Always moving forward 26 May 2019 at 6:02PM edited 26 May 2019 at 6:04PM in Mortgage-free wannabe 9 replies 957 views

Onemanandtwolittleladies

Good evening all.

I'm a long term user of the forum but wanted to start this thread with a fresh name.

I'm hoping this will motivate and inspire me to work towards being mortgage free. It's not going to be a quick process. My wife works part time and we have a 1 year old and a 4 year old. The nursery fees alone for the youngest would make your eyes water, they do mine! Nevertheless, it's very true that every little helps.

I've always overpaid on previous mortgages. Looking back I've been a bit nomadic in my adult life and never really settled into a house for one reason or another. My wife has been similar. I've lived in 9 houses since I was 18 (almost 20 years ago) so that's pretty good going I think!

My wife and I have talked a lot about this recently and we're both agreed that our current house (of just over a year) is a long termer and we'd like things to be settled for a good few years. This is a must for the kids I think, especially as our eldest is in a primary school she loves and it's just down the road.

Our last move was a big one to be closer to my wifes mum and things have gone great since. I relocated (with same company) and love my new job and my wife has her dream job too so things are all set for stability now.

On to our mortgage, it's 2 parts due to a port over from our old house with some additional borrowing.

Part 1 - £61,931.19 - 2.04% - Fixed till 31/10/2019
Part 2 - £47,826.70 - 2.54% - Fixed till 31/05/2020

Total - £109,757.89

We paid £167,000 for our house so currently at 65.72% LTV based on this value.

Currently over 23 years. Repayments are £512.23 per month though we currently pay £520.00 (always round up) + bits and bobs when we can.

We don't have much disposable income atm but I'm hoping this will change in just over a year as nursery fees will reduce dramatically. Ideally I'd like mortgage paid off by the time I'm 50 (12 years 3 months) though I think this is too ambitious. Got to aim high I guess though!

I think it's important to enjoy life too of course. I do have to keep checking myself though because I do sometimes become a bit obsessive when I don't want to be. I'd like to be mortgage free of course but not to the detriment of our lives.

Thanks for reading.

julicorn

Happy new diary! Looking forward to following your progress.

Onemanandtwolittleladies

To add we currently have the following debt:

£3,500 on credit card - 0% until 07/20. This is from stoozing.

Currently have £7,900 in savings.

beanielou

Happy shiny new diary

Shakey87

I totally get what you mean about a tendency to obsess - I’m exactly the same when I get an idea in my head about something. Also understand the need to balance paying it off vs enjoying living life right now.
Nursery fees are extortionate aren’t they! Our daughter will need to go into childcare in October & we’re currently trying to figure out the best route, I keep wincing whenever we get quotes though!

Onemanandtwolittleladies

That's right Shakey, there's no cheap nursery. And even if there were, it's nowhere you'd want looking after your kids.


Our youngest is currently in on a term time basis due to my wifes job but this means we pay the most expensive day rate. We do however get some tax credits because of the cost. This is something worth looking into if you haven't already. All in all, even with the tax credits, we pay about 50% of my wifes salary in nursery fees! It's a good one though and little one seems settled there which is worth its weight in gold.

Onemanandtwolittleladies

It has been a really expensive couple of weeks for one reason or another so only tiny overpayments. Every little helps though so I've just paid each part to round down to nearest £10. After Junes mortgage payments the balances are:


Part 1 - £61,750
Part 2 - £47,690


Total - £109,440


65.53%

Onemanandtwolittleladies

Thank you to anyone who has read. This diary has been great so far for keeping me focussed.

I've not made massive overpayments this month as I don't want our quality of life to suffer just to overpay. After Julys payments the figures are:

Part 1 - £61,567.03
Part 2 - £47,516.13

Total - £109,083.16

65.32%

LeighofMar

Welcome. Rounding up plus bits and bobs is a perfect way to start.

zcrat41

Hi and welcome.
Good luck on your journey.

Are you doing all the tricks for childcare eg tax free childcare or vouchers?