The Case of the Overwhelming Mortgage

AgathaSquirrel

Had a look at the bond we have for university savings. It matures in March (I think). Started it when we had 2 under 3 and Mr A was at university so we were surviving on my 4 day a week wage. We put £20 a month into this bond for a promised payout of £6000-£8000. I’ve always budgeted on the midpoint of £7000. It’s been going up and down between £6000/£7000 in recent months but does now seem to have settled at £7000. Anything it adds now is a bonus to my budget.

Also transferred control of child tax trust fund to eldest this week. I always mistakenly thought hers was performing better than youngest’s so added money to youngest’s (and more recently eldest’s.) Youngest’s is now only about £300 behind. Once it has caught up we have agreed anything beyond that comes into our university contribution. I estimate a couple of thousand.
All in all should be able to knock a couple of months off our current September 2028 deadline of £24000 saved for university.

Will be giving eldest first instalment of this next month. Feels odd to have saved all of this time and now we’re ready to spend.

AgathaSquirrel

Briefly into £33,000s this morning. It will bounce back up but overpayment later in the month will keep it there.

Time for a new goal: I want the mortgage to be in the 20’s. Last time this was the case was my flat in the early 2000’s. I bought that flat in December 2000.I’ve depressingly been paying a mortgage for almost 26 years 😬

edinburgher

It must indeed be weird to be spending the university investments/savings, well done for staying the course 🙂 We are now a little over 1/2 way there. 7 years for DD1, 14 for DD2.

AgathaSquirrel

So since I was last here, we now have two teenagers with exam results (all went well); a new adult in the house in the form of eldest who turned 18…though not for long. Off to uni in a month.

She has her child trust fund. This has been split into LISA; stocks and shares ISA; savings bond. Hopefully this won’t be touched while at uni but does provide some flexibility if needed.

Money for uni has been agreed. She has her loan, savings from her job, some money from my mum and £350 a month from us. We will give her this for the full 12 months to provide a buffer for rent next summer. She hopes to get a job too. We will cover this from wages at the moment. The hope is to reduce hours in the future so savings will be used then.

New energy bill was far too high. I liked Octopus so sorry to leave but ultimately we already pay far too much for energy. Will mean rebatein the near future, though I realise will be needed for energy over winter.

Mortgage ticking away. Currently at 33600.

Will be a tricky year or two financially but we should be in a better position after that.

edinburgher

Sounds like you've got your eldest well set up, while meeting your own milestones, I'm sure she will appreciate all you've done to help her start her adult life 🙂

We are being doppelgangers at the moment, I also ditched Octopus despite my generally positive vibes towards them, we too couldn't justify losing £200+/year. I guess this is what happens when an outsider becomes the mainstream?

AgathaSquirrel

We’re saving £300+ through the switch. Our energy bills coupled with our council tax are like paying a second mortgage so happy to take any savings we can. Waiting for the Octopus to refund us approximately £400. Will add to next year’s holiday savings.

Two conversations this week with parents of university age children. Parent 1 is returning to full time work so daughter doesn’t need to take loan. Parent 2 is paying £1500 a month for both university children’s rent.

I’m already full time (with an additional job on the side) so no wiggle room there. Trying really hard to make peace with what we can afford… and this is totally coming from me. She’s grateful for what we can give.

Sort of at peace with the loan. I’ve been in debt my entire adult life with student loan, mortgage, sometimes car loan. It doesn’t feel right to be saddling her with debt at 18 but in the longer term putting spare money to a house deposit feels like the better move…

No other finance news. Mortgage is slowly coming down. Haven’t done the maths but we should hit the 20s early 2027. All being well we currently have 2 years 10 months left of the mortgage.

Car loan slowly decreasing as well. 22 months left on that but we’ll pay that off sooner from savings once it’s down a bit.

beanielou

Luckily my DS and I have always just seen the loan repayments as a graduate tax. It comes out of his salary and that’s it. I did what I could and he appreciated that. Comparison is the thief of joy.

AgathaSquirrel

I don’t think it is comparison necessarily. It’s panicking that despite all of my careful planning we still haven’t saved enough. Everyone I know in real life seems to be providing more than us and I genuinely didn’t see this coming. It may be that the only ones who are talking about finances are those who are giving more. I’ve certainly not been discussing our plans, other than she’ll get money from us to supplement her loan and personal savings.

None of it’s a disaster though. If that does turn out to be the case there are alternatives we can consider.

AgathaSquirrel

Good weekend so far. Round at a friends last night for cheese and wine. Too much of both were consumed but no regrets. 5k run at the beach this morning with Mr A. Quick trek round shops to get a new duvet set. (Cat decided to claw holes in one of our current sets). Stripped another section of ivy off the fence. Now sitting with a cup of tea and a book.

So lovely to have a weekend where I don’t need to be places.