Got myself Comfortable - Now Increasing the Pace

edinburgher

half a million in assets 4 cars aint that bad lol

It depends on your POV. For example, £500k + 4 cars on finance would be completely unsustainable. OP has a brilliant salary, but not enough to run 4 new financed cars. He has added some extra details that explain the background.

OP - can you OP (excuse the repetition) the HP costs? No point in OPing mortgage when they are 2%+ higher.

mark55man

Yes - so we have up until end 2014 been very frugal on cars.

I had a X reg Audi with 250K on it that cost me £2k in 2009 (and which I was very fortunate to have been rear ended in so I got £1200 of that back from insuarance/scrap)

My OH had Y reg Zafira with 130K that just died

I then used some savings to replace with 2 cheap cars (Citroen C5 fo rme Zafira for OH (total cost £3800) - one died (water pump) and then other started having "diesel problems". So I used the citroen Part exchange and am suing the original Zafira garage - but we had just run out of patience with the used car scene and our local garage offered a new Astra Excite (really) for 11K we went for it. Got a good deal and then got an even better deal on the second.

So we went on GM finance which is £400pcm for both cars and £30 pcm for fixed price servicing. The APR is 5% on one and 5.5% on the other. My rationalisation is that by end of this year their resale value will be more than the amount outstanding

+ My OH is doing sufficient more tutoring to make the payment on her car, although this wont kick in until September. I will look at repaying them more quickly as well, but want to make some progress on Mortgage

getmore4less

Another re: cars.

I think you need to factor in replacements in the budget(to get out of the debt cycle) even if the money ends up paying down debt till you need the car.

£50pm per car gets £6000 per car over 10 years.

Luckyinlife

edinburgher wrote: »

It depends on your POV. For example, £500k + 4 cars on finance would be completely unsustainable. OP has a brilliant salary, but not enough to run 4 new financed cars. He has added some extra details that explain the background.

OP - can you OP (excuse the repetition) the HP costs? No point in OPing mortgage when they are 2%+ higher.

Ya i know what you you mean im very anti fiance these days but as id rather use a 1k car than pay £200 a month for a 15k car that does the same job

Have you thought about paying the mortgage off then hitting the pension once your debt free so your not paying the interest for longer than you really need to ?

mark55man

getmore4less wrote: »

Another re: cars.

I think you need to factor in replacements in the budget(to get out of the debt cycle) even if the money ends up paying down debt till you need the car.

£50pm per car gets £6000 per car over 10 years.

OK good point.

Replacement plan for OH is NEVER - its her forever car

For me its a 5 year (will be at 80K miles by then), and I would look for Part X + some pensions Lump Sum money to replace (and maybe look at going down to 1 car at that point).

But I do need more cash savings and have started with TSB and will see how that goes.

mark55man

Luckyinlife wrote: »

Ya i know what you you mean im very anti fiance these days but as id rather use a 1k car than pay £200 a month for a 15k car that does the same job

Have you thought about paying the mortgage off then hitting the pension once your debt free so your not paying the interest for longer than you really need to ?

Hope that works for you!! :rotfl:

I would have agreed with you - but I am a car duffer and I got burnt so my reaction was to go new (but 40% off new) so as tp not have to worry about it. At worst my plan would be to use some company sharesave savings to take a dent out of the balance and make it more sustainable.

However with the kids bringing in money and my things looking up economically I just felt I coule squeeze this in

EDIT (2nd point) - My pension is in good order and although a DC, my company matches contributions so from 55 in a few years will have access (if needed) to more funds. I don't plan to use it, and am generally happy with my arrangements - combo of DB, DC and State. For me the missing trick is reducing the mortgage balance whilst not missing out completely on a balanced investment portfolio

Luckyinlife

Sounds like you got things sorted really :]

take your 20% tax free at 55 enjoy it haha :]

Goldiegirl

mark88man wrote: »

Replacement plan for OH is NEVER - its her forever car

What not never, ever?


The trouble with older cars is that they go wrong more often, and you end up spending so much money putting it right, it ends up being more cost effective to buy a new one.


I've had my 12 year old car since new and I adore it...... but things keep needing to be repaired and it costs. Therefore, I've decided that the time has come to buy a new car, which I pick up in 10 days time. Hopefully I'll get another 12 years out of the new one.


Just saying, with cars, never say never, and long term you might need to think about replacing OH's car - cars don't last for ever

mark55man

The plan is OH does 6K miles a year - and by the time her car needs replacing (was new as in 15 plate Apr 2015) we will be retired and we should be able to go down to one car - so to be more accurate I should say the last car that is dedicated to OH alone rather than the last car that will sit on the driveway

mark55man

Luckyinlife wrote: »

Sounds like you got things sorted really :]

take your 20% tax free at 55 enjoy it haha :]

Generally sorted yes :beer: but some (much!!) room for improvement and some scary moments on the way - running out of money on holiday was one of them - realising we had consolidated and were heading at breakneck speed to a repeat was another

I understand (some press about this over the weeked) that if I take money out of the pension - it won't be there as income later