2008 MFW newbies

bellsbells

Welcome torbrex - you have been added to the first post!:j

elantan

bells bells that is a good idea actually ..i was going along the lines of half and half with any money i got spare but i'm liking yours better takes the thinking out of it ...hmmm will go and re think me thinks lol

SPL

evening !!

elantan and bellsbells - what are te terms of your mortgage re pverpayments? our buildig society lets us have any overpayments back whenever we have a need for them

with this in mind i am putting all money onto the mortgage except for isa money as having it in the mortgage has a bigger impact than any of the savings acounts i have found

our mortgage also lets us pay off £499 a month which i have done this month - and i have today decided that i am going to ring the bank and ask them to reduce the term to get an increase in the amount we have to pay monthly - this means that my overpyament will get taken automatically with the direct debit but means that if i have any spare cash through whatever means i can lay my hands on (legally though mind you!!) I will still be able to pay off using teh £499 allowance

i might - might - even increase my target - i have become completely addicted!!

elantan i have worked out my daily interest because I can see my mortgage online and have checked it daily and made a note of the amount on a day to day basis - our interest is just short of £20 a day :eek:

today was my bil birthday and we went bowling but my mil paid for the bowling and so have put another fiver away towards overpayment on the mortgage - hooray

ahve a good evening everyone

frugalfreda

frugalfreda wrote: »

I would like to join please as well.

I need to think of a realistic goal. I have two different goals in mind but I don't think they are achievable. We want to start trying for a baby in the summer so purse strings will have to be tightened. However, it would be good to give one of the goals a bash...

Hmmm.

*Gets her thinking cap on*

Well, I am a bit worried about setting a specific target in case I don't reach it so is it okay to just say overpay as much as possible???

We are already making an overpayment this month and I recently reduced the term of the mortgage so our payments have increased.

I am concentrating on saving for maternity leave at the moment (planning well in advance here ) so will focus on stashing more away for mortgage overpayments in a few months.

Annoyingly, we can only make one overpayment a year otherwise I would make small overpayments each month :mad:

Also our fixed rate ends January 2009 so we may have high arrangement fees etc. to fork out for when we remortgage.

elantan

spl my bank allows us to do the take payment breaks or get money back thing so it is an option for me... but i dont have an isa or anything we have just managed to become debt free so we are starting from scratch literally i'm just putting the half money into my egg isa (i opened it but never out anything into it) im thinking this will give me peace of mind we have been so long in debt and so long without savings that i want emergency funds there ..my mortgage is sitting at 4.69% as well so if i get an isa at 6% i am gonna make more money ...well done on the saving from the bowling and your right it does become addictive ...i'm looking at things to sell now lol

violetblue

Hi guys, can I play too?

I've been lurking for months, mainly on here and DFW, but I'd like to join in now instead of just watching from my little corner! I was tempted to join the mortgage free in 3 thread, but that's not realistic for me, so this seems like the perfect alternative.

I have an interest-only mortgage at the moment, with a balance of £38,800. My discount period ends in July, and I am looking to change to repayment then, hopefully to an offset account. I've been paying into an index tracker S&S ISA, which is now worth about £7500, and I have savings of around £6000. I can only make 10% overpayments with my current mortgage, but the plan is to cash in the S&S ISA and either offset or pay off a huge chunk in July when I have changed to a more flexible account.

The monthly payment for the interest only mortgage is just £187.40, but I have been paying £300 a month since August. This month I've finally paid off my last credit card (it was on 0% but I still hate having them!) so that frees up another £200 per month, which I will stick in savings for the moment.

I'm also an Avon rep, so I plan to use my earnings from that to overpay too (it's not much, but every little helps) and I've recently started to dabble in matched betting, and made a fab £600 in the last 2 months! So that can go towards the overpayment fund too.

Hmmm... now to think of a target... I'm sure that when I move accounts in July I will be able to get it down to £25,000 :j with my existing savings, so I'll aim to reduce it to £23,000 by the end of the year. Not sure if I'll manage that, but I'll do my very bestest!

SPL

hi

elantan congratulations on becoming debt free - it must be amazing to now see any spare money making a difference on the mortgage

and yep definitely right to put the money in the isa especially as your mortgage rate is low - how long is this fixed for ?


we are getting a really good community on here now - :beer: bellsbells thanks for starting us all off

elantan

it's got another 2 and a half years to go so will put as much as i can into it while it's as low no doubt when it comes time to re-mortgage i will not get as good a rate and spl is right thanks bells bells it is working out to be a lovely wee community

elantan

well i just did foxy bingo via pigs back so i will get £20 in vouchers (for boots i think i'll pick) so i'm gonna put the 20 towards my mortgage but not only that i won at the bingo it was gonna cost me 5 to join (so i wouldve put 15 in ) but i won 10 so i'm putting 25 into my savings/mortgage account half and half again i think will work out a way to do the savings bit though so it wont interupt my mortgage payments but hey more money for the pot

bellsbells

SPL wrote: »

evening !!

elantan and bellsbells - what are te terms of your mortgage re pverpayments? our buildig society lets us have any overpayments back whenever we have a need for them

with this in mind i am putting all money onto the mortgage except for isa money as having it in the mortgage has a bigger impact than any of the savings acounts i have found

I am in the same boat as elantan having just become debt free so am starting from scratch. I want some very instsnt access savings so want to keep them away from my mortgage. My planis to to reduce the term of the mortgage on a regular basis so emptying my overpayment pot. I could leave the money in my overpayment fund and access if I wanted to but this is not really an option for me because a) of the satisfaction of reducing the number of years left on my mortgage and b) to stop me ever pulling the money out again, spending it and seeing my mortgage go up again. When I have overpayed on the mortgage I want the money to be well and truly gone! If I ever needed a large amount of money I am now savvy enough (thanks to this site) to be able to play with 0% CC deals, balance transfers etc.

Good point though SPL