Mortgage Free For A Happier Me

Happier_Me

Another pay day and tomorrow our mortgage will fall to £54,600ish with a small amount added to savings.

We have had an expensive month - paying the balance of our Summer holiday and fixing things in the house that seem to be eroding before our eyes. We've also had several birthdays and birthday parties to pay for this month so the credit card bill is eye watering.

A sneaky weekend away to a well known holiday destination on the east coast during the half term hasn't helped either. But the inner 5 year old in us thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Is it wrong that mum and dad were definitely more excited about our weekend away than our kids? It is somewhat concerning that their mental age seems close to surpassing ours now:o I am sure DD will argue she is now the most sensible one out of the four of us anyway.

Work wise, I am still enjoying the change although the jury is out with my manager. In terms of management of people and situations we are polar opposites with me clearly being the better at both:D. I will be job hunting (and attempting to secure VR) if things don't improve which is a shame because he has such a negative impact on so many staff and colleagues (and the job could be perfect for me).

We have around 12 months to go before we are officially mortgage neutral so I may have to start a countdown soon:cool:

Happier_Me

We have a new addition to the family ...a four legged friend of the canine variety who desperately needed a new home. She is a sweety and adjusting to a somewhat busier household than she has been used to. She is a border collie so certainly has the energy to keep up with us.

DH has used the new addition as an opportunity to try to convince me we need an estate/hatch car. Fair enough ...if he would consider a like for like swap with little added to the purchase price after the part ex of our car. But no, he is looking at spending another £8-£10k to get the car he really wants. He usually gets his own way on things like this but not this time. He can have a new car once the mortgage is gone and I think he is happy enough with this. So we're searching for car seat covers as an alternative.

We have paid off a car loan from our savings as it saves us a fair amount in interest and I've decided I don't want any repayment of any sort (mortgage/loan) longer term. This will mean our mortgage date stretches to Dec 2016 though.

gallygirl

Happier_Me wrote: »

. He can have a new car once the mortgage is gone and I think he is happy enough with this. So we're searching for car seat covers as an alternative.

:rotfl: wow, that's some negotiating skills you've got there , well done :T

slowlyfading

Happy new dog! Any chance of a pic?

Happier_Me

I think he knows deep down its not the right thing to do but common sense goes out the window when cars are involved. I am rather pleased with the compromise but its only took me 19 years to win one of our car 'debates' so I think I'm due.

I will try to post a photo at the weekend. She is a cutey with a large black patch over one eye, the rest of her face is white.

I am off work today as part of her settling in period. She's had a one hour walk so far and we are meeting a friend at lunch for another walk with the ball thrower.

She really doesn't sell herself when she meets new people so she was heading for rescue. And I think she would have been lucky to find a home from there.

Happier_Me

I've just read back a number of my old posts from last year. We were considering a BTL and this isn't entirely off the cards. A few things are putting me off (tax inefficiency, the work to manage it and the extra debt). I know we need to treat this as a business but I really want rid of my debt and to simplify the 'stuff' we have to deal with. Overall I think I am maybe a bit too risk averse for this but we'll see.

We are actually sticking to our budget far better than we did at any point last year despite seeing a drop in income which is good. DH did have a bit of a wobble last week when he wanted to spend loads on a new car. He is very spontaneous and had I shown any weakness he would be awaiting delivery of a new car by now. As the female in the relationship I am fairly sure I should be the high maintenance one of the two of us.

There is one area that DH is very good at saving money on though and that's my birthday. For my 30th the tight s@d bought me two packets of parmer violets. It's my next big birthday tomorrow and he asked the other day if I had bought myself a birthday card from the kids yet! I shall report back what I get, if anything tomorrow.

gallygirl

Happier_Me wrote: »

I've just read back a number of my old posts from last year. We were considering a BTL and this isn't entirely off the cards. A few things are putting me off (tax inefficiency, the work to manage it and the extra debt). I know we need to treat this as a business but I really want rid of my debt and to simplify the 'stuff' we have to deal with.

Why do you want to get rid of the debt? What are your long term aims and what is the best way to achieve them? And, more importantly, what are you prepared to do to achieve them? These are the things you need to sort out in your own mind - what are your priorities?

I run 4 BTL's and I'd say on average it's an hour a week - except it's actually nothing most weeks then more occasionally if you have a change of tenancy etc. Do your homework, buy sensibly and there is not a lot of work involved to keep up to date.

Happier_Me

Hi GG

It's reassuring that you don't actually spend that long managing yours.

We started looking for a BTL over Christmas, actually viewed a few but I had in the back of mind 'Could I live here in retirement?'. We will definitely be downsizing in retirement and the sort of house we buy for ourselves later will actually be similar to the BTL we buy now (aimed at families). So my thinking was, could I combine a BTL with a potential future retirement home for us? That way we could move in eventually, pay no tax while we live there and pass on any CGT issues to our kids (I'm thoughtful like that!). The whole value of our current house would then form part of our retirement 'pot' tax free.

I know I shouldn't think this way, it's a busineaa after all, but it was an eye opener mainly because I didn't realise how fussy we are (for ourselves). Garage and south facing garden anyone?

That clever lot that live and breathe pensions over on the pensions thread have made me think twice about it too I guess.

I am not writing this off at all, I can see that pensions, a BTL and other savings would be a good mix for retirement but it's on hold for the time being. This is mainly because I am in the midst of the slowest management review ever to be carried out by a company in the history of all management reviews and I wouldn't want to commit to a BTL without having the comfort of a permanent monthly income.

gallygirl

It's a tricky one, that's for sure. I ask myself in general terms 'if I was renting with x budget a month, would I want to live in this house' and also, with an eye to the future, 'if I was buying with x budget, would I buy this house'. Most passed the first test but not the second, and that was without asking if I could see myself there.

Unless you're only talking a few years away it's probably too difficult to try to work out if it would be right for you to live in anyway. For all you know, a garage and south facing garden may become less important than a bungalow or somewhere with stairs that will take a Stannah stairlift :eek:.

As long as you buy a btl you could live in for a while you could sell your own home, move into the btl then 'decide' after 6 months it wasn't for you and buy another house with the cash from your first house. Then keep the btl or sell at your leisure. As far as I'm aware there is no time limit on living in the btl as your main residence to reduce capital gains tax - as a one-off it should be fine but if you then moved into btl2 and did the same thing that is what is likely to attract their attention.

Happier_Me

Lots to think about still. We will want a smaller family home but big enough for our adult children to live in if they need to. As a family my generation has stayed local to our parents but that doesn't mean my kids will not move further afield. If that happened I could think of nicer places to live in the UK than where I do now so the BTL would be sold or used for an income.

Assuming we are youngish, healthy retirees the plan will be for any house in the UK to be a base as we want to long term rent in sunnier places when the urge arise fk a few months each year. I can't imagine this plan changing, I do it now if I could.

Hubby can come too if he wants:D