Managing The Mortgages

A question about : Managing The Mortgages

At the beginning of my journey on this site I was a DFW and now we have grown up and see money in a whole new light, making much better decisions.

Now you can see from our signature that we do have 2 loans but they are from family members and as such have no interest on them. And I should point out that these loans were not for frivolous purchases or wild parties, unfortunately We bought a repossessed apartment that needed minimal work and we now rent it out with a healthy yield and we doubled the equity in it We are aiming to pay these back as quickly as possible so that our families don't lose out on any interest and also so we will have the extra Ј500 a month to throw at our mortgages.

Mortgage wise we have the mortgage on our home which we can overpay on and the buy to let mortgage that we cannot overpay on.

Home - 65,000 - 3.49% - 21 years
BTL - 49,000 - 4.59% - 20.5 years

Ideally I would like to pay off the BTL first as the interest rate is higher. However, we can't overpay, so when our fixed rate is up in just under 4 years we are going to look at reducing our length, even if it means us paying more than we get in rent. We feel that this would save us the most money in the long term, and that is what we are aiming for! I would like to have the BTL paid off in 15 years, if not sooner.

We currently overpay Ј100 a month on our home mortgage as even that makes a massive difference in the amount of interest we would pay overall and it also reduces the term by a good few years. When we have finished paying back our families we will take that extra Ј500 and use that to overpay as well.

Now the main reason we want to reduce our mortgage debt is because we want to move house. We thought the best way to get a substantial deposit would be to have it as equity in the property as if we put the Ј500 a month into a savings account there is a very good chance we would spend it We would have some very good holidays but we would be stuck living in this house forever complaining that we want better. Plus, in the long run we would be saving more money and this means more holidays

But enough of my holiday dreams and back to the house of my dreams. For our next move we are looking at our forever home so once we are in there and settled that is when we would be overpaying so that we could actually be mortgage free

My plan is to use this diary to keep me on track and motivated to really do my best.

Best answers:

• Hi, good luck with your equity building! We are doing the same, overpaying to build equity and hopefully move to our forever home! Will follow your journey with interest!
• Well the weather is awful where I am today, I am not even sure it is bothering to get light And now it is trying to snow which is ok as long as it is all cleared by Saturday as we are in the process of having our roof fixed and they only need 1 more day.
  As I have no plans to leave the house for the rest of the day I am plan to:
• Meal plan until the end of February
• Do the budget for February
• Ebay, ebay, ebay!!!

I am also toying with purchasing some Euros as the rate is amazing but I am not too sure what is happening with our July holiday, as in we don't know if it will happen yet. It's a group holiday and there are issues with others. But then we would want a holiday but it may not be within the Euro.
Well my mind is now wandering towards holidays so I better focus and do some eBaying so I can make a fortune. Ooh must check and see if we won last night's Euro!!!!
Today I will be a good girl and the perfect MSEr

• Today my plan was to do a lot of ebaying but I thought I would come on here to motivate myself as I am an expert procrastinator
  I have been on my Scottish Power account and changed my tariff so the direct debit is Ј20 less a month, I am just hoping that it stays so low after we have entered our meter readings in a few months. But as the weather seems to be warming up we should be ok.
  I have also done my weekly checkout on Consumer Pulse but not many purchases to declare as we are trying not to spend as much.
  Right enough messing around, or whatever else I have been doing, as it is so late and I have not accomplished much I need to do some serious ebay listing now to rake in the money!!
  I will be a good MSEr all weekend
  PS. I am just watching an old episode of "The Bill" which was first aired 30th January 2008 and they are in a Building Society with an esaver account with 6.30% gross aer, ah the good old days!
• My plan is to be a very good girl this weekend and eBay as if my life depends on it! I have so many items to list it scares me
  About 10 months ago I decided that I wanted to start my own party business so went hell for leather ordering all kinds of stock and in total I spent just over Ј4500 However, I didn't have any kind of plan, business or other! I set up a Facebook page and told my friends what I was doing so surprisingly I wasn't getting the orders flooding in, more like a slight trickle! I have done a couple of stalls at markets but they really weren't worth it. I do get the odd sale when I advertise on the FB sites but not enough to make a living from and to be honest I have lost interest now. My plan now is to list things individually, at fixed prices, on eBay and hopefully make some kind of profit or at the very least break even. So this is why eBaying is so important to me as all this stock takes up a lot of room and plus there is so much money tied up in it And then when I have finished getting all the new stuff on eBay I have a lot of my own unwanted goodies to list too, so I need to stay focused and work hard. I already have some bits listed that finish today and tomorrow so I am hoping for bidding wars, fingers crossed!
  I have been reading other people's diaries in a hope to inspire me as I know that I am not working as hard as others to become MF and that has to change. We do still want to be able to live life and have holidays and enjoy meals out, the latter is going to be reduced to special occasions, plus we enjoy going to the theatre with the odd trip to London, so we need to strike some kind of balance. So this month we are starting with baby steps and have set up an OP of Ј100 a month and after motivating myself with the overpayment calculator I see that this will save us nearly Ј8500 and will hopefully not be too noticeable
  Anyway, I best sign off as I have once again wasted the day but I can still do a couple of hours of eBaying so I feel that I have at least achieved something today.
• I'm not sure if writing on here is really motivating me or am I just using as a procrastination tool
  Today I have/will
• Transfer council tax and paypal funds to OH's ISA
• List at least 15 things on ebay
• Meal plan for rest of the month
• Put a jumper on when I get cold

I'm keeping it nice and short as I have a lot of eBaying to do. But on the plus note I get free insertion fees until 15th so I plan to make the very most of that, and hopefully that will work as a motivation tool!

• HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY
  Am I the only one who got a Valentine's gift and then thought, "I wonder how much he paid for this? And what else could we have used the money for?" I really should embrace his romantic gesture as I know he thinks it's "a con"
  Anyway, TODAY I WILL NOT PROCRASTINATE, so I better get back to my ebaying as my free insert fees finishes tomorrow so I really need to make the most of it and get everything listed.
• Today I am feeling extra motivated as the neighbours on both sides are being louder than usual It's days like this that I wish we could move so much sooner.
  Now I may have mentioned that we like a holiday, and I have done something naughty, but I am so happy about it I don't even feel guilty! We have booked go to New York over New Year It is slightly more than we would pay for a holiday but it's a once in a lifetime kind of holiday and it will be totally worth it.
  We will still be overpaying our mortgage by Ј100 a month and then when we are back from New York we can look at maybe overpaying more. Our main goal is still being mortgage free as the saving on interest has the potential to be 10s of thousands. We just need to stay focussed on what we want to achieve and I am sure that we can do it.
  On an excellent note selling my goods on Facebook and eBay has been going so well and the money really came in last week Just need to get the rest of my stuff on eBay and hopefully it will sell. A lottery win would be preferable though
• Great stuff life is for enjoying just as much as it is for paying stuff off :]
  Will be nice to see how you get on this year :]
• Defiantly work to live part of living is making sure you pay for everything you have :] good blance is key
  Personally im going to go without nice things for a while now ie expensive car ect ect my only debt i have is the mortgage i recently got see sig :]
  Also with the ebay selling/facebook im keeping all the money after fees ect in my paypal till i hit my target of 800-1000 then transfer it over to the mortgage fund when it Gd luck with your sales :]
• Today my plan is to do a lot more eBaying as I have brought all the stuff down from the attic that I am putting on with buy it now and it is taking over my front room I am hoping this will work to motivate me!
  I thought I would set myself short term goals so I don't lose focus.
• Our fixed rate is finishing December 2017 so I want us to get to 60% LTV (should be easily done if we stick with our Ј100 monthly OP, and if the property values don't fall)
• We pay OH's parents Ј500 a month for our loan so have 13 more payments but would like to pay it off before the end of this year (sacrifices will have to be made somewhere)
• The loan with my mum isn't being paid back really, just the odd bit here and there, so we are going to make an effort with that and get it paid back asap. My plan is Ј100 a month until we have paid other family loan back.

Anyway, must dash as being surrounded by boxes is driving me insane already so need to get them listed on eBay and back in the attic.