10 years to go .... maybe, with a fair wind

Lauraebrad

Another sneaky mid-month overpayment.  I'd planned to move my current account as soon as the offers came back, so jumped on the HS$C bandwagon earlier this month and the £125 just pinged into my account.  Sadly, now it's spring, closer inspection of my ancient decking in the garden has revealed that it's pretty decrepit and likely to need replacing soon.  I can't afford it this year, but think it's manageable next year if I save - so might have to divert some money away from the mortgage which is pretty annoying.  I can't just rip it out and not replace unfortunately as I think it's covering up allsorts of other problems!  To be fair it's had a good innings as it was already old when I moved here nearly 14 years ago, and it's been battered by life since then.

Lauraebrad

Unexpected payment from HMRC this month has landed (which I assumed was a scam when I got a text about it!) so have saved some for household repairs and sent some to the mortgage.  Excitingly this means that I've now smashed by £1,200 overpayment target for this year!!  I'd hoped to do more but that was my 'basic' plan.  So looks like I'm on to plan B which is £2,400 overpayments (approx 6 months).   That is the level I need to be at to pay off in 10 years but was thinking it wasn't looking too likely this year.  Having said that, I expect I'll be saving by not even attempting to go abroad this year which will help.

Various family things going on have made me think about what I really want my money to be doing for me and I think I'm happy that overpaying the mortgage now will give me the freedom to keep on working part time in my 50's and hopefully enjoy life to the full rather than working full time and putting all my adventure plans off till retirement.  I'm not at the income level to be able to invest for an early retirement I don't think so this is the best thing for me (* crosses fingers *)

beanielou

Sounds like a good plan.
Good to get a balance & not put everything off until retirement.

Grogged

Always nice when you get an unexpected windfall.
Glad you've been able to step up your plans for the mortgage and long term.
ATB, G.

Lauraebrad

Just sneaking in a little extra OP before the end of the month.  A combination of Pr0lif1c and interest from my V1gin current account.  I've got a temporary promotion at work so currently trying to decide whether to use the extra money (probably only around £30 per month after tax) for some more more regular OPs or to pay into pension AVCs at work.  I expect the latter option probably makes technically better financial sense in these days of low interest rates, but the temptation to shave more months of the mortgage is still always there!

Grogged

Congratulations on the temporary promotion!
Perhaps you could split it evenly between the OP and AVC?

Lauraebrad

So the start of another month has passed and the overpayments are stacking up nicely.  The Pr0lific studies have been good over the last few weeks, and I've managed to cash out on Shoppix too and a few small Eb@y sales.  I'm looking now at every little penny counting as they add up quite satisfactorily!  
I went away last week with my parents which wasn't in the budget and was quite spendy, but thankfully managed to reallocate some money from a holiday fund that isn't looking like being used abroad this year so it didn't actually end up taking anything out of my June budget in the end.
The sunny days are making it easy to continue to have 'free fun' playing in the garden and walking in the woods rather than rushing back to paid attractions now that the world is opening up, so that's a good feeling and great for the budget.

Grogged

Good news on the OPs.
I had a good run on ugov, 8 days on the trot, back to the usual every 10 days or so now though.
It's nice to get out and take advantage of the glorious weather.
Take care, G.

Lauraebrad

The overpayments have really slowed down recently.  Life suddenly seems to have become a lot more expensive - especially catching up / eating out with friends which has been so missed over the last 15 months.  Might need to start reining it in at some point but for now I'm enjoying it!

I only really popped on as I was so excited when I logged into the mortgage account today to see that my number now starts with a 5!!  £59,813 is still very close to a £60,000 number but still pretty exciting for me  

I've officially got 15 years 3 months to go, and I keep thinking I've challenged myself to pay it off in 10 - only to realise that I'm over a year into that now, so really should be saying that I'm paying it off in 9 (with a fair wind).  At this point, it's starting to feel 'do-able' although I am beginning to wonder, with my mortgage interest being so low, whether I'd be better investing the overpayments so they could be earning a lot more somewhere else .... But I really like the satisfaction of knowing I own more and more of my house each month!

Late July and August is probably going to be a bit spendy with school holidays and going away, so I'm going to challenge myself to sneak in some more sales on E-b@y or try out v!nted to keep up with the overpayments.

Just sorted out car and home insurance both via Quidc0 which should, in theory, give a bit of a windfall early next year.

beanielou

Great news on being in the £50,000's