Forever Home Fund

LannieDuck

I have the same worries too - maybe it's something about this time of life (35y with a new, big mortgage!).

I have a good pension scheme (public sector), but my OH has nothing. We started a S&S ISA for him some years ago, but haven't been able to put much in lately. It's the only part of our savings intact after the house purchase (I had to raid my S&S ISA for a new [used] car). I'd very much like to be able to start building up the savings and pensions, but I also want to overpay the mortgage as much as possible. Decisions, decisions...!

Of course, I need some spare money first :P

katep23

It's tough finding a balance! We're in a similar position Lannie, I'm a few years older with a slightly larger mortgage.


I'm hoping to move into the public sector in the next few years so my pension arrangements will change but I want to ensure I have enough in my private pension to ensure I can at least scale back at 55, even if I can't retire completely.


All of our savings went into the house to scrape a 10% deposit but we have built them back up nicely in 7 months.


Just noticed that I have now made over £1,000 OPs since I started in January - with the exception of £200 I OPd from my salary to start me off this has all been "free" money.


Have been looking into BTL today and I think it is very doable once we have a deposit; looking at what we could buy a place for round here and what they rent out for, we could take a 20 year BTL repayment mortgage and still meet the 125% return requirement. More investigations to do (and the small matter of a deposit to save!) but definitely something for the (not too distant) future.

katep23

Just had a really suspicious character come round the house, both OH and I felt like he was casing the place. Called 101 and reported it just in case.

OH has popped to Wickes to get a wireless alarm - more money to be spent out but I would rather be safe.

Hopefully it was just an opportunist thing and the fact that my big burly OH come down will have deterred anything further but I feel rather unsettled.

LannieDuck

Did the police suggest there was much burglary in your area?

katep23

It's quite a low crime area but we are quite secluded so are vulnerable. We've got the alarm fitted, moved anything we can out of the garage such as the bicycles, chained the motorbikes together, backed the cars right up to the garage doors and taken anything we can upstairs or put it out of sight.

Only so much you can do.

ourcornercottage

Could you borrow a dog for a few days or even just put on a recording of dog barks when you're out. It'll be when you are out that it happens most likely and they won't want to take on a dog.

Hide your precious thungs in the loft just in case.

Like you say when it comes down to iit there's only so much you can do and it sounds like you are doing it. Fingers crossed for you.

Before we moved the old guy who lived here was never at home and house got burgled, the gang that did it were scoping out houses for sale online over £300k as lots would be empty. They even had the layout of the houses. They got caught end ended up with 15 years between them. Plenty good enough for them. You might tell from my tone I hate theft!

katep23

Good idea OCC. Will also head up to see the other houses up the road today and warn them, won't do any harm for them to be aware either.

On the MS front, ran out of time to head to the butchers yesterday so saved £25 I was going to spend on mince (they sell 10lb in 1lb blocks) and we have had our first alcohol free weekend in months - aiming for August bank holiday.

I won't mention how much Wickes cost - you can't put a price on peace of mind... except they can and it was a lot :rotfl:

Polly_Wolly_Doodle

Ouch to the cost of the alarm, aren't the geese good watchdogs?

katep23

No geese Polly, it's about all we haven't got but trust me, we thought about it :rotfl:

So far no trouble - we've ordered a CCTV set but thankfully waited and ordered one for a third of the price we were looking at on Sunday Should be here today.

£64 refund from HMRC to bank and sold another couple of things on eb@y. Bit gutted as I listed one with free postage as we can send parcels from work with UPS for about £5 and then found out we're no longer allowed to

So trip to Collect+ today, got 20% off as new customer so not much more expensive in the end

Need to call my pension providers today to get some info on my plan as I seem to have two separate pots with one provider.

Working from home day, had an exam yesterday and another tomorrow. Will be glad when this week is over

Polly_Wolly_Doodle

Sorry Kate, I've been listening to The Archers too much and have geese on the brain!