Mortgage free by 45

Allotrope

Thank you another Joe. I have an emergency fund, and I keep a term time cleaner because that's the only way I can stay sane, raise two kids and have the job that I do. Of course I could do things cheaper, but I want to budget well rather than make my life too difficult.

I take your point on the pension, but what do I do with the money? At the moment I have a teachers pension I contribute to. I know nothing about it, other than it takes a good chunk of my salary! I don't know whether I can overpay or whether I just start a new fund? Where's the best place to start looking into pensions? That's why I won't rush into anything...I'm going to put some time aside the first week of the holidays and look into this, so thank you very much for pointing me in the right direction.

Allotrope

Tropically wrote: »

Even though you need to be on the O2 network, you don't need to go with O2! You can use a company who shares the O2 network like giffgaff. See http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/phones/piggybacking

How interesting! Off to look at that now. Thanks I had no idea about that.

Allotrope

Ok so I've been on the teachers pension service website and I definitrly need to look into this more. I'm putting it on to my to do list for when we break up...just too little time at the moment...

theoretica

Your council tax looks like it might be a bit high - or just a more expensive area. Are you claiming the single adult discount? Some people miss it as it is usually called single person!

Even with days out, I think your entertainment budget is the one to watch closely.

Allotrope

theoretica wrote: »

Your council tax looks like it might be a bit high - or just a more expensive area. Are you claiming the single adult discount? Some people miss it as it is usually called single person!

Even with days out, I think your entertainment budget is the one to watch closely.

I have a four bed house, so it is high, but I do have the single persons allowance.

My entertainment budget is bad. My latte habit need cutting...bad for the environment, my waistline and my budget! I'm going to knock that on the head... that's why I'm posting my spend on here

Allotrope

So, things I've done tonight...

- joined receipt hog to earn a few extra pennies
- found a cheaper phone tariff...cuts the bill by £23 a month. Going to make that switch tomorrow.
- opened my TSB account for the cash back

Time for some sleep! Sunday is a workday for full time teachers!

MinnieCooper

Hi,

I am hoping to pay my mortgage off in my 45th year too :-) I am 44 now!
My plan:
I have a 25 year endowment due to mature in March and I have inheritance from my mother (lost last year). I have overpaid on the mortgage for the last few years so that my payments were £10K a year. I am hoping that, once I bundle everything together, I will be able to make a BIG overpayment early 2017 and leave a very small balance. I returned to work full time early this year so my extra salary will be thrown at the remaining mortgage - hoping to clear in my 45th year of life.

Like you, I want to save for early retirement. I work in the NHS and, when I started, it was a pretty much 9-5 job with the odd Saturday/Sunday morning but now we work an extended working day (8am-8pm, do 7.5 hrs within this) and have a nightshift (supposed to be 3 a month but often more due to short staffing) of 13 hours. We have also had our weekends magically turned into 7.5 hour shifts and increased in frequency. I can end up working 6 FULL weekends in a row wit one or two off and then repeat.I hardly see my children and never get to have a day off with my husband. I would like to leave the profession, to be honest, so paying the mortgage off is a priority.

Interesting what Joe has said about the pension. I have worked part time for 10 years so my NHS pension has taken a HIT. I really need to boost it back up but someone has said it is more expensive to do it this way. I'll have to speak to an expert in money!

What do you teach? Primary or Secondary?

Anyway, off to work (AGAIN) in 1/2 hour. GOOD LUCK!

AnotherJoe

Allotrope wrote: »

Ok so I've been on the teachers pension service website and I definitrly need to look into this more. I'm putting it on to my to do list for when we break up...just too little time at the moment...

I dont know the details of the teachers pension scheme, but from what people have posted about it in the pensions forum here, I believe you can pay extra to retire a little bit earlier, but there are strong limits on that, and so in order to retire as early as you'd like, you need a second source of funds to fill in between retirement and the teachers pension and then state pension kicking in.

You could of course just save money, but by far the most tax efficient mechanism for that would be a second pension scheme you ran alongside your teachers pension. You should probably best post for advice in the pensions forum about the optimum way to manage this and the trade off between extra payments into the teachers scheme and the limits on how early you can retire.

People focus on paying off mortgages, and historically it's easy to see why, but with really low mortgage rates, you are oftentimes better off doing something else with the money even if it's just save in higher interest rates bank accounts, and with pensions, the tax relief can make a huge extra bonus.

Brambleberry

Hi Allotrope! Love your name, bet you are a diamond of a teacher - science perhaps?

I also teach full-time, so I expect you are already used to using excel or similar.
When I decided to really get on top of my spending, I created a spreadsheet with tabs for all the different envelopes and tracked all my spending on there. All my cash was just held in my current account, but allocated to spending pots at the start of each month. As the years have gone by, I have branched out with better savings rates and several accounts, but still track them the same way, it's easier to customise than an app to fit your needs.

Hope this is helpful, good luck on your journey to MF.

Bb
x

Allotrope

MinnieCooper wrote: »

Hi,

I am hoping to pay my mortgage off in my 45th year too :-) I am 44 now!
My plan:
I have a 25 year endowment due to mature in March and I have inheritance from my mother (lost last year). I have overpaid on the mortgage for the last few years so that my payments were £10K a year. I am hoping that, once I bundle everything together, I will be able to make a BIG overpayment early 2017 and leave a very small balance. I returned to work full time early this year so my extra salary will be thrown at the remaining mortgage - hoping to clear in my 45th year of life.

Like you, I want to save for early retirement. ...

Interesting what Joe has said about the pension. I have worked part time for 10 years so my NHS pension has taken a HIT. I really need to boost it back up but someone has said it is more expensive to do it this way. I'll have to speak to an expert in money!

What do you teach? Primary or Secondary?

Anyway, off to work (AGAIN) in 1/2 hour. GOOD LUCK!

So sorry to hear about your mum. 0I teach secondary and I love it but it takes over my life...60 hour work weeks is common. I don't want to moan though because I'm lucky enough to work in a good school, love my job and have the holidays. But it is exhausting and I think another ten to 12 years will be enough. So pension research week beginning 16/12. Keep me posted on yours, do you have a diary?