FtbDreaming wants to clear £69,700 before Im 40 (2027)

abba1772

Congratulations on the job well done you’ll be buzzing all day now xx

rugbymadfamily

Congratulations on the job! Enjoy the celebrations 😊

bellevie

Congratulations 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉 Well done you, what a great start to the year  

FtbDreaming

Thankyou everyone it’s much appreciated! Not sure when the start date will be as need references and dbs etc but I’m in no rush with the kids being off school at the minute and just wanna enjoy a few weeks of peace. 

I’m rethinking my strategy yet again. The plan was always to buy the house and do the loft conversion for the much needed 4th bedroom. Ideally I need to get started as soon as the weather thaws out otherwise it’ll be another year come and gone. 

In order to have a shot at the loft I will need to save as much as possible between now and april/ May. It will be a diy on a budget job although I’ve asked for a couple of quotes for a ‘shell loft’ nobody has got back to me. I could pay upto £5k for a shell which is load bearing floor and stairs (and ideally velux windows) but I have no idea if that’s a possibility or not. We are in Liverpool so trades are a lot cheaper than elsewhere in the country but it wouldn’t be financially viable to spend £20k on a house that’s worth £80k as it just wouldn’t add any value. 

Anyway.... my little brain was running away with itself and went on loan calculators last night! I MUST NOT GET A LOAN! I can do it myself by working more and not overpaying the mortgage for a while. My wages between now and March are about £3000 with the bonus and the direct debits are £800 so that leaves £2200 straight away to live on very frugally to save as much as possible. Im prepared to use 0% credit card for Materials if I need to borrow more time to get it done before the end of summer. 

I know I sound neurotic but I am at my happiest when I have a job to plan/do and this is a pretty big one! We’ll see how it pans out over the next 3 months anyway if the planning and saving process goes well then I can think about physically starting once I have at least £4K behind me. 

MovingForwards

Keep chasing the quotes and hopefully a few will reply. Contractors and suppliers have work coming out their ears due to people having time and money to do things they've put off for years.

Building work isn't always about value, value only comes into play when selling. Your home isn't an investment, it's your home.

Do not get a loan as all that does is increase costs. Save up, even if it takes a year or two, it's much better financially that way.

FtbDreaming

Yeah I know what you mean. I’m not concerned about value just having the safe usable space for an extra bedroom. I just need to do it within a tight budget really.

 I would love to actually earn more but with student loan deductions and tax I’ve always kept my hours to below £20k a year apart from last year as I was buying the house. Last night I had a play on the student loan calculator and if I just bite the bullet and work full time then my plan 1 will be paid in 6 years and the postgraduate loan in 10 years freeing up a chunk of my income for when youngest turns 16 and all tax credits/ child benefits will be gone for good (I think they’ll be gone next year anyway tbh if this new job works out).

I always took the Martin Lewis advice of don’t worry about student loans as you’ll only pay it back if you’re earning decent money, but as soon as you’re over the threshold it brings your pay right down alongside tax, ni and pension. 

Life finances are really a balancing act when you work and have a family to support! 

MovingForwards

Was the house value the actual value or discounted value? 

Only you can weigh up the best way financially, however when your DP is working, that will swing your situation more in your favour, but without the extra student expenses being paid back.
- I know nothing about student loans and how it all works 😊

FtbDreaming

The house was valued at £83k and the mortgage was £69,700... it was valued in Oct 2019 and houses have started selling at £115-135k in the street and very nearby now so we got a decent covid boost! Not that it means anything to me as I can’t remortgage for 5 years and can’t sell for 10 (clauses in the RTA purchase). 

Student loans are a PITA I think Its around 6% of earnings over £19k for the first and 9% over 21k for the post graduate plus 9.4% pension and then more tax and NI... financially I am best off just working a Sunday a week then I pay barely anything and get full tax credits but career wise that’s just not enough! 

I’m going to attribute this new job offer to my the skills I picked up in the Masters so hopefully it’ll turn out worthwhile now. The new job is gonna be £35k full time plus bonuses and hopefully opportunity for progression/ more money in the long run. 

Yeah It will be better when dp is working! Hopefully at some point this year although I don’t hold much hope! X

South_coast

With the student loan, I think when it is written off will make a difference to your decision. The lucky kids now get them wiped after about 15/20 years (although they also borrow more and pay more interest in the meantime 😮!), but mine didn't get written off until I was 64. You're a similar age to me, so yours may be the same. I decided I didn't want it hanging over me for the whole of my working life, so I made the decision to hammer away at it. It was a fantastic feeling when it was cleared and there was one less deduction taken from my pay! The only issue is, that as long as you have any kind of balance they'll still take the same amount of repayments as it's a % deduction from your earnings (not like a credit card for example, where the minimum payment is a % of the balance), so if they're taking £200/month it will always be £200/month - whether the balance is £5k or £20k.

It would be worth digging out your paperwork and looking at the T&C's. I actually took out a 0% credit card and paid mine off with that, but I have a feeling they stopped taking credit card payments shortly after that. 

MovingForwards

Our property purchase prices / mortgages are similar and I'm in a 5 year fix. I'm waiting to see how things settle after the stamp duty holiday to get a more realistic idea on values.
What I'm also doing is saving ERCs and in 25 months they will be a reasonable cost to allow a remortgage with a different lender. It would be worth having a quick look at your paperwork and consider doing something similar.

Use this year for experience in your new job, get your OH trained and then evaluate direction next year.