Pay off my mortgage in 5 years

buzzyzoe

Well it's been a very long time since I updated so thought I'd check in! I've had some health problems in the last year or so, so overpaying has taken a bit of a backseat. I had a fair bit of time off work, but am happy to say that I'm not working again, and earning significantly more than when I last posted

My mortgage is now under £30,000 (just!) I'm at £29,980.09. However, the biggest news is that I'm planning on selling my flat and buying somewhere bigger. This is different to my original plan, but since being ill, my priorities have changed somewhat and I feel like I really need to prioritise eating well and cooking more, plus having more fridge and freezer space to facilitate more batch cooking. I'm excited to look for somewhere with a bigger kitchen that I can really make exactly how I'd like it.

I feel very fortunate, because I've had my flat for 4 years and in that time, it's increased in value by over £100,000 so should make the move to somewhere slightly bigger a realistic option, although it will still be a stretch. I'm not sure how easy it will be to get a mortgage either, as I've recently changed from being PAYE to self-employed, but I don't yet have a years accounts to use when applying, so I'll have to see how that pans out going forward. In other news, if anyone wants to buy an absolutely lovely one bed flat in leafy North London, let me know

In terms of stats, my mortgage started at £72,995 and I'm ending at £29,980, which means that I paid off £43015 in 4 years, equivalent to £10754 per year

Oh also, if anyone was following my running journey to do 1000 miles in a year, I didn't quite manage to get there because I was so ill from June - December, but I finished the year on 900 miles which I'm still very proud of, and raised £420 for Marie Curie

ch4rly2002

Well done on the amount you have managed to overpay and the increase in value! I am curious though, where in North London did you manage to find such an affordable flat? Every time I see a London property on Homes Under the Hammer the flats are several hundred thousand!


I'm sorry to hear about your health issues, but I am pleased to hear you have a positive outlook from it and have focussed on your priorities.

Budgeteers

Hi everyone, very new to the forums but wanted to say it's great to finally find that there are people out there like myself and my husband. We are 30/31 and our goal is to pay off by 33. We live life buy carefully and always feel like the odd ones out as most of our friends live with parents or rent, having no aspiration to save (or get excited by bargains!). Honestly cannot tell you how great it is to read that there are others like us out there! Reading what you guys are doing with interest I'll post our tips once i get my forum confidence up and work out where you put things!

buzzyzoe

ch4rly2002 wrote: »

Well done on the amount you have managed to overpay and the increase in value! I am curious though, where in North London did you manage to find such an affordable flat? Every time I see a London property on Homes Under the Hammer the flats are several hundred thousand!


I'm sorry to hear about your health issues, but I am pleased to hear you have a positive outlook from it and have focussed on your priorities.

The flat was £210,000 when I bought in back in 2014 - I had inheritance money that formed the majority of the deposit so the mortgage was relatively small.

Thank you! :beer:

buzzyzoe

So following on from my last update, I have now sold my flat! It sold for £290,000 in the end, which was less than I was hoping for but still a profit of £80,000 in 4 years, which I feel very lucky to have made! The sale is progressing at the moment – it’s still relatively early days but so far everything seems to be happening as expected.

The other exciting news is that I’ve had an offer accepted on a new property – a gorgeous 2 bedroom freehold house in Walthamstow. I didn’t think I would ever get a house for the budget I was looking at, but after going through my mortgage options with a specialist broker, I was able to borrow more than I initially thought I would be able to. The offer I had accepted was £510,000 and that will consist of a £248,000 deposit from the sale of my flat (after paying off my existing mortgage, covering the estate agent fees and keeping a little back towards the stamp duty) and then a £262,000 mortgage. So my MFW journey will (hopefully!) soon be starting all over again! I’m waiting to hear if the mortgage application gets accepted at the moment, so I’m keeping everything crossed

Luckily, the house doesn’t need anything doing to it in the immediate future. Looking long term, there is space to convert the loft into a third bedroom, and also slightly reconfigure the layout downstairs to give a better flow. So although it’s immaculate, I still think I will be able to add value at a later date.

Going forward, my mortgage will be significantly more per month than it was previously – I’m looking at monthly payments of roughly £870. My other fixed outgoings (council tax, bills etc) will be around £550 per month, which will leave me with around £1880 to play with after I’ve saved for my tax bill. I will hopefully split this as £880 for discretionary spending (groceries, entertainment, clothing, presents, holidays, homewares etc) and then £1000 to put into savings/mortgage overpayments.

I will probably try and save initially towards the works that I would like to eventually do to the house, as the loft conversion in particular will be costly so will take me several years to save for. In the short term, I’m really excited to live in a different area and to have so much more space to play with – I’m aiming to re-use the majority of my existing furniture and just supplement with the extra bits that I need, so the actual move itself shouldn’t be too costly above the purchase price. I’m not even sure I will need to repaint as the house is only around 3 years old and still looks immaculate.

My health has been ok and I’m feeling significantly better than I did a year ago. Hopefully I can keep moving forwards with improving!

So an exciting few months ahead hopefully, I will update with what happens as the sale and purchase both progress. It’s always slightly stressful and anxiety inducing, but hopefully things will go as expected and I will soon be able to report that I’m living in my new home! :j

Moneyfordreams

lovely to hear from you... glad everything is good..:)

buzzyzoe

Following on from my last update, I've now moved into my new house and am really enjoying it! Everything went fairly smoothly with the sale of my flat and the purchase of the house, and I moved in on 21st December (which I have to say was slightly stressful but I was very grateful to have the Christmas period to unpack etc!)

I ended up spending slightly more than I anticipated on minor works, I had new plumbing installed for a dishwasher and bought new appliances, plus some work on the boiler to make it connect to the thermostat properly. Before it was either on or off, which to me is an absolute nightmare! But everything's now working as it should, most of the rooms are finished and I'm pretty happy with how it's all looking.

The area is great so far, so convenient in terms of travelling, and with loads more amenities than where I was before.

All my monthly outgoings have been as I expected, and now that I'm pretty much done with paying out the big sums for works and furniture, I can start building my savings back up again. The house purchase pretty much left my savings at the bare minimum, as the mortgage I was able to get was slightly smaller than I would have liked. I wouldn't recommend not having an emergency fund, but luckily I have managed to start building it up again without any major disasters happening!

I'm saving towards the loft conversion first, which I imagine will take me a good few years - I'm estimating somewhere in the region of £30,000- £40,000, and as of this month, my savings are back up to £11,000. I'm hoping to save at least £1000 a month, but hopefully more most of the time

The other good news is that I'm starting on a new show in July and I will be on a higher rate than my previous job (by £100 a week) so that should be quite noticeable in my savings

My health has been pretty good, and I am starting to try to get back into exercising regularly again. I had to stop when I got ill, partly because I just felt too crappy and partly because I couldn't afford to lose any more weight, but I'm now back up to my pre-illness weight, which has been my goal ever since I got sick! So I'm finally in a place to start exercising properly again. I've started an instagram page dedicated to my diet and exercise to motivate myself, which is keeping me entertained!

Moneyfordreams

Welcome back great news on your house and your job. I hope your health and fitness keeps moving positively too

buzzyzoe

Moneyfordreams wrote: »

Welcome back great news on your house and your job. I hope your health and fitness keeps moving positively too

Thanks so much

kirtsypoos

Lovely to see your recent updates Zoe, glad your health is much improved and the sale and purchase went smoothly