Mortgage free ASAP

SuperSecretSquirrel

Great job dropping the mortgage down another 1k bracket

Shame about the job, but there will be other opportunities...

Mortgage rates are still pretty damn good so quite easy to be glass half full on that one!

And I'm totally with you on this month flying by. Only realised it was the end of the month as SF's blog has a monthly review post on there. October has very much been a blink and miss it month here!

bubblycrazy

Thanks SSS, I've made a separate thread regarding my mortgage options if anyone would be so kind to have a look and help me out.
In a nutshell, 2 yr fix no fee - 2.84%
5yr fix no fee - 3.23%
5 yr fix £995 product fee - 2.78

andy1886

Glad everything is going great , Unlucky with the job . I know what you mean about Christmas spending , I save for it and then try to not use that money and just my monthly budget to pay for Christmas stuff then use my savings for myself in the new year for my benefit and not anybody else . Our house is not like Nigella or Mary Berry over the festive season , more like Eboneezer . Wishing you well over the weekend .

andy1886

bubblycrazy wrote: »

Thanks SSS, I've made a separate thread regarding my mortgage options if anyone would be so kind to have a look and help me out.
In a nutshell, 2 yr fix no fee - 2.84%
5yr fix no fee - 3.23%
5 yr fix £995 product fee - 2.78

I’m sure you will get great advice elsewhere about this . For what it is worth I think if you are not planning to move then consider the 5 year fix , if you are then you have to take into account portability and early repayment penalties . Then you need to compare the 3 scenarios for the next 2 years and what you will pay and the balance that will be left at the end of it . Off the top of my head I think for small balances like you have it is not worth paying a fee because the saving each month over the time period does not come anywhere near the fee paid for the discount . Somebody better than me will hopefully put some numbers to the different scenarios because at this time of day it is well beyond my capabilities .

SuperSecretSquirrel

Have a play with this: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/compare-mortgage-rates#results

I plugged in: compare two mortgages, 47k balance, 8 year term (based on your aim in first post of being mortgage free in 2025), compare over 5 years, 3.23% no fee vs 2.78% £995 fee... They ended up being pretty much identical. Avoiding the fee would save you £121 in the 5 years, or a total of £194 over the full term

Of course, things would be different with a longer term etc, so you should have a play with the numbers until you land on monthly repayments and total repayments that you are happy with

bubblycrazy

Thanks Andy and SSS. I've been away for a few days on hols, had a great time but it already feels like it was ages ago!
I had to wait to get an appointment with the mortgage advisor but it's all done and dusted now.
I ended up going with the 2 year fix at 2.84% for a few reasons.
The balance at the end of 2 years will take me into 60/65% LTV so I'll get the best deal available at the time and hopefully be in a better position to switch away from Natwest as they don't really have the best rates, I was just stuck with affordability at the moment.
Another reason for going for the 2 year fix was purely psychological in that my mortgage rate is under 3% :rotfl:
I also think my boyfriend will have moved in with me by then (hopefully next year!), which leaves a big question mark over future plans in that sense.

So my new rate starts from December. I'll be keeping my payments the same so more will be coming off the capital. I've worked out that in 2 years time my balance will be approx £1900 less on the lower rate, and I'll have taken an extra 2.5yrs off the length of the mortgage! :T
Looking at the OP calculator my estimated MFD was 15yrs, it's now 12.5yrs! :j
Still not exactly where I'd like it to be, but I think I'm deciding more and more that 12.5yrs would be fine with me, and maybe focus a little bit more on my pension/s&s Isa options.
Hope everyone is well.

bubblycrazy

Absolutely nothing happening on the MSE side of things recently. I finished all my Xmas shopping last week and have almost wrapped it all. It was DS 5th birthday 2 weeks ago so was manic organising a party for that and tidying the house, first time my boyfriend's parents had seen the place!
All went well but my finances are a work in progress right now. I've bought Xmas presents for DS, myself and my brother on behalf of other people and am getting the money back in drips and drabs, not helping the budget!

I've had a £15.29pm pay increase at work due to them working out our holiday pay wrong. I'm using it as extra for the months I don't have enough. I can't figure out a way to calculate if I'm saving enough or too much for this.
Wish I was on the same amount of money all year round. I've applied for another vacancy at work, it didn't say the hours so might not be suitable but won't know unless I try.

I've also done something crazy and have registered to do a charity skydive for Alzheimer's Society in May next year! :eek: It's been on my bucket list for about 17 years and it was this years resolution to do it. Didn't seem to find the time this year, but booking a place counts right? Nervous but excited to take on the challenge. Hoping to raise at least £500.

bubblycrazy

Aww my poor neglected diary. I'm going to try and make more of an effort to keep it updated, although I haven't got much happening on the money saving front. My mortgage balance is now under £46000 :j not sure how much under until the interest is added on the 26th.
I managed to make an OP of £118.63 in December, however nothing in January as my car insurance was due, and because I haven't been budgeting for a full 12 months, there wasn't enough in the pot.
OP'd a whopping 51p so far this month.

I've eventually set up a S&S ISA for £50pm, :T this will start on the 1st March. The money for this will come out of my extra tax credits and not my SOA.

bubblycrazy

Just realised that my water bill has increased by 84p a month. This prompted me to put in a gas and elec meter reading and my monthly payment has gone down by £25pm :j This is mainly because I applied for the warm home discount this winter which has been credited to my account.
Over the last few weeks I've slowly changed the lightbulbs in the house over to LED's so I'm hoping this will also make a difference.

This means my SOA has a spare £24.16 which I will use for the S&S ISA, so I'm only using £25.84 from the spare tax credits. Happy about that.
I came under budget by £18.70 last week (5 NSD's in a row!) so have just OP'd that.

frugal_lass

I just wanted to say that while I've been lurking on this board for over a month your thread has inspired me to come here and join in. I've also subscribed

I'm also on a low income and have lofty goals. I'm so impressed with how you're doing, your organisational skills and look forward to seeing how you do. Cheering you on to achieve what you want :T