Lurking MFW finally posting: Mortgage free in 2025 31 December 2017 at 12:41PM in Mortgage-free wannabe 60 replies 7.2K views

gallygirl

blocpartyfan wrote: »

advice request alert...

what are people's thoughts on the best mortgage for making overpayments? You can tell I have some spare time on my hands as little man is down for a nap after a mammoth toddler fun morning of swimming and soft play (what a combo!) - and a bargain £9!

I'm making a little spreadsheet of options we have when we get to move off our fixed - next December. We have always had a fix - apparently a very British thing, so very apt :money: But I now want to weigh up the pros and cons of SVR, tracker, offset, etc and any advice anyone may have very welcomee!

The way the world is at present I'd only consider a fix tbh, but next Dec is a long time away!

blocpartyfan

Almost a month on and a fair few changes!

The impact of measuring expenditure will live with me for a long time. It's so easy to lose track of where your money disappears to.

We had an amazing trip to NYC, child free courtesy of the inlaws, to celebrate our wedding anniversary. The spreadsheet, I'm glad to say, was not in operation over this time!!!:beer: I totally DID spend like a mad woman - but I don't feel bad about it as this was our holiday to do exactly this. And the big apple experience is always ameliorated with a bit of fun splurging!

As I come to the end of my time on secondment this month, I am proud to say savings have doubled to £20,000 and this is solely down to better knowledge of where our money goes which has allowed us to make different choices.

Knowing that my wage will come down so drastically doesn't bother me greatly, as the plans to have the mortgage cleared in 2-3 years are still on track. :T

blocpartyfan

Had some great news this week - unexpectedly I've been offered a permanent job in a different organisation! I'll be able to keep my wage at the level it's been over the last two years, which means the reality of paying the mortgage down in 2020 is back on the cards :beer:

Hope you've all had great weeks!

wishingthemortgaheaway

Woooohooooo congratulations.

BookmobileBadGirl

That is great news BPF,

blocpartyfan

Well, it's hot isn't it?!

It's been an interesting month. Keeping a close eye on expenditure has gone straight out of the window! I've a few weeks off before starting my new job and hubby was adamant I take the opportunity to go on holiday...alone...to see my cousin get married in India! An expensive flight and a hotel stay at an eye watering amount (don't ask!) would have been a definite no only a few months ago. But I realise wanting to become mortgage free is not about punishing yourself in the meantime! I have also realised that I have 0% interest on purchases until December 2019 that I'd not been using at all, which means this big trip can be paid back slowly, whilst I continue to make savings - yippee!

Hope you are all staying cool! x

blocpartyfan

Can I still say Happy New Year on the 2nd of Feb? I'm going to chance it anyway!

Since that last post in July, so many things have happened. I started that new job I mentioned, which is permanent and means my salary increased since starting in September. The effect of the permanency of the contract means I felt confident making longer term decisions. The first thing was DH was therefore able to go down to working 4 days a week, to free up time for himself. DS's nursery fees went down drastically and age 3 is so much more enjoyable for me than the baby phases - so holidays are back in! DH's dad has really struggled since he was made redundant two years ago, and is now struggling with agoraphobia which means the man who was Mr outgoing is stuck in his own mind, indoors, afraid to make a mistake and more comfortable at home. Having the permanency of work contract has meant I have had the luxury to make less reactive decisions. So together DH and I agreed that it was best to free up DH's mum from childcare on Thursday and Friday (which she loved, but meant she could bury her grief in DH's dad changing so much in the busyness of looking after DH). DS is now in nursery 4 days a week, and DH looks after him on his day off. As nursery fees are subsidised, the financial impact of this has not been significant.

The hardwork of saving, thanks to all the wonderful advice from this forum has meant we were able to reduce the mortgage by the maximum 10%, and still had £12,000 in savings. There is now no reason why we can't do the same this year in December when we finally get to renegotiate our mortgage terms and conditions. Thanks so much to everyone on here for the wonderful encouragement.

And hope you've all made a great start to 2019 x

blocpartyfan

It's been over 5 months since I last posted. I've really been noticing how my priorities in life have been shifting over the last year. I've wondered whether the focus on controlling money has been a direct result of the stresses I've experienced since having our son. With the shifting role and becoming a mother, my grandma passing away in 2016, lots of opportunities at work but also stress from dog eat dog environments where being bullied is the norm...

I grew up in a household where controlling money, for my parents, was a necessity for some of my childhood. But as they earnt more and became more comfortable, that ability to enjoy what they worked for never materialised. And as I look to how I am now the parent, and how comfortable we are, I find it interesting in times of stress that controlling money is one of those old favourite coping mechanisms that I reach for.

I am still really keen to pay my mortgage down and continue to enjoy the satisfaction that knowing I don't have to be tied to a particular lifestyle is so freeing :beer: But a year and some months on from when I started, I am less obsessed with it now than I would have been able to admit then. And that is certainly healthier.

I am on track to pay the 10% off when our 5 year fixed mortgage deal ends. This will take the mortgage down to approx £105,000 in November. And will still have £5,000 or so in savings at this point. We are also (fingers crossed) planning to put the other house on sale next year. But that has house always been jinxed (move out to the sticks, bought at the peak in 2007 (though didn't lose money, never really lived the humiliation down of it not working out despite being able to laugh about it a little now!). Hoping we at least get back the deposit we put down on it (£25,000) - and likely will use the money left after capital gains tax to take our mortgage down below £100,000 mark. That is definitely an exciting prospect.

We've been doing our best to enjoy our lovely life while our son is still little (turning 4 this week). And working on learning to enjoy has been part of the journey.

Well done on all your journeys to mortgage freedom - so much excitement to come!

blocpartyfan

It seems so poignant that the year is coming to an end and my overwhelming urge has been to update this thread. So much has happened this year.

We have certainly had a much more extravagant year than we originally expected to. At one point, DH and I even pondered whether renovating our house big style, adding extensions, etc was what we really wanted to do. And so we went through the motions, found a wonderful architect, paid for plans...and then sat and thought about it all. A fantastic house could be ours. But the more I thought, the more I realised that this wasn't my dream. We have a few close friends and family who are very keen on rebuilds, etc. I realised the interactions I had about house extension was their dream . These friends and family members spoke so effervescently about how excited they were for us. When I speak of paying the mortgage off in a few years, not so much interaction follows!

Finding the resolve to continue to focus on being debt free, so that we can pursue more creative options if we want to, and have more time with our DS, and more time for us...the freedom do decide as we want. This is more important to me!

And with that in mind, we are have just renegotiated our mortgage terms, very favourably. We now have a remaining mortgage debt of £114,000. We have managed to save £15,000 extra which we will use to pay the amount down to £99,000 by the end of the year. Next year we will sell our rental property, and hope to take £30-£40,000 after tax from it. DH's promotion and going back to full time means we have an extra £1500 of income per month. We will also be in a position to pay this mortgage off at the end of 2021/beginning of 2022.

How freeing!

Viking_mfw

Hi blocparty,
Just want to say how wise you are to recognise it was the excitement of others not your own, and to be able to step back from that.
Great progress, well done!
V.