The Case of the Overwhelming Mortgage

SandyShores

Let me cheers to not having sleepless nights over the mortgage 🍻. I just read your first post about having a bigger house/bigger mortgage and Covid-19. Really interesting because we were in a similar position - we wanted a smaller house but that plot got reserved so we ended up with a bigger one costing another £30k! Then C-19 came and we were very glad of the space through the lockdowns.

Agree beanie, you just can't compare. I'm hopeful of paying it all off before retirement, but with my local gov. and NHS pensions we'll be fine if there's still some left to pay.

Edit - just saw your post Agatha, yes I'm the same I like to have the motivation, but also to be thankful of where I am. I'm not sure how we managed to negotiate our debt mountain and get back on the property ladder just in time, but I am really happy about it.

AgathaSquirrel

Yes, much as I’ve hated the size of our mortgage. The space this house gives us allows us to work at home, even now. We might have paid off the mortgage on our last house long ago but it wouldn’t have allowed us the life we now lead. I have no regrets about buying this house.

@SandyShores - ouch to the £30,000. I’ll need to go back and read your earlier diary too. It’s nice to have this record to look back on. It’s such a gradual process seeing the mortgage reduce, it’s hard to remember how it felt at the beginning.

glass_half_full

Congratulations.on the progress! Sometimes it's good to celebrate what has been achieved.

Sncjw

So if you are over the PSA does that mean you are earning over 1k interest a year? Must have a lot in savings then. If so could you not use this to pay off the car loan?

AgathaSquirrel

It’s only £500 in interest for me as I fall into higher tax rate. I briefly had a lot in savings last year after my dad died and I inherited some money. The money paid off our small mortgage, paid for a holiday and partially paid for garden renovations. If I’d realised, more would have gone into an ISA rather than splitting it into different saving pots. That money has gone now hence the loan. I could pay off the loan with our emergency savings fund but I would prefer to have cash to hand in case we need it. The £200 per month on the loan is what we were saving towards a new car so I don’t miss the money as it was already earmarked for a car.

Sncjw

Sorry to hear of your dads passing.

Its good that you didnt go for a car thats more than your budget though.

AgathaSquirrel

Recalculated interest, down to £4.97 a day which is approximately £150 a month in interest. Half what we were paying when the mortgage started in 2017.

AgathaSquirrel

£200 overpayment. Trying to bring down monthly payment when new mortgage starts.

AgathaSquirrel

Added an extra £100 overpayment. Now at £34,500 for start of new fix on August 1st.

I see rates have gone back up again slightly. I think we’re maybe a couple of pounds better each month than the current rate..,every little helps.

New mortgage payment will bring us briefly into £33,000s before interest moves us back to £34,000s.

AgathaSquirrel

Stuck another £5 in this morning to account for the interest overnight.

Absolutely pouring here. Contemplating another coffee before work. Might write a list. A lot to achieve today before annual leave.