Journey to a mortgage free future

Cotswoldfoodie

Well done you! Dedication to be OP and save regularly. 

StressedHouseBuy1

Hi Everyone,

I have dilemma as much as I take my mother’s advice on saving and being debt free due to recent lockdown reflections and losing a cousin at his late 30's I want to live rather than be saving for care home when I am in my 80's . I am single so no children no pets or a partner to care for ... so should I overpay my mortgage to be mortgage free or should I spend on enjoying life and seeing the world ? I am quite 'sensible' always have been so, my next mortgage at the end of the 5 years (2021) will be only for 75,000 . I think I have done well , but part me thinks I am missing out on seeing the world/travelling. I do have two holidays a year which costs around 2000 so it’s not as if I am housebound :-) but I do save up for these as well. Ps. Hopefully this is not a midlife crisis.

I know this is all based on personal circumstances – but would I ever look back and say I saved up and didn’t enjoy life ? having said this you don’t need money to have a good time 😊.

Thank you for your advice in advance. 

bit_by_bit

Wow Labradorlove. I just read your Ocober update. A- MAZ-ING. I too gre up very poor but I didn't start properly saving until I was in my late 20s. 

kev2009

StressedHouseBuy1 said:

Hi Everyone,

I have dilemma as much as I take my mother’s advice on saving and being debt free due to recent lockdown reflections and losing a cousin at his late 30's I want to live rather than be saving for care home when I am in my 80's . I am single so no children no pets or a partner to care for ... so should I overpay my mortgage to be mortgage free or should I spend on enjoying life and seeing the world ? I am quite 'sensible' always have been so, my next mortgage at the end of the 5 years (2021) will be only for 75,000 . I think I have done well , but part me thinks I am missing out on seeing the world/travelling. I do have two holidays a year which costs around 2000 so it’s not as if I am housebound :-) but I do save up for these as well. Ps. Hopefully this is not a midlife crisis.

I know this is all based on personal circumstances – but would I ever look back and say I saved up and didn’t enjoy life ? having said this you don’t need money to have a good time 😊.

Thank you for your advice in advance. 

Hi,

Must of missed this post.  I would say it very much depends on your circumstances.  If your in a job and its safe and not signs of redundancies or furlough etc and you have enough in savings that if you were to have a emergency you could afford to pay for it like a large unexpected expensive, then I would say sure, pay off the mortgage as you will benefit in the long run.  
I myself am similar to yourself, single, no kids, partner etc but I have a higher mortgage amount left atm but I only bought my property 6 years ago and I have started the last few years to OP my mortgage.  I tend to save up the cash and then towards the end of the year I assess what I have, do I need it, any large bills due etc that I may need that money for and if not and things look ok, as far as i can tell, then I make a one off OP each year.  To date I have been reducing my monthly payment and keeping the term the same as I was due to re-fix for another 5 years this year and previously I wasn't sure if interest rates would rise so I figured I'd keep the term the same to help out with any potential interest rise would be over the term left.  The only exception was my last OP in 2020, I OP and reduced the term as I was re-fixing so didn't make too much difference.  Going forward, I'm undecided on whether to reduce my term and keep payments the same OR keep term the same and reduce monthly payments.  Reduce monthly payments is appealing as will mean I have more money each month and would also mean I could save a bit more to OP each year potentially or could use that money to enjoy life a bit more and gradually reduce monthly payments to a low figure that is easier to pay etc.
Ideally I'd love to have it paid off in between 10-15 years as then can concentrate of other things like pension etc.
Kev

Sweetie83

StressedHouseBuy1 said:

Hi Everyone,

I have dilemma as much as I take my mother’s advice on saving and being debt free due to recent lockdown reflections and losing a cousin at his late 30's I want to live rather than be saving for care home when I am in my 80's . I am single so no children no pets or a partner to care for ... so should I overpay my mortgage to be mortgage free or should I spend on enjoying life and seeing the world ? I am quite 'sensible' always have been so, my next mortgage at the end of the 5 years (2021) will be only for 75,000 . I think I have done well , but part me thinks I am missing out on seeing the world/travelling. I do have two holidays a year which costs around 2000 so it’s not as if I am housebound :-) but I do save up for these as well. Ps. Hopefully this is not a midlife crisis.

I know this is all based on personal circumstances – but would I ever look back and say I saved up and didn’t enjoy life ? having said this you don’t need money to have a good time 😊.

Thank you for your advice in advance. 

What about splitting money half OP half on the here and now? 

Chrissy2020

In 7 years my wife and I have reduced our term time down from 40 years to 12.  All by over payments.
The plan is that i should be mortgage free in 10 years by the time i'm 45.

Sweetie83

Chrissy2020 said:

In 7 years my wife and I have reduced our term time down from 40 years to 12.  All by over payments.
The plan is that i should be mortgage free in 10 years by the time i'm 45.

Wow 🤩 impressive 

kev2009

agree, impressive.
I'm keeping the term the same at the moment but still OP so reducing Monthly amount whilst in these uncertain times.  I'm hoping once fixed rate ends, see where I am, maybe do a another fix rate and then even though I'd still have a good number of years left, I'm hoping to then go variable and then just pay it off fingers cross.  Well that's the ideal plan anyway but have to see how things go.
Kev

labradorlove

Omg I'm so sorry I don't usually get many replies on my post and so don't visit often at all, and for some reason I don't get email notifications either. Will be figuring out how to set that up after this post!

@kev2009 I'm sorry that the pandemic was having the opposite effect for you. I hope you've found somewhere cheaper to park since your post in October or feel safer taking public transport now!! I think I speak on behalf of the UK when I say thank you, us lucky enough to work from home really appreciate key workers in times like this. You should be super proud for working throughout, even when it was extra expense you still went in. So thank you. Hope you're well!

@StressedHouseBuy1 I agree with @Sweetie83. Go half and half, give yourself extra every month to 'live' but still keep your sensible head on and make sure you have an emergency fund and OP when you can but maybe smaller amounts, after all, when your mortgage is gone you'll have even more money to play with and have no OPs to make anymore! There definitely needs to be a good balance when saving so you're not putting your life on hold until your mortgage is gone. Find your middle ground and good luck.

@Cotswoldfoodie thank you so much! It's hard at first but once you find a groove you don't even notice the missing money.

@bit_by_bit Thank you so much! I think certain life lessons come from your upbringing and make you want to create a different life for yourself.

@Chrissy2020 that is absolutely incredible!! Big OP goals!!! Any tips or advice? I think if we carry on the way we are we reduce by 9 years in total. I'm wanting to up the amount we overpay but also balancing life events and working on that emergency fund for now.

labradorlove

So a quick new year update!!

1. There hasn't been many changes since October but there is just one teeny tiny, about the size of a grain of rice, change!!! I'm having a baby! I am super super happy, petrified, but excited too. It's very early days, I'm exactly 5 weeks today so we haven't told many people yet. Not sure how exactly this will affect my future finances but I have always said when the time comes, I still want to OP and that is a priority for me, DH agrees. I would not have started trying if I didn't think we were financially ready for this or that it would affect being able to OP. 

2. I haven't told work yet but will tell them after I've had the first scan so I know the baby is growing okay and everything is so far so good. My secondment is still due to end in March 2021, but the project has been pushed back to end in June, no talk of extending our contracts just yet but it seems like it's about 80% likely. Fingers crossed, could do with the extra income now to put away!

3. I am still able to build my savings, I set myself a goal when I was 21, to have at least £5,000 in savings before I turn 26, so I gave myself 5 years. Got paid on Friday and I'm now at £4,850 , eeeek!! I have never ever ever had so much money in my bank. This probably sounds sad to many people but the most I've ever saved at one time was £4,300 and that disappeared in one day when we bought a house. And still 1 year and 7 months until I turn 26 so I've reached that goal earlier, probably thanks to the pandemic. Feels soooo good having some financial stability. Going to keep it up, I said £5k was my goal but it doesn't mean it's where I want to stop. When every bill, direct debit, overpayment and my monthly 'spends' (money just for me to spend on whatever) is taken out, I have about £750 disposable and I put as much of that as I can in my savings. This month I put away £650 as there are a few birthdays this month and a few bits needed for the house. I'll need a lot of things for when baby comes along in September, but I'm going to shop frugally for this and buy what I can second hand such as pram, furniture etc. I always see so many items on FB Marketplace that look brand new for a fraction of the retail price so I think this will save us a lot of money this way. It's also better for the environment, win win!

4. Uni is going very well. Submitted 3 assignments so far, 78% on the first, 82% on the second, waiting on results for my third. Starting another module alongside this one at the end of this month. I must be mad. Was supposed to do 1 module per year over 6 years but cramming 2 into 1 to shave a whole year off. So this year I will be working full time, at Uni full time, and growing a child inside of me. What am I signing myself up for! Sometimes lose motivation for my studies, there's no particular career goal at the end, I just know a lot of jobs moving up from mine require a degree, so I know in the long run it will be worth it to progress. It's just all the free time we have, I see DH living his best life doing what he loves and I'm spending every other evening and my weekends with my head in a book. Soon to be upped to double that. Keep having to remind myself exactly why I'm doing this.

5. Hit my £2,400 target of OPs in 2020!!! So here we go again this year. Even when baby comes, OPs will continue. The mortgage amount is now at £105,427.32...mad to think that at the end of 2021, this will be under £100,000!!! I am beyond excited to see this drop to 5 figures!!! Big milestone to hit so lets hope this year is good to me and allows me to continue OP'ing.

So, 18 days into 2021 and we've had some amazing news. I have a feeling this year will definitely be better than last. I just hope that everyone gets vaccinated ASAP so we can get back to normal. I want to be able to do all the mumsy things, attend all the classes etc etc!
Hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas and are enjoying the New Year so far.