Muppet Madhouse Mortgage Mission.

zootie

Hi. I have decided I am a MFW and thought it time to add my own diary rather than just read other people's. A bit of an introduction :
I live with my husband and 2 children (age 11 and 14) and both myself and my husband work full time.
We moved to a 15 year fixed rate mortgage in October 2009. At that point the mortgage was £153,000 on a 30 year fixed term. Due to increasing our monthly repayments at various points along the way we are now down to 15 years 7 months as of the last mortgage statement dated December 2014.
I phoned Santander to find out about one off overpayments and have found out I need to pay £500 minimum. I paid £500 last month from an amount I had been saving in my current account as a buffer, just to get me kickstarted.
I have also opened a savings account in town with a passbook to squirrel money in until it reaches the £500 and I make the payment off the mortgage term.
My aim is to reduce the term as much as possible to enable us to start saving for retirement!
Thanks for reading. x

zootie

More information. My mortgage is repayment, fixed rate at 5.38% (eek!)
No other loans
Credit card paid in full each month.
I walk to work and take my own lunch from home.
i took a big pay cut this year due to a change in job - but I am much happier in my new job and that counts for a lot. My old job was making me very unhappy.
I got VERY close to having a no spend day this week - then my sons tooth fell out and I had to play tooth fairy!

Luckyinlife

well done on halfing the term of the mortgage with a interest rate like that it will defiantly motivate you even more to pay it off sooner :]

Mind me asking how old you are now if you plan to save for retirement :]

zootie

Hi luckyinlife, don't mind you asking at all. I am 41 and my husband is 43.
I was thinking that in 15 years when we are due to pay the mortgage off he will be 58 years old and will probably not be wanting to do his job for much longer. ( I'm sure if I asked him he would say he would happily retire much sooner!) I figure we should pay the mortgage as soon as we can and then start saving the monthly mortgage amounts for an earlier retirement.
If we pay our current payments over the 15 years plus months we have left I worked out we are paying £60,000 interest.
Thats a BIG motivator!

zootie

I can see my mortgage balance online and it currently stands at £131,330.99
I only registered for Internet banking last week so have not worked out yet how interest is calculated (daily, monthly?)
Theres lots I don't know. I have much to learn!

pathtofreedom

My interest is daily so I can't help login in most days to see the total going up or down. So check it again tomorrow and see if that number is higher, if it is take one from the other and that's your daily interest

Luckyinlife

I see You are doing the correct thing i myself have a high interest mortgage of 6.4% for 2 years then dropping to 5% after this fixed period i will try to remortgage and get a better deal then tho i guess so we are in similar situations.

Personally ill be saving in a mortgage fund in my bank account for 2 years and pay off what i can then i reckon you could easily knock of 8-10 years with trying your hardest at it :] ill look forward to following you on your journey :]

ourcornercottage

Have you checked out your mortgage exit fee (s). I expect it will be high but as you can get a 10 year fix for about half your rate (if you like to fix for so long) it may be worth it. It's worth checking your paperwork and working out total cost.

zootie

Thanks Pathtofreedom. It's the same now as last night but I will keep checking. In the meantime I have sent Santander a message online to ask a few questions about interest.
Ourcornercottage I think the exit fee is about £9000 but will check later. I am still getting to grips with all the figures. It's a bit mind boggling at first when you are not used to the ins and outs of mortgages.
I have some idea from the MFW diaries I have read on here but any other tips are greatly appreciated.

So far my husband has been quite uninterested when I have talked to him about overpaying. I think he is worried our standard of living will suffer. I guess I wil have to keep squirrelling away and see if he is more motivated when the months start coming off the remaining term.

newgirly

Hi zootie and welcome, have you seen the "ditch your fix" section in the mortgage section of this website? It might be useful to help work out whether it is best to change provider even with the large penalties. Anyway best of luck

Ps , I should have added that I have a fairly uninterested dh, I find it best to just get on with it and try and allow for plenty of treats (even if they are discounted )

zootie

Thanks for the advice Newgirly, it's another thing I have to think about. I will read through and play with figures to see what the best options are.
Good to know your DH is also uninterested. Gives me hope!

Have added my mortgage term to my signature. Also my overpayments in lots of £500. I have made one £500 overpayment so far and have £100 in my account towards the next £500.