Expl0rer's mortgage journey

expl0rer

I bought the house in 2015. The original mortgage value was £172K.

Now I'm down to £143K The interest rate is currently just under 2%.

I've made both OP's and underpayments (when I needed extra funds to complete a project); now I'm a bit over £2000 in OP's and I hope to be able to OP more or less regularly. When I make an OP, it reduces my monthly payments, which I find more appealing than reducing the term, as it gives me an instant relief, as opposed to shortening the term by a few weeks in some distant 20+ years future.

I haven't thought about setting specific goals as things have been changing so quickly in my financial situation (in a general positive direction) that I don't know where I will be in a few months from now. I've had to make a lot of expenses (renovation, education...), but now with most of those out of the way, regular OP's seem realistic.

At the same time, I'm putting money into a S&S ISA fund, which I expect to return ~9% per annum on average. It makes more economical sense to put money into that than mortgage OP's, but the OP's are guaranteed to be 'profitable' and there is the psychological factor of reducing my debt; moreover I can still take out of my OP reserve by agreeing underpayments. So I'm trying to balance the OP's and saving into the fund.

beanielou

Happy shiny new diary

longway2go

Welcome and good luck

expl0rer

Thanks for the welcome :T

My last OP of £500 has shown in the statement. Knocked £2.50 off my monthly payments, which doesn't sound like much, but these add up and over the remaining term of the mortgage it will have saved me a bit over £100 at the current interest rate if my calculations are correct.

This year to date I've OP'd by £1500, which has reduced my monthly payments by £7.47 and saved me ~£300 in interest :j

LeighofMar

Welcome. Best wishes on your overpayment journey.

CosmoCat

Welcome to this great journey, I know you'll love it here.

expl0rer

Haven't been around here much, so a brief update:

Made another OP of £500 this month. Can't see what my balance is without the November interest until the next direct debit comes off, which should be in a few days.

I feel I may shift the balance in favour of paying into my S&S ISA as long-term it makes 9%, while the mortgage is just under 2%.

I'm going away to Central America for 3 months in a bit more than a week, which I'm looking forward to very much and that probably means a longer break from the forum and OP's, but since I'm going to combine it with some work (helping friends who live there), money-wise it shouldn't cost me more than being here. I intend on making regular payments into the ISA though.

The other day, I got an email from MSE (?) saying that I'm paying too much for my utilities and showing better offers. I'd love to switch, but those new, cheap suppliers have confusing billing systems whereby they charge you upfront based on an estimate, which is based on the info you provided them with. And it showed I'd actually have a higher monthly payments than I do with my current supplier (the usage stats I gave them were highly inaccurate I they were based on just 2 months, as I switched 2 months ago). Which I understand would be corrected later on, but still it's somewhat off-putting.
I'll come back to it when I'm back from my travels.