Beginner's Questions-Now Shirlgirl's updates

lavenderlady

Wow I've just read this thread and I'm smiling big time for you.. well done!

My mortgage is £250,000 and being debt free seems so far away right now. I sometimes look at my accounts and feel overwhelmed at the amount and then I read a story like yours and it spurs me on to make overpayments.

With a big mortgage like mine though, is it really going to make a difference if I overpay £300 here and £250 there? Is there a place I can go to find out whats actually possible?

I'm so pleased for you. You must feel great :beer:

Hopefully one day I can come on here and inspire someone else!

gallygirl

Well Lavenderlady for a start you would owe £250 less for each £250 OP , although with 'normal' interest rates you can consider that knocking £250 off the capital knocks around £500 off your interest bill.

I have a spreadsheet which is a bit clunky, 1000's of lines, but does show the impact of one off OP's. If you (or anyone else) woudl like a copy please PM me your email address & I'll gladly send on.

I think the best tool for regular OP's is https://www.whatsthecost.co.uk, you can put in your regular payment, see when your pay off date is then see the impact of increasing it by say £100 a month. It's especially useful if you are paying off a number of debts, e.g. car loan, general loan & mortgage, and intend to 'snowball' your payments (i.e. use the cleared car loan payment to add to mortgage payment etc) - you can easily see what a difference this makes. I input my details every month (I have 3 mortgages altogether) to make sure I'm still on track at worse, or hopefully knocking another month off my mortgage free date :T.

Hope this helps.

lavenderlady

Thank you, sounds good, i'll pm you :A

setmefree2