Getting rid of a London-sized Mortgage

Tropically

He is an economist, and is often being contacted by recruiters so I think he will be fine. The company is trying to find more money so he hasn't been made redundant yet.

fiona100

Ouch. That must hurt... No matter how many jobs are out there, or opportunities etc. It definitely hurts if you are the one who is told... Sorry we can't take you with us..





How did you manage to end up with your running away fund being that big?? As well as savings? Wow! What is the trick?


Thanks fiona100

Tropically

Did some MSE things today.

I changed energy supplier (to a brown supplier... ew....) because we are on a poverty meter and want to get off it to a regular meter. I find it really upsetting to think that when people are struggling for money they get stuck on prepayment meters. It costs £2 to top up your meter, and you have to go to a corner shop where there is so much temptation and things which such a high markup. Then, you also don't have access to the good deals so you are paying more in energy than a rich counterpart. They are designed to keep people in poverty, not 'help them control their energy spending'

I also took out a season ticket loan with my employer. I never wanted to have a yearly ticket. I always thought my life was so free, and spontaneous. I would never go back and forth between the same place day after day after day. But of course, I'm a drone like the rest of them. Tube in to work. Tube back from work. Tube into work. Tube back. In the face of a 3.4% hike in rail fares, I thought even if a yearly ticket doesn't save me money, I will save the 3.4 %. But I did the math, and I think it will save me approximately £20 per month

So I will save 3.4% on £1400 and £20 a month as well. £288 of future money saved. I encouraged my partner to do the same thing and bought it before his company made that announcement... I think it should stll be fine though.

Tropically

fiona100 wrote: »

How did you manage to end up with your running away fund being that big?? As well as savings? Wow! What is the trick?

Have a relative die, unfortunately. I wouldn't suggest trying to make it happen, but I had a death in the family about 10 years ago and inherited that pot. It is in Canada though, and essentially impossible to access, so I consider it my escape fund and don't count it for anything else. It is the deep-sh*t emergency fund. The your-partner-has-been-made-redundant-and-you've-spent-all-your-savings fund.

As for the savings - THAT we earned. After we bought the house, I felt really worried that our savings were so low. We rented out our spare room on Airbnb, then we switched to having a lodger (£650 a month!), we both save £300 each into a savings fund each month so that's another £600, plus I ebayed a lot of stuff, used ziffit for many books and dvds, do mystery shopping, online surveys, lots of market research workshops, used quidco, went for cashback, followed up on pricematches etc. I used the MSE email to get £75 cash back on my internet, and find deals on everything.

I did the maths in October to find out how much the side-hustle earned us and it was £4,327. Most of that was the rent from the lodger (£2600) and mystery dines (so comes in the form of free food rather than cash),

I am at the point where I don't have anything else left to sell! I have had to agree not to sell my partners' belongings even though I am eyeing up those Calvin and Hobbs books.

Then, with everything we did save, I made sure to invest an appropriate amount in stocks and shares. I would consider myself an informed beginner, but have £5000 in cash in a regular saver, and the rest in stocks and shares.

daisy_1571

Just 2 quick things tropically - I assume you make some sort of withdrawal or deposit on the Canada account every so often to make sure they don't close it as not having been touched for so long and 2) I just bought another Calvin and hobbes book today so they would Def sell :cool: :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Daisy xx

Tropically

It's invested with an investment manager who charges too high of a fee. But, I can't open any other accounts in Canada because I'm not resident there, and frankly, I'm too nervous about Brexit to cash it all in and transfer it into pounds. Plus, it's currently in a Tax Free Savings Account (the equivalent to an ISA) and I can't open one of them without being a Canadian taxpayer. PLUS I have no idea what the tax implications are of bringing that money into the UK. So, it's fine where it is, and making suitable gains despite the high fee. I don't like lining an investment manager's pocket, but I don't really see a good way out.

michelle09

Wow, that sounds complicated.

Sorry to hear about your partner, at least as there's been some warning he has some time to try and secure something else? Rubbish time of year to hear it.

Tropically

Happy New Year! I am very pleased with my robot vacuum Christmas gifts, as... did I mention I adopted some cats?? Two sweet older kitties who shed everywhere! They are super cute not MSE, but considering I've already said, "Let's not go out... let's stay inside with the cats..." I think they will provide us with happiness equal to their cost.

His company might have one more year of money, who knows. I'm not stressing. It will be okay.

So, I really like investing. I keep most of my savings in funds as I mentioned in my last post. I also do some weirder investments, for example I use Abundance (investments with environmental and social benefits) and also have invested in CrowdCube/Seedrs etc. I invested in BrewDog and got money back equal to my investment plus still own 85% of shares. I normally only do £100-ish amounts in each thing. I took an unnecessarily large risk when feeling flush in 2013 and invested £500 in a small start-up company which has now... gone... bust I claimed EIS tax relief and also now get to claim 'loss relief' so I **only** lose £280. That's still £280 I would have rather had!!! Note to self. Make sure that any silly money spent on these is a value that I can stand to lose! £500 was too much, toooo much.

I don't count these as any of my savings or anything though, and in fact, the remaining 'fun' investments I have don't even total £500. Why did I put half my 'fun' money in one company. Foolish. This was at least before I was MSE! Lesson learned.

I am going to find some nice, responsible bonds.

In order news, lodger is staying for all of Jan and probably Feb now too.

My future mother-in-law has also offered to pay off all of my future-husband's student loans as a wedding present. I have mixed feelings about it. He owes about £2000 in student loans and so it is an extremely generous gift. However, Martin Lewis recommends NOT overpaying student loans and our mortgage rate is higher than his student loan rate. I also feel a little bit weird - my partner's student loans are his and his alone, so this is really a gift for him and him alone. Is that completely selfish of me?

I suppose if I think about it in isolation and it is completely kind and I do have gratitude. Thinking about it in combination with wedding stresses is what is making me feel that way. I kicked up a lot of fuss with my parents early on saying that even though they were paying for the wedding, I wanted my marriage to start out as an even partnership. For example, they wanted the hotel nearby to be totally blocked out for priority for my family and his family could only stay if there was space after my family had first dibs. My parents eventually relented, and everything is going well with my family. But his family are now making demands - e.g. we have to pay for his international relatives (who I have never met, and he hasn't seen in 10+ years) to stay at the hotel. Then, our wedding gift excludes me and is also not an optimal financial decision (we'd save more if we paid that onto the mortgage). PLUS, if he does end up unemployed, he would not have to repay student loans during that time, but we will still have to pay our mortgage payment regardless of whether he has a job or not. If we do end up struggling for a longer period of unemployment/one salary, the wedding gift would have been much better applied to the mortgage or even given in cash.

On the other hand, our lives are now intertwined, and although I would never be personally liable for his debt, we are a pair now and anything that benefits him is also good for me. Although I won't be affected by the gift specifically, we will have an extra £200ish a month which used to go to paying off student loans. I will be able to influence that and direct that to the mortgage.

Tropically

Okay, my selfishness has now totally worn off. I am no longer ungrateful for a gift.

* It is £2000 of debt that my future-husband won't have to pay
* It is extra money every month for us that I can direct to the mortgage
* There is an emotional aspect of a mum paying off her son's student loans when she wasn't in a position to pay for his uni
* Parents in general, like their kids more than their daughter in laws!

This year's mini-goals are to:

1. Side hustle enough to pay for Icelandic hotels (need £500)
I cashed out prolific, quidco, some surveys etc and I now have £150 toward this.

2. Change bank accounts once the lodger has left. He will be leaving sometime in Feb and then I will switch to a better account than the Santander 123

Fletchasketch

Just a thought, but are you sure his mum *can* pay off his loan? I would have thought he'd have to call up personally and make the payment, in which case your partner would probably be on the same page as you and would want to take it off the mortgage, non?