2 years will see where we are at!

Looking forward to really getting into this now, have just deposited £100 in cash we had in the house that was part of our saving so will see it in the account soon, got a load of pennies and stuff we need to cash in to!

davidqu

Hi young baker

Just want to wish you the best of luck with your efforts to MF, i became mortgage free last week at the age of 28 (almost 29) it can be done with a LOT of hard work and tbh some good luck along the way.

I made a conscious decision that I wanted my mortgage payed off as quickly as possible and it seems you have the same mentality, good luck and I will keep an eye out on the forum to see how you get on.

YoungBaker

davidqu wrote: »

Hi young baker

Just want to wish you the best of luck with your efforts to MF, i became mortgage free last week at the age of 28 (almost 29) it can be done with a LOT of hard work and tbh some good luck along the way.

I made a conscious decision that I wanted my mortgage payed off as quickly as possible and it seems you have the same mentality, good luck and I will keep an eye out on the forum to see how you get on.

Wow, that is an achievement! If you don't mind me asking - how much was your original balance and how long did it take you since you started? Any tips or anything in particular I could take?

Also what is your plans now yuo are MF at such a young age? Will you buy again and keep your place? Sell? Are you already in your forever home? Sorry for all the questions haha... the place we have just bought is a great wee house for us starting our and will definitely do us five or maybe more years and until after we have our first child likely... once OH finishes her years probation, if she got a permanent job we would be in a much better position to buy somewhere a bit bigger that would be our forever home on a permanent combined salary (our house was originally just bought on mine, hence the ability to over pay and save so well on her salary). There is no rush anyway for us to get anything bigger as I say, but love the thought of paying off as much as we can and if we managed to have only a little left by the time we were considering moving on there would be the possibility of keeping it on / renting it out or something and having a totally MF property for us to always fall back on.

davidqu

YoungBaker wrote: »

Wow, that is an achievement! If you don't mind me asking - how much was your original balance and how long did it take you since you started? Any tips or anything in particular I could take?

Also what is your plans now yuo are MF at such a young age? Will you buy again and keep your place? Sell? Are you already in your forever home? Sorry for all the questions haha... the place we have just bought is a great wee house for us starting our and will definitely do us five or maybe more years and until after we have our first child likely... once OH finishes her years probation, if she got a permanent job we would be in a much better position to buy somewhere a bit bigger that would be our forever home on a permanent combined salary (our house was originally just bought on mine, hence the ability to over pay and save so well on her salary). There is no rush anyway for us to get anything bigger as I say, but love the thought of paying off as much as we can and if we managed to have only a little left by the time we were considering moving on there would be the possibility of keeping it on / renting it out or something and having a totally MF property for us to always fall back on.

No problem, i do find myself very fortunate but I have sacrafised quite a lot of my younger years to be where I am today.

My house was bought for 70k of which I had a 50% deposit so I had a mortgage of 35k.

I had a good job and amassed around 8k in savings before I really started to knuckle down

My old employer paid very well and offered overtime basically anytime you wanted it, i worked shifts so I could theoretically work 3 shifts overtime per week, which I did. We also got a bonus on top of that if we worked continuously, I worked 9 months straight 7 days a week with maybe 6 or 7 days off in between that period. HARD work but the rewards were my deposit and as I stayed at home with my mother during this period i had very little outgoings. you never had time to spend your money as I was always working. My partner also contributed toward the deposit which helped. My partner also has a decent paid job.

All good things must come to an end, my then work announced redundancies around 2011-2012 time, the work we were doing was getting moved to Germany. I was very fortunate to start a new job 2 months aft I was made redundant, I had already had it in the pipeline when we were going thru the redundancy process which put my mind at ease. I got a pretty good package and started my new job.

With my redundancy money i put it in various saving products, fixed term deposits, ISA S&S ISA, savings.

With the interest rates falling year after year I made a decision once my fixed term deposit was due to mature to pay off my mortgage which coincided with my mortgage term being up which meant no early repayment fee.

It was hard parting with that amount of money believe me but I made a decision which I hope will set me up in the future.

Regarding my future plans, I'm not sure my house is big enough for when we start a family so will probably look to move when the time is right.

I've put in the HARD work but I have also been very fortunate with being in the right place at right time regarding gettin my redundancy package and getting a new job straight away.

I wish you all the best mate

FloppyDisk

Hi youngbaker, I'm a few years ahead of you (or am I a few years behind you?), in a flat that should do us until the first small thing makes an appearance, or desperation for a dog is too great, which ever happens first! I bought the flat on my salary alone and have a student OH too, so in a year's time I hope we can be in a strong position like you. I'm nearly there in saving my emergency pot, then I come Christmas I will have OPs to look forward to in earnest. Although I am thinking of splitting left-over-at-the-end-of-the-month-money as 75% OPs, 20% into a savings account for holidays, handbags, Rovers etc basically savings that I am actually allowed to spend, and the remaining 5% into a stocks and shares Isa as a long term forget-about-it-until-wrinkly fund. For me it's important to remember that we're not in debt as such and if a windfall comes my way or I get a Xmas bonus etc, that I should feel able to enjoy it a bit, instead of it whizzing past me on it's way to the mortgage. But I know that approach isn't for everyone.

It's probably worth mentioning your pension too, make sure you are getting the most out of your employers contributions as it's never too early to take advantage of them!

tinkerbel

Wow what an inspiration! You sound incredibly grown up and grounded and you've achieved so much at such a young age! This should really stand you in a good position going forwards I am still renting and trying to learn how to be savvy and save towards a deposit but the prices where I live are impossibly high and it will be very hard.

What sector is your wife in? Is it likely that the job will get extended after the year?

I think you've had good advice about the 6 months expenses but I would look into the terms and see if if you overpay, you can subsequently take a payment holiday if something goes wrong... Also if a family is on your horizon it would be good to have a good buffer in your emergency fund. Perhaps fill one year Ida allowance then focus on the overpayments? Or if you can only do 10% annually perhaps think about the best timings to make some payments I.e. make some payments before the end of the year that the bank count so that next year you can make a large over payment and benefit from two years worth of allowance perhaps if this makes sense....

Anyway I'll be rooting for you and following your journey! Keep us posted!!

Tahlullah

What a totally focussed person you are. May I wish you every luck with you journey to being mortgage free.

Perhaps, once your current locked in mortgage ends, you could look to getting an offset. Great as they help you by allowing you to overpay as much or as little as you wish and there is usually the facility to draw down, so your savings buffer have a dual purpose, paying down the interest on the mortgage, or reducing the capital if you pay it in.

I wish I was as switched on as you at that age. I am full of admiration for you and will follow your journey with interest.