Mortgage free in Forever Home :-)

KajiKita

Greenhouse is cleared, apart from the peppers (still growing well) and the parsley which will keep on through the winter. Sideboard top nearly clear with the majority of items properly rehomed 👏💪😊

I have realised that my work trousers hem is coming down, so that’s my sewing job for tonight. 

KK

KajiKita

I have just been doing some calculations about OPs on our mortgage to see what it would take to get our mortgage cleared by the time hubby is 65 (i.e. in 8 years as opposed to 17 years). I am doing this as everyone here talks about having targets and that is one I would really like to achieve.

The news is not good. 

To make this happen we would have to find an additional OP of £1600 pcm, and that's without looking at the inevitable interest rate rise we are likely to face in 2024 when our current fixed deal ends (currently at 2.17%). This OP number seems completely unachievable to me atm .... 

Feeling sobered, flattened and a bit defeated atm (not helped by the stinking head cold I have developed this weekend).

However .... I have also looked at what we would have to OP between now and when we get to remortgaging (as a milestone point) and if we could find an additional £200 pcm (£4,800) we should be inside the 50% LTV ratio - which from what we have seen (Hubby was G**gling mortgage deals to see what we would be paying on our current amount owing at the latest interest rates that are all over the news atm - he was helpfully shocked! ), should improve the deals available to us by the time we come to remortgage. Hoping this OP amount will be more achievable with a combination of cutting spends further, increasing in come, bonuses etc.! I am going to set myself up a tracker of how much OP is needed v. how much achieved on my 'Master Spreadsheet' so I can keep an eye on how we are doing .....

KK 

KajiKita

Oh, I did manage to get my trousers hemmed whilst cooking tea last night  So at least that job is off the list!

KK

KajiKita

I have set my milestone for 50% LTV ratio tracker up and it has prompted a question .....

When I receive the CoL £Bonus in my October pay, should I just shovel that straight in to the mortgage as an OP do you think - it's extra money I am not expecting after all? Or should I continue focusing on building my savings until I have enough for 3 months' expenses plus new-to-me car (which will be quite a long time yet!)? 

KK

KajiKita

Had a chat with Hubby about the 50% LTV target / milestone - he 'gets it' and we are going to work together on it. He has a job coming up for his boss where he may get paid a £2K 'Finders fee' - he is suggesting half of that could be used as an OP  With my CoL payment being used for OP and Hubby's contribution, that would take us to £2200 of £4600 (47% of total needed) and even more usefully would reduce the remaining monthly OP needed to £100 which feels much more achievable!! 

Feeling more positive (albeit, still horribly gloopy!) again   

KK 

Cheery_Daff

God job on working out your calculations! Ours is similarly depressing in relating to overpayments and remortgaging (especially as we will likely end up remortgaging with the same provider again for various reasons)

We do have the "advantage" of a significant age difference - so theoretically I could claim my works pension early at 57 (in 15 years) and put a lump sum towards the mortgage, which at that point might pay it off. And Mr Cheery will get his state pension in 7 years, which mean we can throw quite a bit extra at it.

In reality, it won't be gone as quickly as I'd like, but when we took it out it was running til I was 62 and he was 80 😱 so any advance on that is an improvement!!

Don't know about your other question. At this uncertain stage, I'd be tempted to stash it in a savings account, especially if the interest rate is higher than the mortgage rate - you can always judge when you're ready to remortgage, and see how much of a difference it would make.

Personally , I did a lot of overpaying, but then we used the majority of Mr Cheery's pension lump sum on our building work/kitchen, leaving us with a very sparse savings/emergency fund, so I'm focusing on building that back up for now. I miss chipping away at the mortgage though, so I've started sending anything I get from Prolific to the mortgage. Not much (just under £20 last month) but feel like I'm doing something. 

Once we're happier with the savings stash (which probably won't be for a while) we'll reconsider. Our fix is up Sept 2024 (currently 2.26%) and we'll see where we are then. We were already at 50% LTV when we took it out originally so no real advantage to be gained there.

redofromstart

We started off from it ending as Mr Redo retired (again an age gap) only then I quietly got into OPing and just kept throwing everything spare at it.  We started by doing 80/20 savings/OP but once we had a reasonable balance on savings (six months of essentials money for us) we moved to 20/80 savings to overpayment. 

In the lucky position now that he took ER, and his lump sums are enough to clear it, as long as we don't get carried away and take out a big new mortgage somewhere else.  

KajiKita

redofromstart said:

We started off from it ending as Mr Redo retired (again an age gap) only then I quietly got into OPing and just kept throwing everything spare at it.  We started by doing 80/20 savings/OP but once we had a reasonable balance on savings (six months of essentials money for us) we moved to 20/80 savings to overpayment. 

In the lucky position now that he took ER, and his lump sums are enough to clear it, as long as we don't get carried away and take out a big new mortgage somewhere else.  

I like that ratio Redo 😊

Thank you.

KK

LadyWithAPlan

Liking your 50% LTV target and with your OPs it seems inevitable you will get there. If you both have steady jobs then I would  get yourself to a OK savings amount and then be OPing as much as possible so you in the best position possible to remortgage 

KajiKita

Squeeeee! The Universe has been listening and 0.02% of our 50% LTV target funds arrived in the post today 😊 £67.68 arrived as a cheque for our wayleave payment for the power pole on the edge of our garden. Historically, this would have been put in the joint account as we were perpetually running short in there for all the house bills, but we are so much better organised now, that these monies are going to be an OP! 👏

KK