It's a Whopper - need to pay it off! 30 December 2021 at 5:12PM in Mortgage-free wannabe 75 replies 5.6K views

Grass_Roots_2

Hi all 

Introducing myself after lurking for many years and not committing to my own thread.  I'm 44, DH is 47 and we have a (gulp) £578k mortgage with 22 years left on fixed for another year  at 1.79%.

Clearly that figure keeps me awake at night, although we're in our dream home and have about 50% equity in it.  We have 3 kids living with us (one grown up, 2 teenagers) and love where we live.  Just need to get it paid down now. We have okay salaries, but realise that we have been very wasteful particularly with food shopping costs and shopping splurges.  We've downloaded the Emma budgeting app over last couple of days which is very telling!

Anyone been in a similar position with a whopper of mortgage that feels rather overwhelming?  I don't have a concrete plan on figs yet, as want to get our general spending under control and tracking it over next couple of months before committing to overpayment figure but anticipate this will be at least an overpayment of £1000 per month to start making a real dent.

Any questions or thoughts let me know!  I'm an open book.....Would this one keep you awake at night too?

Grass Roots x

SuperHung

It is indeed a big mortgage, the interest is probably £800 alone. Maybe downsize when all the kids flown the nest?

Grass_Roots_2

SuperHung said:

It is indeed a big mortgage, the interest is probably £800 alone. Maybe downsize when all the kids flown the nest?

Hmmm - we could do but I really love it here and want it to be somewhere the kids can come back to for family Christmases etc.  But that is indeed an option if we just can't pay it off in time and something we've discussed.  

South_coast

It is a huge mortgage, but.... you've got a great amount of equity and the bank clearly thinks you can service the debt as they wouldn't have loaned you that amount, so look at the positives! I think tracking your spending is a great idea as a starting point. Once you know where it all goes you'll be in a much stronger position to decide what you're prepared to change, or even if you'd rather just carry on and pay the mortgage to its normal term and not make any changes at all. And the good news about a big mortgage is that any OP's will make a tangible difference to the amount of interest you're charged every month, so you'll start seeing the benefits straight away. Good luck with your plans!

longway2go

I just wanted to say good luck with your plan. I think mortgage size is very individual and something that is dependant on income and circumstances, for me a mortgage that size would cause me sleepless nights. I guess the main worry for me would be loss of income so have you considered insurance for that?

Getting used to what you spend is a good idea, I have definitely 'found' much more money by having a zero based budget and being purposeful on what we spend. Xx

Grass_Roots_2

@South_coast thanks for the positive reassurance - yes Nationwide were happy to lend us that so they must have faith.  I do too - but the 22 years feels too much, want to try and have this gone in next 15 years. 

@longway2go agree it’s all relative - both DH and I earn nearly the same and we’re well covered with life insurance and critical illness cover.  So there’s not one main breadwinner that would cause a catastrophe if that makes sense if that job was lost.  Redundancy income protection we don’t have though but do have decent redundancy policy provision with our firms (not reliant on statutory redundancy pay)  so would tide us over until something else came along.  Can’t wait for 1st Jan and tRue tracking on the budget app to start.  Then I’ll brave it with a juicy SOA! 

chicker

Welcome and good luck!

Our mortgage isn't as large but still feels overwhelming compared to some on here. Also if things go to plan, we will increase it with another move in the future.

With decent overpayments you should see it reduce quite quickly with the amount of interest you will save!

Chicker

Grass_Roots_2

Thanks chicker for the welcome - good luck with the plan! 

Busydoingnothing

We had this debate recently...we are high earners and own a house valued at approx 420k, we are hoping to be mortgage free early next year and was considering buying a property for approx 1m. We wouldn't have struggled to secure a mortgage, but we've decided to stay for a couple of years and save, hopefully another 200k..simply because the amount of interest we would pay on a mortgage that size is eye watering. The money we would have paid in interest will go into savings instead. 
I'm not saying our way is the right way and we would have loved to get the bigger house whilst our teenage children are still at home. But if I was you I would overpay as much as possible. Seems your in a great position to be able to do that. Good luck 

Busydoingnothing

Just to add, my husband is actually the high earner whereas I'm a sahm. So our situation is quite different to yours. We don't have any concerns for his job stability though. Our major spending area is also supermarket good shops. Something I'm hoping to tackle next year 

Grass_Roots_2

Thanks @Busydoingnothing - completely understand your plan.  Houses are such emotional things aren't they - this is our 5th house we've purchased and I must admit I've probably always looked at it from the emotional investment - I'm a real home person - love interiors and interior design, and always spend my money on my house rather than holidays or clothes.  I'm one of those saddos that have been featured in a house magazine.

So we're not terribly financially savvy when it comes to our house - having said this we've always made good money on our previous houses and when buying a new one for the last few purchases always made sure we were under 60% LTV ratio to get the best interest rates.  It's a lovely house, but the eye watering cost reflects it's location in the South East rather than it being truly amazing.

Good luck with your plan - financially I think yours makes the best sense and sure you sleep easier at night than I!