One dads Mortgage free journey

dad76

Hello

My partner and I are 37 and we have a 3 year old little boy. We moved in together just before he was born and this year after spending money and time on the house (it was knackered) we decided to start overpaying on our mortgage as the thought of another 22 years of payments was to depressing. Also I don't like the insecurity of what is effectively renting my home from the bank!

We currently pay 926 a month on a 5 year fixed term. The original balance was 182 ish but we are now down to 165k (house is worth 270ish). We are overpaying by £499.99 a month which is the maximum without being charged and probably the most we can afford. If we can carry on this way we should clear our mortgage in about 11 years which would be great!

Since the new year I've been trying to be good and done things like registering for various loyalty cards, cashing up our change collection and getting some interest on it and going to see a financial adviser about what we might need to retire on etc.
I'm quite a keen metal detectorist so any spare change i find also goes in the mortgage pot!

As it's been really interesting reading other people's diaries thought i'd do my own.

Cheers

A dad.

Bufger

Hi and best of luck! Sounds like you're off to a great start.

I'm a keen coin collector, maybe we could team up!

dad76

hehe cheers, have sent you a pm!

greent

Hello and welcome to MFW forum! Loads of hints, tips & inspiration to be found on here! Good luck!

lexington013

Hi dad 76, I have a similar amount on my mortgage to you, but have 11 years left, however my little boy is 20 although I'm 10 years older than you.
Best thing I did was get on this mortgage journey, I have reduced my term by 11 years in the first 5 years of my term by OP and upping my regular payment, I'm hoping that I will be mortgage free in the next 7 years but it's achievable with perseverance and support from other folk on this forum.
Best of luck, I'm going to subscribe to your thread.:beer:

dad76

Thanks Lexgington.

Bit of a quandry as thinking of buying a top of the range detector. I don't need it, i want it, i admit it! It's £1250, it's a silly amount of money i know but but I'm finding it hard to resist.

I guess like most things in life you can justify it one way or the other. I drive a 9 year ford focus, i'll only replace something if it's broken and can't be fixed, my partner has to buy my clothes as i'm to tight and don't care what i wear really. I'm usually pretty good but it's like i'm being tempted by this machine. arggghhh!

Part of me thinks, pay off more mortgage, the other half thinks fug it, you work 5 days a week treat yourself! arggh! I mean i have the money in the bank and it needs to do something!

Oh just a little random tip think in that we used to buy fish and chips every friday. I worked out this was about £500 a year. So now we buy it from the supermarket and actually we find it nicer and save about £300 a year!

Karmacat

Hi!

Can I suggest you put £1250 into Martin's interest saving calculator, and see what a difference it makes? Or £1000, come to that, and spend the £250 on something associated with your hobby? Its a lot of dosh. But if you do it, the main thing is to enjoy it - its no good if you start beating yourself up after a week!

stedwell

Hi dad76
I am married to a metal detecting fanatic.
He is also upgrading his detector - I think you must be looking at a similar model as the price you quoted is about what he is going to pay.
He always says he doesn't smoke/drink (much!) /play golf etc etc.
After a stressful week at work it is his way to chill out and have some fun.
You must still enjoy life along the way to being mortgage free.

dad76

Hehe thanks Stedwell.

I think maybe i'm going to try and find some more stuff with my machine before i can justify spending so much money. I enjoy going out with my machine which isn't a bad one at all and over the weekend at a club dig i found better stuff than the chap with the machine i want although it does look and feel fab!

Goes to show you i guess that you have to walk over to find it anyway.

I think i'll be good and stick the money into something better than my current account!

Only 10 days to my first overpayment, yay!

PS i'll probably change my mind by next week

DennyChomp

dad76 wrote: »

Only 10 days to my first overpayment, yay!

PS i'll probably change my mind by next week

Good luck with your MFW journey! I'm also 10 days away from making my first overpayment and I will probably change my mind as well! :rotfl:

dad76

so it's done, £499.99 overpaid last month, will have to check the balance online and post it but one step forward, only far too many to go but have to start somewhere i guess

Still no new detector