Z's MFW journey

Jessy103

Well done on the savings 🙂

Archerychick

Zerforax said:

Feels weird not overpaying the 10% annual allowance before the end of the calendar year but we've stuck to our guns. Earning a decent amount of interest in the savings account so it's fine.

Since the payrise, we've managed to save so much more money every month (even more than just the salary increase). Been fortunate to save more money in the last 3 months than we did in the first 9 months of this calendar year!

Our mortgage deal doesn't expire until September 2024 so we've got another 9 months of saving to do but I think today we could make a £20k overpayment.

I need to find out if there is a mortgage product that we can take which has no early repayment charge or a higher allowance over 10%.. Will ask the broker when I speak to him around Easter time.

We are with First Direct and we have no limit on the amount we can overpay. There is an early repayment charge for the fixed rate deal but once your balance is down to a tiny amount you can ask them to recalculate your payments, which is my view is a waste of money in the current finance landscape, but it’s an option.

LadyWithAPlan

I gather some banks allow a 20% repayment without charge - I think NatWest maybe? 

Or you could look at an offset mortgage given your LTV 

South_coast

I was with NatWest and that was a 10% cap. May have changed now though, that was a couple of years ago 😀

Archerychick

South_coast said:

I was with NatWest and that was a 10% cap. May have changed now though, that was a couple of years ago 😀

I think it was February last year they increased it to 20% which will make a difference for so many mortgage holders who have the finances to overpay. 

Zerforax

Thanks all. Yes I'll look into both offset and lenders like Natwest to see what is the best option at the time. Probably getting ahead of myself as a lot can change in that time. Hopefully we see some interest rate cuts before then. We're currently on a 2.64% rate. Since we'll bring the total amount down, our monthly amount shouldn't go up too much.

Archerychick

Hopefully by the time August \ September comes the rates have fallen a bit for you. 

Zerforax

Been asked to become a permanent employee rather than contractor for the company I've been working with for a couple of years. They have also asked me to move to 5 days (from my currently 3.5 days).

Since I had a payrise in September, I'd be surprised if I will get much more now but then I'm not sure how they are calculating the 3.5 to 5 days. Everyone has been quite vague about the remuneration package - which makes me a bit nervous!

Zerforax

So I've managed to get another 14.5% salary increase but have had to switch to full time. Didn't manage to get a pro-rata increase of salary to increase in time but received some other compensation so it probably evens out. Would have preferred to go full time from September but it is what it is.

All in all, my salary has increased by almost 60% in less than a year so I feel like I can't complain. The current plan is to start saving a lot more into my pension (since it seems more tax efficient). We're still making good progress on the mortgage savings.

Currently have about £25k that we plan to use to pay down the mortgage once we're off the deal before taking out a new 2 year deal. But we still have until September to keep saving. Interest rates haven't really dropped much recently but we've gone time till the end of September. Will speak to the mortgage broker next month as we may as well lock in a 2 year deal now while we wait to see what happens on the rates.

Archerychick

Ooh congratulations - 60% is very nice