A long journey ahead...

wishingthemortgaheaway

The 10% I can over pay each year is 10% of the outstanding balance on the 1st Jan each year. So come Jan 2018 my outstanding balance will probably be £35000 so only £3.5k overpayment without penalty.

My friends can overpay by 20% of their monthly payment - so our monthly payment is £300 so I would only be able overpay by £60 a month on that deal.

SuperSecretSquirrel

wishingthemortgaheaway wrote: »

The 10% I can over pay each year is 10% of the outstanding balance on the 1st Jan each year.

Same here, I thought that was the norm. New OP allowance starting in a month and a bit

I wish it was 10% of the original balance, regardless of current outstanding amount... We'd have been officially mortgage free years ago!

debtfreeforlife

Sadly it is 10% of the outstanding balance on 1st Jan each year So you're right secretsquirrel, it's not ideal. But it's only really an issue while I have my two current products, as the top-up product (which is around 26k at present) is at a much higher interest rate. It's that one that I want to throw everything at but I'll only be allowed to pay 2.5k off of it in January. Once I've done that, I won't be allowed to increase my payment back to this year's amount against that product. I'll just throw everything at the other one after that (£100kish), but it's annoying! So that's why I am considering running the 100k product on STV from Oct '18-Feb '19 which is when the smaller product will be up. The interest rates won't improve on that top-up product and the 10% will just keep getting smaller...

debtfreeforlife

It's been a while!! I've had a busy month or so with work, family and Christmas and only just had a minute to pause and breathe. I live about 120 miles away from my family and most of my closest friends which means that Christmases for me are always enjoyable but almost never restful as there are just too many people to see!

Setting targets for next year - think I will set a target of a £5k overpayment across both my mortgage products. The 10% against the higher % product is already set aside to pay in Feb as soon as the year renews, but after that I'll have to start doing some serious saving. I should find out sometime next month how they have amended my payments to take account of the overpayments from this year.

debtfreeforlife

Happy New Year everyone! Hope you have ALL had wonderful evenings celebrating. I've been chilling out this year as it was the first evenjng I've had to myself since the beginning of the holidays - was lovely to just chill out with a good book, tv, and some wine. I've also spent today catching up on finances etc and budgeting for next year as last year's budget was quite out of date (when I did the yearly review and savings, I didn't know my exact water/electricity bill amount as I was paying quarterly). I also cancelled a few subscriptions, with a yearly saving of £150ish. That's all going in the mop bucket! Decided to up my charity subscriptions at the same time though, as I am very aware that so many others are struggling for basic living expenses.

In that vein, though, I've decided that I will throw everything I can to the mortgage at the moment. Have been thinking for a while about current job as it has changed all out of recognition in the last year - in some very interesting ways, but also in a direction I don't believe in and can't support. Can't leave any time soon as Brexit means there's no job security in my area, but the more I can throw at the mortgage now, the better chances I'll have of getting back to work I believe in. So I'm starting at an extra £170 a month - that, plus current savings, means I can overpay £5k this year at least. I'll wait until Feb to pay anything though and will just shove Jan's payment in another account.

Cicatriz_2

Hi debtfreeforlife.

Subscribing to see how you get along and wishing you the best of luck and a happy new year!

debtfreeforlife

Yikes... over a month since I last posted!! In my defence it has been a really busy month and not a very MSE one. I had a deadline for a book I have been working on for a year, at the end of January. That's now submitted and I am looking at the chaos around me (flat that was decorated last year and hasn't been completely sorted since; food bought for speediness rather than MSE reasons and health, etc). And a few comfort buys - I'm trialling bullet journalling for organization and task management (as opposed to Habitica, which I used to use), and I bought a load of pretty stickers and some nice pens to motivate me. So last month I went over my overall budget by about £50 - that has now been balanced by taking £50 from my treat fund to remind me that overspending has consequences! Now I'm forgiving myself for not doing better and looking forward

On the pensions side of things, I'm holding off until the end of this month to decide whether to overpay. My dream job in higher ed came up and I applied for it - interview, if I get one, is on the 16th. If I don't get it then think I will resign myself to staying in current job, which I mostly enjoy but is going to change beyond recognition (and in ways I struggle to support) in April. But it's a secure job on good pay so nothing to sniff at. I have until 16th March to send request to overpay from April, so the timing works out.

On the mortgage - am still putting aside £170 a month, although I may have to drop that slightly when I start overpaying into the pension. I am still waiting impatiently to get my letter from the mortgage company outlining what I am paying this year after last year's overpayments. Can pay another 10% off of one of my mortgage products from 23 Feb, I think.

Am treating myself to a post-deadline massage today, the treat fund is getting a hammering this month. After that I'll be in the flylady thread!

debtfreeforlife

Mortgage statement came through today - £3,500 in interest added over the year! Not an unusual amount I know, but it's hit home to realise that for more than half of the year, my mortgage payment is going on interest rather than paying the balance down. They've dropped my mortgage payment by £30 a month due to last year's overpayments, so I'm going to phone up later on this week or this weekend to pay the 10% overpayment on the smaller product, and see if I can change the monthly amount and make £30 of it overpayments against the larger product. Then I'll make additional payments as and when I can.

In other news we're almost a week into the month and the groceries budget hasn't been blown out of the water yet, and is actually looking very healthy :rotfl: Long may it last!

debtfreeforlife

... this day is turning out to be very odd. Just after I posted, I then received two emails. The first was from the TV licensing company, the second from the management company with a file attched entitled 'payment request'. First response was to grumble at both - I was certain I didn't have enough in the household maintenance category despite also being certain I'd budgeted for the TV license. Clearly I didn't check well enough last time I looked at that budget because I'm only 30p short, can definitely cover that elsewhere!

Second glance at the managing company email revealed the word 'surplus' at which point I stopped skimming and grumbling and paid attention. Apparently they have money left over and are giving it back to us. I've checked the dates and although I owned and was responsible for the property for eight months of the time, the rest of the surplus should be allocated against the previous owner's payments. Have forwarded it onto my solicitor and asked her to share with previous owner's solicitor. I'm still owed around £150 from him (even with roughly £80 taken off for this refund) so hoping that me showing willing here will inspire them to finally release the rest of the money they owe me!

debtfreeforlife

It appears that this will be a monthly entry diary! Been a busy month. On the manager charges, it appears that with this refund I am now more or less even so no money back on that side. Did get a pleasant surprise the other day in that I'll get some money for some work I did a year or so back (never expected to see any money from it), so that should be coming in this month. I don't know know much it is, but it's over £50. That will go against the mortgage.

Having applied for a new job last month and not got it, I have decided to stay in my current role for a bit longer. I need to apply to overpay the pension by March 16th trying to decide how much to OP. At the moment I am saving £170 a month to OP the mortgage so might just split that in half. Decided not to OP this month though, I am hoping to get some work done in the flat (new kitchen sink with waste disposal, plus new bath taps desperately needed) so need to save towards that instead. But I have managed to OP two months in a row which I'm quite proud of, it would never have been a priority a few years ago.