Hello!

A question about : Hello!

Thought I'd get things going. Unfortunately I don't have a mortgage so this will probably be my last post.

I am renting by the way, I have not paid one off!

Best answers:

• hi s-j,
  we are renting to but hoping to get a mortage in next 12 months or so...
  i was reading the pay your mortgage off in 2 years thread and wondered if there was a mortgage free board lol long and behold....
  thanks martin brill idea...
  think i keep eye out for advance tips ect.....
• Why would you pay off a mortgage @ 4.5%-4.7% when can get 5% plus in mini cash isas ? What point is there paying off an offset mortgage rather than accumulating offset savings ? The taxation system offers few worthwhile tax shelters for cash savings. If you have allready used them and the interest on savings is being taxed ,then investigate paying off your mortgage. Many borrowers face early repayment charges on excesssive overpayments. Some lenders allow only one month to make upto a 10% overpayment. Some lenders credit overpayments annualy. There are many quirky products out there that could catch out the unwary !
  J_B.
• I would love to overpay my mortgage, but have just gone self employed so it will have to wait for a while.
  Brilliant idea for a board though.
• Excellent board - thanks Martin
• Oooh a new board, how exciting.
  We paid off the mortgage last week. It feels great.
• Woo - Im Mortgage Free Already!
• Hello, another mortgage-free young renter here! I'm sure the people who this board is meant for will be along soon. Anyway, we're hoping to buy at some point in the future when house prices will hopefully have come down. I'm thinking a minimum of 3 years time. At the moment we are a 2-income household (no children) but I'm expecting us to be a 1-income household with kids when we do buy, so we won't be able to get a big mortgage (we're both on about Ј16k atm so we'd only be able to get a mortgage of about 50k).
  So... our main moneysaving aim is to save up enough money to buy a house (not a flat - we have a very active dog) with a mortgage of 50k. I may post a full SOA at some future point but the basics are we have a net income of Ј26,400p.a., savings of Ј12000 and government student loans of Ј23000 (but we think of those as an extra tax rather than normal debt).
  I'd honestly be very surprised if we manage it before I'm 30 (I'm 24 now) but its something to aim for! Then of course we'll carry on to try and pay off that mortgage when we finally get it!
• Speaking as someone who cleaned factory toilets at midnight to keep making use of my personal tax allowance when my children were little - and having fed my whole family on value pasta for years on end - and clothed them exclusively from Oxfam - I can tell you all that now being mortgage-free (and still fairly young) is just
  ..................... Fantastic
  (sorry - did that sound smug? )
• I'd love to be mortgage free. I bought my first house just one year ago, with two close friends, all living together. Our mortgage is only Ј65k, but that's because one of my housemates' parents lent us Ј50k as a deposit for us and investment for them, so effectively our mortgage should be almost double. We pay 5.04% interest and it is a repayment mortgage. Trouble is, because everything has been split equally three ways from the off, to be able to overpay (we can pay 10% a year with no penalty) we all have to be able afford the same each month, which isn't likely to happen for a long time - if ever!
  Figured I'd just put my own spare cash into paying off credit card and personal loan for now, and then into an ISA towards the next house.
• We were able to pay off 1/2 our mortgage last year and I can't wait for the day when I can finally pay off the other half
• In rep[ly to Joe Bloggs I can think of many reasons to pay off a morgage firstly no matter what interest rate it is its a DEBT, secondly I can either pay 16k off my morgage and more money for savings or wait till the end of term and total pay back would be 25 K + .... whay pay 25 k for something when you can just pay 16 K ? that seems like money saving to me. secondly it provided security for any illness / loss of income / employment / lifestyle changes, Basicaly it gives you flexability you wouldnt have if your working in a job you dont like just to pay the bills.
• @roswell
  I am tied in to my mortgage for five years at BOE + 0.24% (this cost approx Ј600 to move from 6%). I would face around Ј5000 in early repayment charges if I paid off the Ј90K+ mortgage. I can get money cash ISAs at 5-5.2 %. So I prefer to pay upto my allowance on the cash ISA and the rest into mortgage overpayments that I could later claw back, from either if needed. You may be taxed on your savings by significant amounts. Overpaying the mortgage without penalty may be an option especially if the rate is poor and greater that what you could get in a cash ISA.
  @ All. You have to choose where your best interests lie. By choosing one path you have rejected all of the other possible paths. Discover the facts and make your own choices on where to put your money.
  J_B.
• Hi,
  I do have a mortgage - Ј105000 over 24 years, had it for exactly a year today! Have been overpaying by Ј100 a month so far, will up this to the max (Ј130 odd - 20%) this month. We've not got a great deal cos I wasn't on the electoral roll consistently enough for some lenders! 2 years of fixed at 5.49% to go, then I'll switch to a lower rate with someone who allows bigger overpayments.
  As to how I'm gonna raise extra money to repay quicker, dunno! don't want to get a second job cos I earn a good salary already and OH doesn't have consistent work. If he worked FT we'd have loads to throw at mortgage, but hey... Other prob is we want to start a family soon after we get married this easter, so more outgoings, less income (if I work part time). I think I'd rather have children and a mortgage than neither. I've basically used all the ideas on this site to decrease our outgoings, and that has helped loads. I believe becoming a MSE is a life-long process, that you refine more and more as you get better at it.
  Good luck to all MFWs!