FinancialBliss: My mortgage free journey…

rca779

Try the tesco compare site - http://www.tescocompare.com/?cmpid=tesco_referral/tpf/gateway/car_link

I got a great deal last year with Kwik-fit. Not only was it the cheapest deal, but I also got a free MOT voucher - something you'll soon be needing with an 05 plate car.

osian

I would cancel the insurance just in case!

Try looking at Quidco to see if you can get some cashback with your new policy. We recently went with Lloyds TSB for our car insurance, it was a reasonable price (about £10-£20 more expensive than the cheapest quotes) and we had £80 cash back, so a very good deal.

Capricorn_One

osian wrote: »

I would cancel the insurance just in case!

Try looking at Quidco to see if you can get some cashback with your new policy. We recently went with Lloyds TSB for our car insurance, it was a reasonable price (about £10-£20 more expensive than the cheapest quotes) and we had £80 cash back, so a very good deal.

Talking of car insurance, I got my renewal notice through from Esure. £192.
So I tried just getting a quote via one of the screenscraper sites listed here.
Well, wouldn't you know it, the same details as the original and the cheapest was Esure.... £135.
I tried Quidco but for Esure, at least, you have to use a quote that was got via Quidco and it was actually more. With the cashback it was probably about the same.

So in one way, I'm annoyed that Esure imply stupidity on behalf of their customers by bumping up the price like that and on the other, I'm grateful that I got such a good deal.

financialbliss

Thanks everyone for the car insurance pointers.:D

I normally use the screen scrapers, plus check the few that don't participate. I'll also remember to check quidco this time, unlike the home insurance.

I'll probably report my progress in the next few days...

FB.

financialbliss

Since I’ve returned from holiday, I’ve been looking at budgets, spending and savings. Taking a break from numbers, then returning without rose tinted glasses has brought home the fact we can’t continue spending at this rate we’re currently doing so.

Net income is about 2,250 per month, give or take a penny or two. My hypothetical budget made an assumption that we could manage on 1,000 a month leaving 1,250 towards the mortgage.

Only 1 month so far this year we have not borrowed from savings. Some months small, but some months large, eg January to mop up Christmas bills. Net result is we’re overspending. We’ve also had a few one-off’s too.

Having just calculated the mortgage payments as a percentage of our income, our required monthly repayment is 898.03 / 2,250 or 39%. On top of that, we were topping mortgage payments up to 1,250, ie 55% of income.

So, I’ve took the painful, but necessary decision to reduce our overpayments by 125.00 to make a total monthly payment of 1,125 / 2,250 or 50% of income.

Dropping our overpayments by a mere 125 pounds a month (1,500 over the course of a year) will compound over a few years and if payments of 1,125 were kept up for the remainder of the mortgage, this reduction in overpayments would add about 12 or 13 months on to the term, or a mortgage free date of December 2013 or January 2014.

Electric and gas going up, water, diesel, food, transport – you name it, I feel they’re all going up, so something had to give.

I’m disappointed, but it’s the correct decision to make. Otherwise we’re going to end up with zero savings. May have to address this again, but I’ll give this revised payment 3 or 4 months to see how we’re going.

Note: I’m not looking to address my goal of 12/12/12 - it's just going to be harder to achieve!

Question – what percentage of your net income goes towards your mortgage? No need to disclose any figures – just the percentage.

FB.

aliportico

About 30%. My overpayment aim brings it up to about 37%. Although my small contribution is quite variable, so that's a theoretical average month.

tootallulah

HI FB I normally lurk but feel I should post as yours was one of the diaries that inspired me to start overpaying my mortgage - and yes it is addictive. I pay 52% of my take home pay on the mortgage and I aim to add an extra payment of 15% each month. As you say everything is going up and it isn't easy but on the other hand the long term savings are ENORMOUS.

I am terrible at saving but very good at paying my bills so I have found that increasing my payments works for me and if I have an emergency I will have to take the money out of the off-set. Following your numeric example my end date is 15/5/15. Here's hoping. I wish I had had this kind of knowledge and motivation twenty years ago!

LouiseJ

Hi FB, what an interesting question!

My mortgage + overpayment amounts to 29.5% of our net income and savings are 18.5% which leaves 52% for living expenses and budgeting for holidays etc.

This balance seems to be working OK at the moment but I will review the savings soon as we have budgeted for a Florida Holiday this last year which we will not be doing every year so wll be able to up the saving percentage slightly.

financialbliss

Hi aliportico, tootallulah and LouiseJ,

Thanks for those numbers! Keep 'em coming in people!

A special thanks for tootallulah for saying 'hi'. Nice to know that my ramblings are of interest...


Just calculated that if I was to revert the term back to 25 year (2004 to 2029), I'd need to only pay a mere 416 pounds which is roughly 18.5% of net income. So, I'm overpaying with 31.5% of income and the other 50% being used for bills and other spending - well at least that's the current situation.

FB.

taka

Currently I'm at 22% as I'm trying to pay for my bathroom renovations. Hopefully by Autumn this should jump to around 50% :j and I'll actually make my 1st actual mortgage overpayment :rotfl: