Up for a laugh? A 23 year old's guide on how (not) to be mortgage free

pinkypig · 27 December 2017 at 10:21PM

Welcome

. You're going to be amazing. 23? I don't even want to think about what a financial prat I was at 23:rotfl:

The very best of luck to you both xx

originalmiscellany · 27 December 2017 at 10:45PM

Great start, and a willingness to attack and overpay from the outset. Certainly what we did in terms of overpaying when we were younger has eased the burden when we moved to our "forever" house. Just checking you are still going to treat yourself to a nice holiday this summer? All work and no fun is probably the wrong balance!

Secret_Saving_Squirrel · 27 December 2017 at 10:50PM

Good luck, you are so sensible to start early. I agree that adding to the pension is more financially sensible, but you can't access the money for so long.... Getting your mortgage paid off early will give you a lot more freedom and flexibility while you are still young enough to enjoy it. Maybe do a bit of both?

Blibble · 27 December 2017 at 10:59PM

somethingcorporate wrote: »

Trust me, your 60 year old self will thank you for planning early! I'm ten years older than you sat on £130k in my pension. Personal cost to me has been ~£40k, the rest has been employer contributions, tax contributions and investment growth. You won't get that kind of return from paying off a 2.4% APR debt!

I understand the logic, but would this not apply for most people aiming to pay off their mortgage early as rates will all be broadly similar? Just curious, as it's not advice I've generally seen given out on here.

originalmiscellany wrote: »

Great start, and a willingness to attack and overpay from the outset. Certainly what we did in terms of overpaying when we were younger has eased the burden when we moved to our "forever" house. Just checking you are still going to treat yourself to a nice holiday this summer? All work and no fun is probably the wrong balance!

We were a bit splurgy on holidays this year gone - we had our first trip abroad together in 5 years to Paris & it was the first time where we've said sod it to a budget and just enjoy ourselves. As lovely as it was, the thought of another holiday's spending with gay abandon is making my toes curl! I think we'll be having a weekend away in spring though - we've both got 10 days holiday or so to use up by May :j

Blibble · 28 December 2017 at 2:19PM

First day of concerted MFW'ing underway - shop for the 2 of us is done at £22 or so, which is where I want it to be. That does include some bulk pantry filling at B&M, as partner's family are kindly having us round for new year's so 2 fewer meals to plan for! We've also got left-over gammon & turkey a plenty; will be sorting me some batch-cooked curry in a while. We're very keen (NB; keen, not good!) cooks & love Indian food, and turkey curry is a favourite when we get the chance.

My parents kindly got us a selection of gift vouchers for Christmas. Whilst all were extremely generous, some vouchers were ... better thought out than others. For example, we've got a Cineworld voucher for £25, although neither of us has expressed much of an interest in films and the nearest Cineworld is 35 miles away. The same goes for Pizza Express, so need to see if we can eBay these today.

Have a swell day everyone :beer:

greent · 28 December 2017 at 4:06PM

Blibble wrote: »

My parents kindly got us a selection of gift vouchers for Christmas. Whilst all were extremely generous, some vouchers were ... better thought out than others. For example, we've got a Cineworld voucher for £25, although neither of us has expressed much of an interest in films and the nearest Cineworld is 35 miles away. The same goes for Pizza Express, so need to see if we can eBay these today.

Have a swell day everyone :beer:

Hello and welcome - just a quick note to say check out zeek for selling vouchers - although my disclaimer is I've never sold on there but have bought literally hundreds of pounds worth

Blibble · 28 December 2017 at 7:41PM

First OP made today - only a year later than planned! Found a cheeky £11.50 sitting in Paypal account, and £9.49 tidied up from an old, unused savings account. £20.99 OP therefore.

Went with Ebay for the vouchers in the end - both vouchers were £20, so put them up at £12.50 starting price on auction with a buy it now at £20. Pizza Express has already sold for £20, and have a bid for £12.50 on the Cineworld one. Rolling in it :rotfl:

Off to pub now to see darts team over Christmas - spending on alcohol is typically a weak point for me (love a dark pint of ale ... ) so this should be fun! I have an unused £20 social budget for the week though, so will try not to feel too guilty!

Happier_Me · 28 December 2017 at 8:44PM

I understand the logic, but would this not apply for most people aiming to pay off their mortgage early as rates will all be broadly similar? Just curious, as it's not advice I've generally seen given out on here.

It's not advice you often see of the mortgage free wannabe board but it is advice you will get repeatedly on the pensions board. And coming from someone that values being mortgage free it is sound advice. It's very tax efficient to pay into a pension so I aim to do a mix of both.

There is always a bigger picture though and even more so at 23: wedding, children, house, job security etc. At 42 I can tick several of those things off. I would suggest you don't lose sight of your pension savings, maybe revisit these when you've had your wedding and you have £1,000 spare a month! Your future self will thank you big time if you direct some of this spare cash towards your pension.

There are a couple of financial things that I regret NOT doing in my twenties and they all relate to pensions:

1. Not increasing my husband's pension contributions when he was your age. For the price of a couple of takeaways a month we would be sitting on a healthy nest egg. 20 years later we are playing an expensive game of catch up
2. Not joining my own pension scheme for two years. I really could kick myself!

You, however, are young enough and clearly switch on enough to learn from the mistakes that others have made on this board;)

Blibble · 29 December 2017 at 2:37PM

So, after the posts above, I've been considering the pension side of things as well as the MFW side of my finances. I'm certainly not giving up on the MFW aspect of things (I find it far too much fun!), but have decided that, when pay increase comes in to effect in April, I'll be squirrelling the excess into the pension. The pay rise could be anything between £50p/m and £200p/m, and the money isn't required for day-to-day living, so I feel it sensible to put the excess towards the pension. Thanks for the advice everyone :money:

OH came up pub as well last night, so drinks were bought for two all evening. About £1 of the social budget for the week is left (down from £20), but as I finished runner up in our mini darts tournament I've got £12 of that back. Will use that as next week's social budget, and then pop £20 into the OP pot come next Tuesday.

Ebay payment has been received for one of the giftcards - net of fees and postage another £17.57 has been moved over. £38.56 moved over since the diary start - £127840.96 to go! :j

Watty1 · 29 December 2017 at 4:05PM

Another one echoing the pensions advice. Indeed probably not something you expected on here .... but...your future self will be grateful. I only started overpaying the mortgage when I realised we would be paying the mortgage into my 70s and yet my pension would be insufficient to do that. I doubted I could make up the shortfall - so - I began overpaying but at the same time put money into my pension plan.
Anyway goodluck with the plans. Its an addictive little board

Up for a laugh? A 23 year old's guide on how (not) to be mortgage free

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