MF before medical retiral

LindsayO

This is my first post on this forum.
My goal is to be mortgage free before I have to take medical retiral.
I'm disabled with a progressive health condition.
I have a mortgage of £105k, and its fixed at 5.95% for 10 years, and its an offset mortgage

I will probably have to take medical retiral sometime soon, within the next 5 years but possibly sooner. My pension would give me enough to live on, if I was mortgage free

If I'm not mortgage free and I have to take medical retiral I would have to sell my house and move out of the city I live in (Edinburgh), so I need to pay off that mortgage before I am in that position.

Here is what I've done so far
Lionbridge Internet Assessors: I've applied and been accepted (passed the exams)
Open University: Applied to be a tutor
joined mysearchfunds: earned 80p so far
Got my elsest daughter to sort out all her old clothes for sale on ebay
Written one knitting pattern for sale, not sure where to post

My biggest dilema is how much energy to put in to keeping my job, versus doing other things to make money. One of my big symptoms is fatigue, so I have limited energy to do anything. It takes me much longer than it used to do my job, and I know eventually I just wont be able to keep up, so I have to have a plan in place for when that happens.

esthomizzy

Hi LindsayO

Sorry to hear about your ill health. What kind of job do you do? Would you be happier/have less fatigue in a different line of work or is the situation the same with all kinds of activity? In terms of extra income there is another thread on a daily click plan which if followed diligently should provide income of £3 per day. Eagerlearner is the MSEr who researched all this so if you search for her threads you should find her and if you PM her she'll send you the plan. In terms of paying the mortgage I make those payments roughly £675pcm for a repayment mortgage. How many rooms does your home have? Do you have any spare rooms you could let to a lodger to bring in some extra income to cover costs if you lost your main income? I don't suggest this lightly as I have a lodger at the moment and it can be quite stressful to share your home with someone outside the family unit so think about whether it would be feasible first. What kind of line of work are you in? Is there any possibility of consultancy on an ad hoc basis to your current/similar employers as and when you were well enough?

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. Hope some helps.

Best wishes
Esthomizzy

LindsayO

Esthomizzy,
thanks for your reply, I don't think changing jobs would help, the job I'm in is very flexible in terms of hours, as long as I get the work done and I'm there for certain key things. I can do a lot of my work at home

I really can't think of a job that I could do that would be better, plus the pension scheme is really very good, except for the fact that I might have a hard time qualifying for medical retrial as the main symptoms that would prevent me from working is fatigue and cognitive decline. My neurologist warned me that its hard to get medical retiral because of fatigue, because its so hard for people to understand that it really is something different that just being tired. And the cognitive decline although I notice it and it really makes my job harder its not enough to show up on any kind of measure (which is a good thing I know) but it makes it harder for the pension people to actually pay attention to it.

I've checked out the thread you mentioned and am looking into it - thanks for that tip

If I do have to retire on medical grounds, they will stop paying my pension if I start working again, a quite reasonable rule, but it means that I'm limited to how much money I can make over and above the pension, so my plan at the moment is to try and save as much money as possible, pay off as much of my mortgage as possible, while I'm still able to work and make extra money

maybe I would be better off putting all my energy into my job, rather than trying to make extra, but I feel even when I try my hardest I just dont do a very good job there, so I think I'd be better trying to bring in some extra cash while I still can, while looking for income sources that wouldn't count as employment

dimbo61

good luck on clearing the mortgage in the next five years.
make the most of any savings ie if you can get 6.5% tax free on an ISA save into that if its cheaper than your mortgage rate !
be aware that if you have more than £16k in savings it might effect any claim for benefits ( please check with dep of social security !) but if you have a £250k house paid for they cant take that into account.
save the MSE way on everything you buy and use quidco/ pricerunner to buy anything and shop late in the evening at the supermarket.
get all insurance through martin,s site or which
GOOD LUCK on the MF journey

abouttimetoo

Hi LindsayO

I'm afraid i don't have any real advice but i did just want to send you very best wishes with the situation

LindsayO

abouttimetoo wrote: »

Hi LindsayO

I'm afraid i don't have any real advice but i did just want to send you very best wishes with the situation

thank you so much, everyone who has replied, I've just diescovered the "Thank you" button, what a great idea!