What do you understand/know now, that you didn't when younger?

cx200

Only in the last few years have I started to understand the 'admin' of money better. I suspect (or hope..) I'm not the only one... Whether pensions, savings, tax or mortgages there are some things I wish I understood better when younger. Hacks if you will. My experience has come at a price of lack of knowledge, laziness or misunderstanding. 

So, with that in mind... what mortgage related thing(s) do you understand now that you would pass on back to yourself. I'm not talking should-woulda-coulda like 'I wish I had loaded up on mortgage debt and bought that £60,000 house that's now worth £600,000' or 'Taken a punt on the base rate going down with a variable' because realistically, I wasn't in a place like that financially or life-stage!

1) When arranging my 7 year fixed mortgage in 2017, there was an unexpectedly long delay of almost 6 months until completion. I didn't think to go back to the bank and simply ask them to change the deal start date or provide a new one nearer completion. Instead the deal started with the initial offer date. I just didn't think to ask.
2) I definitely didn't really grasp the difference between mortgage interest rates and savings rates and where it was better to to put excess cash for then paying off more mortgage
3) At the risk of feeling stupid, I never said to my mortgage advisers: I don't understand what that means, can you make it really simple for me - like with crayon. A bit like listening to Shakespeare, I just about understood what was going on...

Green_hopeful

That you can weigh most liquids when cooking so you don’t need to use a measuring jug. Oil doesn’t work but most other liquids weigh in grams the ml.  I as 40 ish when I realised. I find it easier to weigh. 

kingstreet

Green_hopeful said:

That you can weigh most liquids when cooking so you don’t need to use a measuring jug. Oil doesn’t work but most other liquids weigh in grams the ml.  I as 40 ish when I realised. I find it easier to weigh. 

'O' Level Physics. (Yes, I am that old!) One cubic metre of fresh water weighs 1000kg, or one metric tonne. It works for smaller amounts and you do have to make an allowance for adulterated fluids, such as sea water.

kingstreet

cx200 said:

1) When arranging my 7 year fixed mortgage in 2017, there was an unexpectedly long delay of almost 6 months until completion. I didn't think to go back to the bank and simply ask them to change the deal start date or provide a new one nearer completion. Instead the deal started with the initial offer date. I just didn't think to ask.

Some lenders offer number of years from completion, others a fixed expiry date. If the latter, a new deal may have been possible but the rate could have been better, or worse...

MikeJXE

I would tell myself 

Don't believe anything the government tells you 

amnblog

MikeJXE said:

I would tell myself 

Don't believe anything the government tells you 

You can expand that today to 'do not believe what anybody tells you'.

Ganga

We only bought one house ( still live in it )

a) Took out an endowment mortgage - not worth the money it was printed on
b) Took out a 2 year fixed 12.7% ( interest rates were high and went higher ) but came down very quickly ,stuck for 18 months when the rest were paying about 8%
c) Switched to our bank for the last 5 years ,do you want a tracker manager asked ,no we will have a fixed at about4% ,tracker continued to fall and fall.
We look back on it and still laugh  ,at least we have got a house we have lived in for over 32 years and very happy ,have great neighbours and as there are only 32 houses on the estate know most people ,the only way most people leave our estate is in the wooden overcoat.

Strummer22

Something I've realised recently is that if you stay put and don't take on additional borrowing, and assuming interest rates stay broadly the same, your mortgage will be most expensive in real terms at the start and will get cheaper with time.

Put another way, if you take out a mortgage now in March 2024 repaying £1,000 a month, you would still be paying £1,000 a month in 2049 if the mortgage terms stay the same. But in 2049 £1,000 will be worth a great deal less. 

Or to put it yet another way, inflation erodes the value of debt and transfers wealth from the creditor to the debtor. It was of some comfort to me during the recent inflation shock to think that at least it was eroding the value of my mortgage debt! 

boots_babe

I wish I'd realised that it would be financially better to pay more into pension, rather than pay off mortgage.

I have a healthy pension pot luckily but now realise I'd have done even better had we chosen not to actively overpay the mortgage. Instead we should have put that money into pensions, then used the 25% pension lump sum to clear mortgage.

Green_hopeful

Oh and on the pension point. I wanted to retire early and I was saving like mad to retire at 55 but if I had put that money into a SIPP I would have got lots of tax relief which would have been much better than savings. 

Ganga

Green_hopeful said:

Oh and on the pension point. I wanted to retire early and I was saving like mad to retire at 55 but if I had put that money into a SIPP I would have got lots of tax relief which would have been much better than savings. 

Hind sight is a wonderful thing .