Hope is not an Effective Financial Strategy

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  • shangaijimmy
    shangaijimmy Posts: 3,796 Forumite
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    Well that mortgage phone call was the short and uninspiring! 4m 42s from start to finish. 5yr fix @2.08% locked in for 1st March. I'll keep my eye out in case it drops again in the New Year, or if it drops with any Brexit decisions. Of course the rate could go up but either way I'm happy with what we have.

    Now I can make some plans and goals. At the minute it looks like we'll remortgage with a balance of approx £84,500, and i would love to find that extra £500 to get below £84.
    MFW: Was: £136,000.......Now: £61,892.24......
    Mortgage Neutral Deficit: £43,082.90... Mortgage Neutral Savings: £18,809.34
    MFiT-T6 #13 - £3,517 of £15,500 (22.69%)
    1% Mortgage Challenge 2022 - £157.59 of £650
  • themadvix
    themadvix Posts: 7,916 Forumite
    Mortgage-free Glee! Photogenic First Anniversary Name Dropper
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    Will they not switch you onto the rate straight away (assuming it's lower than your current one?)? We were super impressed with that aspect of our new mortgage - switch was backdated to the day before when we signed the electronic paperwork - and the current deal isn't due to expire until 9 March!
    Mortgage free 16/06/2023! £132,500 cleared in 11 years, 3 months and 7 days

    'Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.' Ernest Hemingway


  • shangaijimmy
    shangaijimmy Posts: 3,796 Forumite
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    No they wont switch, but the rates not as good anyway. We did really well last time and managed to fix at 1.64%. The equivalent 2 yr fix now is 1.95% so i opted for 5yr. Plumped for security of monthly payments and 5yr will hopefully finish us off.
    MFW: Was: £136,000.......Now: £61,892.24......
    Mortgage Neutral Deficit: £43,082.90... Mortgage Neutral Savings: £18,809.34
    MFiT-T6 #13 - £3,517 of £15,500 (22.69%)
    1% Mortgage Challenge 2022 - £157.59 of £650
  • Karmacat
    Karmacat Posts: 39,460 Forumite
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    Ah well. But if you can finish off £84.5k in 5 years, that will be a **fantastic** achievement, SJ! Cheering you all the way :)
    2023: the year I get to buy a car
  • themadvix
    themadvix Posts: 7,916 Forumite
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    Fair enough - you probably don't want it to switch early then! We're all about fixes here too - the thought of a variable/tracker rate fills me with fear.
    Mortgage free 16/06/2023! £132,500 cleared in 11 years, 3 months and 7 days

    'Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.' Ernest Hemingway


  • shangaijimmy
    shangaijimmy Posts: 3,796 Forumite
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    Karmacat wrote: »
    Ah well. But if you can finish off £84.5k in 5 years, that will be a **fantastic** achievement, SJ! Cheering you all the way :)
    Gulp...when you see the amount and the number of years it seems so big!
    themadvix wrote: »
    Fair enough - you probably don't want it to switch early then! We're all about fixes here too - the thought of a variable/tracker rate fills me with fear.
    Its not so much the fear, its the difficulty that it creates for planning, and then plotting this whole thing. The trackers end up about 0.1-0.2% cheaper, but with the political uncertainty ahead of us, I'm really happy with paying a few £ a month for security.

    Also, although its nowhere near the interest rates of yesteryear, for our first 18 months in the house the rate climbed every 3 months. I'm sure we went from approx £630 a month when we took the keys, to over £900! And we were interest only! Knowing what i know now, we were crazy to do what we did. And you can see how the financial world went into meltdown by allowing people to take crazy amounts like ours.
    MFW: Was: £136,000.......Now: £61,892.24......
    Mortgage Neutral Deficit: £43,082.90... Mortgage Neutral Savings: £18,809.34
    MFiT-T6 #13 - £3,517 of £15,500 (22.69%)
    1% Mortgage Challenge 2022 - £157.59 of £650
  • shangaijimmy
    shangaijimmy Posts: 3,796 Forumite
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    Well fresh on the heels of our mortgage offer, today I tidied up some of our accounts. After all my switching and reward scheme account openings it'd got a bit much.

    So I've tidied things down to 2 banks. FD for all our normal living, mortgage, kids pocket money and then i have 2 current accounts with Tesco for our EF (3% interest on £3000), and then a few savers attached for Christmas, Holidays and Car Tax savings. The savings balances very rarely get above £800 as money seems to flow in and out so regularly, so we were only getting minimal interest in the current accounts anyway (mostly less than £1.50).

    We've also got 3 long term savings accounts for the kids with Nationwide but they have passbooks. And we have a S&S Isa, which is different anyway.

    So feeling streamlined as we head into 2019.

    Tomorrows money plotting will be a review of 2018. I'll estimate December OP amount but i won't be more than a £8-10 out, as any final amounts will be from TT's.
    MFW: Was: £136,000.......Now: £61,892.24......
    Mortgage Neutral Deficit: £43,082.90... Mortgage Neutral Savings: £18,809.34
    MFiT-T6 #13 - £3,517 of £15,500 (22.69%)
    1% Mortgage Challenge 2022 - £157.59 of £650
  • CathT
    CathT Posts: 7,116 Forumite
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    We recently fixed for 5yrs with fd and got a rate of 2.05% with the £490 fee. Looks like I need to have a look at current rates and give them a call. Am hoping it's that easy to secure the new lower rate and I could do it again before April if they drop again?
    May 2024 - part 1 - £29,628 part 2 - £24,612 Total - £54,240 42 months to go!
  • shangaijimmy
    shangaijimmy Posts: 3,796 Forumite
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    Ours is 2.08% with no fee. I think with fee it was 1.95%. Usual practice (I think) is you can secure the rate a few months before then if you notice it drops before your product commences then give them a ring and you can secure the new rate.

    Reading something on Sunday it was suggesting that lenders have dropped some rates for December in an attempt to get some money secured before their end of year figures.
    MFW: Was: £136,000.......Now: £61,892.24......
    Mortgage Neutral Deficit: £43,082.90... Mortgage Neutral Savings: £18,809.34
    MFiT-T6 #13 - £3,517 of £15,500 (22.69%)
    1% Mortgage Challenge 2022 - £157.59 of £650
  • themadvix
    themadvix Posts: 7,916 Forumite
    Mortgage-free Glee! Photogenic First Anniversary Name Dropper
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    shangaijimmy wrote: »

    Its not so much the fear, its the difficulty that it creates for planning, and then plotting this whole thing. The trackers end up about 0.1-0.2% cheaper, but with the political uncertainty ahead of us, I'm really happy with paying a few £ a month for security.

    I'd agree about the planning - and perhaps that's the thing with us - as I have a variable income, it's harder to plan anyway, without adding in another variable!
    Mortgage free 16/06/2023! £132,500 cleared in 11 years, 3 months and 7 days

    'Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.' Ernest Hemingway


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