Thirty something dreaming of not paying mortgage

kaycastle

Baileys_Babe said:

Do you have any ideas how much childcare costs are in your area? From memory, they would have taken a huge chunk of my pay.

I have no idea what field you work in, would it be possible to work part-time and or compacted hours, we did a combination of the two to reduce our need for paid childcare.

I don't know the exact figures but it will be super expensive because everything is super expensive in this area. Some people have told me about £1k a month or more. 

I think my work would be quite open to part time and compacted hours. I think they do childcare vouchers as well. My OH is about to become a teacher as well so that will help during holiday times.

I think the part time option is quite appealing to me as then it's more time with baby but still getting some money to make it affordable. I've also been thinking with the work I do it's very easy to freelance and pick up clients or do contracts for short time and earn tons.

Baileys_Babe

Sounds like you will have quite a few options. I did compacted part time and my OH did compacted full time. Which worked for us. 
There is also a range of child care options including Nursery, childminder, Nanny - full or part time.
It is finding the combination that works for your family.

kaycastle

Have been considering the pros and cons of aiming for mortgage neutral rather than paying it off. 

Certainly in the next few years as then the money is there if we need it. Need to have a fiddle with the spreadsheet to see. 

The flexibility appeals to me. Even though it will be sad not to see the mortgage going down more but I'll be able to see money going up hopefully. 

It feels like we would be more protected, for all I know the application for part time could be denied for some reason etc. And then if I've spent all the money on overpayments there isn't much choices left.

And if all goes to plan I could make quite a large one off overpayment at some point and probs wouldn't be much different to the regular ones.

kaycastle

I cancelled my automatic overpayments and from August will divert to savings.

I instantly felt relaxed and like I was doing the right thing. Which I think definitely confirms this is right. 

misslolu

Congrats on the baby!

Just a thought, you seem to be a higher earner and your husband is about to start life as a teacher which isn't necessarily known for it's high pay. There also seems to be a bit of time in between where you'll be on maternity and he won't be earning anything. I know you have savings, but will you be able to comfortably maintain your lifestyle when your baby is born?

kaycastle

misslolu said:

Congrats on the baby!

Just a thought, you seem to be a higher earner and your husband is about to start life as a teacher which isn't necessarily known for it's high pay. There also seems to be a bit of time in between where you'll be on maternity and he won't be earning anything. I know you have savings, but will you be able to comfortably maintain your lifestyle when your baby is born?

Thank you hehe the short answer is yes and actually when he is a teacher he'll be on at least what he was earning and often more consistently as it won't be commission based. More than comfortable I think. I get full pay for almost 5 months of maternity as well and I've done a by month budget of our income and expenses with contingency added. According to that spreadsheet there is actually only 1.5 months where ill have to even touch the savings and the total I might need to get out of savings is under 2k. Will probably be less as I have quite a nice buffer in current account.

Savings are at 21k right now but will be over 30k by the time I'm not on full pay. 
And also OH savings are about 7k as well so his going to continue paying his bit for as long as he can.

It does help that we don't have a particularly flamboyant lifestyle either so that's good and doing most my baby purchases on fb marketplace

I think I want to build the massive savings more for flexibility of what happens after maternity.

kaycastle

Hiya All,

Its been a few weeks since last update Been having a relaxing and enjoyable time off work.

The major news is baby is much further along than we thought so I'll be due in January, not March! hehe  

We're so excited and we seem to be inundated with people just giving us stuff which is so kind and extremely handy.

I'm going to reframe my mortgage quest to be a mortgage neutral quest for the years to come I think as that makes more sense for us. I'm going to aim to be mortgage neutral by 2031.

We have been having a little bit of car trouble and we'll get the diagnosis tomorrow - it could be okay but it good also be much monies so fingers-crossed for that.

Had a real good sort of any subscriptions and stuff - cancelled english heritage and just kept national trust for instance. 

I paid for a new living room carpet as well which will get installed in September - current one is basically falling apart and want something nice for baby to be on. I'm very pleased because my buffer has pretty much landed up around the same amount so I've absorbed that cost just by low spending. 

Done fb marketplace this much as well - just bits and bobs, I think only about £30 but feels good. OH also got an unexpected £150 reward card thing from old job - commission type thing. Have spent some on boring baby related purchases a bit this week. 

We do have a hotel stay for a wedding in September but then that's final big social commitment of the year.

And I think thats all the update for today - going to go look at more baby things and resist spending hehe!

powerspowers

Congrats on baby news KC, January is going to be here before you know it! 

I think being mortgage neutral is a fab aim and will give you that flexibility in the next few years as life changes 😊

LadyWithAPlan

Congrats on the baby and it sounds like with your OH becoming a teacher that will hugely help with child care over the hols.

Well done on all your MSEing to get you to this point as well

kaycastle

Thank you

Ooh it feels like a while since my last update. Had 20 week scan this week and all is well we are so excited!

Savings are at £22k and the buffer in my current account is looking healthy.

Still got car troubles, it will likely cost us around £500 in the end and just waiting for a part to arrive. Cars are the worst!

Also got the news that will get a pay rise at the end of the year, not sure how much but that will be but I'm very pleased.

Posted a few more items on fb marketplace just now. We've made £355 this year which feels great

We are both just getting over bad colds so house has turned into a mess. Going yo try do some tidying today.

Going to start next knitting project once my cold symptoms stop.

Lots to do but mostly resting. Being pregnant and having a cold in that hot weather was exhausting.