PinknSparkly's Mortgage Wannabe savings dairy

pinknsparkly · 12 December 2018 at 10:42PM

So we are (tentatively) completing on Tuesday next week!! I say tentative because my solicitor sent me an email today suggesting that we delay completion until the "money issue" is sorted. They claim that my husbands Lifetime ISA provider said that his balance is £1000 less than it is (exactly £1000 less) - I'm 100% sure this has to be a typo as his account has never had the balance that they are claiming in it. However, since they confirmed that any overpayment made by us would be refunded on the day then, for ease and simplicity, I'm willing to pay them what they say we owe and then when it turns out to be £1000 too much they can refund us. I've replied saying that I've got all the money ready to transfer to them by the end of this week (to ensure they get it in plenty of time) if they are happy with that, or we can delay if they prefer. They are really poor at volunteering any information whatsoever (which makes me wonder exactly what we're paying them so much money for) so I'm wondering if they are expecting an issue with the lifetime ISA. We've already agreed to delay completion to next Tuesday from this Friday as the money from the lifetime ISA is due to be paid to them on Friday and they were nervous it wouldn't arrive in time. It makes no real difference to us (or our parents, who we're buying the house from) whether we complete on Tuesday or a few days later but I do wish they'd stop making vague suggestions about delaying completion without giving me a solid reason for it (other than vague concerns about money and us not being charged late completion fees as a result).

I'm not sure whether to feel excited, nervous or something else but mostly I feel completely detached from the whole situation as if it's not really happening! Hopefully it'll feel a bit more real when it actually happens :rotfl:

I've also put our Xmas tree and decorations up after a year with no decorations in 2017 as I didn't trust our cat not to trash them! So far, he's mostly just been very confused by the whole situation!!

pinknsparkly · 18 December 2018 at 3:56PM

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee :dance::dance::dance::dance:

We managed to complete this morning, despite some last minute panicking that the Lifetime ISA money wouldn't get to the solicitor in time. And true to form, I've celebrated by making a mortgage OP already - £11.11 from TopCashBack arrived in my account so it seemed rude not to :rotfl:

I'm not a fan of the whole house purchasing schenanigans though - I've told my husband that we're never moving again as I can't face the stress of it! I think he thinks I'm joking......

Having achieved mortgage-attainment, it's now onwards to mortgage freedom!

Skint_yet_Again · 18 December 2018 at 11:21PM

That's great news Pink :beer: and well done on your first overpayment :j :T :j

pinknsparkly · 19 December 2018 at 10:59PM

Thanks Skint, I'm over the moon. Though it all still feels a bit surreal somehow!! We got the interest from our Lifetime ISA returned to us from our solicitors today (£41.32) so that's another mortgage OP sent off. Next step is to set up the actual mortgage payments - I assumed they would have been set up from when we applied for the mortgage but I can't see any evidence of them online so will ring Halifax tomorrow to ask!

atrixa · 20 December 2018 at 9:23PM

Well done! Bizarre that they didn't set up a direct debit, maybe they're just after the late payment fees.

pinknsparkly · 21 December 2018 at 8:31PM

Thanks Atrixa! Turns out I was a little too keen - the letter with details about the direct debit turned up today after I'd already spoken to them last night to increase it from the minimum payment. I've rounded it up from £737.69 per month to £750 which isn't a huge increase but every penny helps! We've been saving £250 a month each into regular savers for several months which we've managed to avoid needing to use for buying the house. I'm aiming to make over payments of at least £500 a month, which will reduce our term from 35 (and a bit) years to 17 (and a bit) years. My current intention is to continue saving into the regular savers (as the interest rate is higher than my mortgage) and when the year is up on them, I'll use them to make a lump sum overpayment. And then any random extra bits (such as small expense reimbursements from work, cashback payouts etc) will also be sent over.

I also want to start investing in stocks and shares ISAs to give us the option of early retirement (if we want it, otherwise it'll give us options such as taking time off for travelling or reducing work hours) so am trying hard to resist the temptation to throw every spare penny at the mortgage!!

pinknsparkly · 21 December 2018 at 8:32PM

and as my signature states - I've joined the MFW 2019 challenge! I can't wait to get started

gallygirl · 21 December 2018 at 9:36PM

pinknsparkly wrote: »

Thanks Atrixa! Turns out I was a little too keen - the letter with details about the direct debit turned up today after I'd already spoken to them last night to increase it from the minimum payment. I've rounded it up from £737.69 per month to £750 which isn't a huge increase but every penny helps! We've been saving £250 a month each into regular savers for several months which we've managed to avoid needing to use for buying the house. I'm aiming to make over payments of at least £500 a month, which will reduce our term from 35 (and a bit) years to 17 (and a bit) years. My current intention is to continue saving into the regular savers (as the interest rate is higher than my mortgage) and when the year is up on them, I'll use them to make a lump sum overpayment. And then any random extra bits (such as small expense reimbursements from work, cashback payouts etc) will also be sent over.

I also want to start investing in stocks and shares ISAs to give us the option of early retirement (if we want it, otherwise it'll give us options such as taking time off for travelling or reducing work hours) so am trying hard to resist the temptation to throw every spare penny at the mortgage!!

Congratulations :T.
Great idea to pay all the random stuff off the mortgage - it keeps your interest up (and the building society's interest down :rotfl:). In your position though I'd be using the larger amounts to invest in S&S ISA's - over the longer term the growth should exceed what you'll save in interest and you could always use it in the future to pay off the mortgage. Depends on your attitude to risk of course but something to think about?

pinknsparkly · 21 December 2018 at 10:44PM

Thanks Gally

To be totally honest I keep swinging wildly back and forth between your suggestion (and the most "correct" in terms of potential long term gains) and the allure of being MF asap. My concern is that our five year fix will end just as the stock market plummets and interest rates go up massively (lol, and to think I'm renowned amongst my friends as being an eternal optimist!!). In that case we would have hugely increased monthly payments without the option of withdrawing money from our ISAs to make a lump sum reduction in the amount owed. What would be your feeling about that situation? Please try and persuade me as I would like to follow my head, which agrees with you, but my heart says otherwise! My (current, I'm always open to suggestions and change!) plan is to make £500 per month OPs, plus random extras, with the rest of our salaries going into S&S ISAs. £500 per month has us mortgage free by the time I turned 50, and is the time point I have in my head as being our potential early retirement date.

savingwannabe · 22 December 2018 at 8:00PM

This is hard. I kind of agree with Gallygirl but if you have a 5 year fix your idea is good too. Hard decision.

PinknSparkly's Mortgage Wannabe savings dairy

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