Please help me get started on my MFW journey!

Laurawill

Hi everyone,

I've been a long time lurker on this board but we have never had the income to regularly overpay until now. I was hoping to start a diary of sorts in order to keep track of progress and hopefully keep me motivated!

We are soon to be turning 30 and have had our mortgage for about 4.5 years. Price paid for house was just shy of 100k and the starting balance on mortgage was £59,000. We've overpaid when we could and the current balance is £37,558. I've been a stay at home mum for ages, but have got a part time job now so can overpay using my income every month - or at least that's the plan! We would ideally like to move house, which is the impetus behind the plan.

We are on a fixed rate (5.19%) which is up in June this year so we want to overpay every month until then in order to get the best rate possible.

This month has been really expensive for us, but we are hoping to be able to overpay by approximately £250, which is a lot less than I was hoping, but we were away at the beginning of the month so that ate up lots of money! Ideally we'd like to overpay by £500 a month but I'm not sure how realistic it is!

Can I please ask how everyone stays motivated to overpay? And also, if you have an expensive month or miss your target, how easy do you find it to get back on track?

Thanks for any words of encouragement or advice you can offer, it would be appreciated!

LadyGnome

Best of luck with your journey. I am breaking things down into smallish steps as paying off the whole mortgage still feels too big and far away to be motivating. As my mortgage is fairly big, I am focussing on 1% at a time (based on ideas I have seen on the DFW board). There are bound to be blips but having smaller shorter term goals helps me get back on the wagon more quickly.

Mrs_Rachel_Trelfa

Welcome and good luck with your journey. for me the motivation is seeing my balance come down online and getting the paper work saying what my new mortgage free date is. Don't be disheartened if you can only do £250 as that will still make a big impact on your mortgage. Oh and the lovely people on here keep you going.

poppyoscar_3

Welcome Laurawill!
I have just got back on the wagon after 3 years off it - and it feels good! I stay motivated by seeing the total drop. Get a mortgage pig for your change - Mr C and I have saved £2000 in three years that way. Eventually that will come off the mortgage but it's a bit of a contingency at the moment.
I look forward to following your progress.
POxx