Personal Finance Review

Cotta

Hi All,

I've posted a similar thread on here before, I've taken on most of the advice I've received and as my finances are slowly becoming much healthier so I thought I'd post an update to check if there is anything else I should do to my finances?

My setup is as follows:

Outgoings

Mortgage - £393 p/m at 4.69% (Balance is around £65k) renewal due on February 2019. 10% overpayments allowed and there is a 5% fee for early settlement.

House was bought for £84,000 and is worth around £90,000 now.

House Rates/Tax - £190 p/m
Car Insurance/Tax - £45 p/m
House Insurance - £20 p/m
Mobile - £16 pm
BT Landline £26.69 (This is my parents but I pay this)
Virgin Media Broadband - £16.25
Gym - £16 p/m
Fuel - £100 p/m
Heating Oil/Electric - £34 p/m
Food - £80 p/m

Savings

£4000 (in FlexDirect Current account, my salary is originally paid into my Halifax account to avail of the £3 pm)

£500 in Nationwide regular saver paying 5%, £300 is being drip fed into this each month going forward.

Debt

Mortgage - £65k
Loan from parents - £7000
Student Loan - £1700

Notes

My net monthly income is £1780.

I contribute 8% of my salary towards my pension to which my employer pays in 11.5% of my gross salary.

Overall pension pot is worth around £21k and I am 33.

msallen

Your council tax is £190pm on a house worth 90K - that can't be right?

P.S. - this is the savings & investments board you know - not really the right place for this.

Cotta

msallen wrote: »

Your council tax is £190pm on a house worth 90K - that can't be right?

P.S. - this is the savings & investments board you know - not really the right place for this.

Yes, I've had the tax reviewed but it's never been reduced.

Where is a better place to post this? It was allowed previously.

AnotherJoe

When I saw the subject line, I thought the relationships forum would be more appropriate

sorcerer

I see this normally in the Debt Free Wannabee board. Unless you have a specific investment question.

fiisch

A house for £90k? Where do you live, 1968?!

Mogley

You could drip feed the full £500/month into the Nationwide regular saver. You have £4000 in the flexdirect. £2500 is earning interest, £1500 is earning 0%.


So I make it that you only spend £937 of your earnings each month. What happens to the rest? When do you plan on paying back your parents?


You could look to open another current account with a linked regular saver to help boost your savings as per recommendations made on some of your other threads.


What are you saving for?

stoozie1

Have you used your overpayment allowance on the mortgage yet for this year? I would consider doing that with some savings, as it will make your LTV much better on remortgage, as you are on such a high interest rate.

Cotta

Mogley wrote: »

You could drip feed the full £500/month into the Nationwide regular saver. You have £4000 in the flexdirect. £2500 is earning interest, £1500 is earning 0%.


So I make it that you only spend £937 of your earnings each month. What happens to the rest? When do you plan on paying back your parents?


You could look to open another current account with a linked regular saver to help boost your savings as per recommendations made on some of your other threads.


What are you saving for?

I am hoping to begin paying £300 per month to my parents and increasing this if I can balance this ok.

enthusiasticsaver

When is that fixed rate deal on your mortgage up? You said Feb 2017 but I guess that is a mistake. You could probably get a lower rate than 4.69 given your LTV is 72%. Obviously don't pay the 5% early settlement though unless it is really worth it. Taking up the overpayments option is a good idea as you would struggle to get that rate on savings.

Your soa is ok. Food looks a bit low though. House rates look high. Are you entitled to a single person discount and if necessary you can spread over 12 months rather than 10? House insurance could also be brought down if your house is only worth £90k. The car insurance also looks high. Do you use comparison sites to get the cheapest quote?

Re the savings you only get 5% on the Flex direct for one year up to £2500. Presumably you are paying in the £1k per month. I would therefore not keep any more than £2500 in the flex direct. Move as much over to regular saver monthly as possible or perhaps open a Tesco current account for anything over the £2500.

Long term once your debt to your parents is gone you may like to look at stocks and shares isas. Making the pension payments is good and again if you can overpay this is worth it for the tax relief if nothing else. Is 11.5% the maximum your company will pay into that?

Cotta

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

When is that fixed rate deal on your mortgage up? You said Feb 2017 but I guess that is a mistake. You could probably get a lower rate than 4.69 given your LTV is 72%. Obviously don't pay the 5% early settlement though unless it is really worth it. Taking up the overpayments option is a good idea as you would struggle to get that rate on savings.

Your soa is ok. Food looks a bit low though. House rates look high. Are you entitled to a single person discount and if necessary you can spread over 12 months rather than 10? House insurance could also be brought down if your house is only worth £90k. The car insurance also looks high. Do you use comparison sites to get the cheapest quote?

Re the savings you only get 5% on the Flex direct for one year up to £2500. Presumably you are paying in the £1k per month. I would therefore not keep any more than £2500 in the flex direct. Move as much over to regular saver monthly as possible or perhaps open a Tesco current account for anything over the £2500.

Long term once your debt to your parents is gone you may like to look at stocks and shares isas. Making the pension payments is good and again if you can overpay this is worth it for the tax relief if nothing else. Is 11.5% the maximum your company will pay into that?

Thanks for that response, yes that was a typo as my mortgage renewal is in February 2019.

11.5% is the maximum my employer will pay.

So after Regular savings have been exhausted and there is £2500 in my Flexdirect account, holding money should be left in the Tesco account at 3%?