Would love to be mortgage free ...

A question about : Would love to be mortgage free ...

Hi all,
we've been in our house for 20 years ..... but kids, caravans, house extensions, life generally has stopped us from paying off the mortgage.
We are on an excellent mortgage rate at the moment, couldn't possibly beat it I doubt, 0.79% tracker for life.....

I think we owe about Ј65,000 as of now. It's coming down .... was Ј88K in 2011 ....

Repayments are fairly low, Ј440 pcm. I guess making overpayments is the way forward.

Concerted effort from now on I think....

Best answers:

• Hi SS - welcome, I'm a pretty new contributor here myself but am fascinated and inspired by the other diarists. We similar to yourselves are on a pretty good mortgage rate although our outstanding balance is higher (c just under Ј120k). We have just increased the over payments to Ј500 per month and it was such a good feeling knowing that had gone out this morning. I will read your diary with interest.
• I had same thoughts as you 5 years ago
  main thing is avoid bank loans
  and you will sail thru
  g/l
• If you have the desire to pay it off early and the commitment to stick to your plans, then you will get it down in no time.
  Good luck!
• Would I be better to make OP's as soon as I have the money rather than trying to accumulate a larger chunk? I guess as my mortgage % is very low, if I could get more interest somewhere else, maybe an ISA for example it may be more efficient to save in an ISA an pay off a chunk :/ This wouldn't be as satisfying in the short term though.
• Hi,
  We owe around Ј65K on ours (sig needs updating as we have paid another payment since). Interest rate is 1.25%
  Our monthly payments are Ј727.11 and it is due to be paid in the next 8 years BUT (a) we have a 25 year endowment due to mature in March 17 that we can use against it and (b) we overpay to take payments to Ј10K a year (we have only just started doing this).
  I am hoping to pay mine off within the next 4-5 years :-)
• We've had the Annual Mortgage Statement through....
  Gone from Ј69,023.57 last October to Ј64,281.04 now
  Loving the 0.79% Interest rate
  We have a windfall coming (hopefully) which should allow us to clear a couple of debts and pay Ј10,000 off the mortgage ! This would take us to Ј54k and seeing that I pay about Ј5k a year off, this time next year we should be below the magical Ј50,000 mark.
  I've not been working since July (IT Contractor, have the occasional dry spell), But have secured a new contract fairly locally so things should get back on track.
  Making a concerted effort to hit the mortgage as hard as we can.
• I think it really depends what kind of person you are. If you are a good saver then go for the higher interest saving rate, give yourself a deadline and save to meet that deadline. But if you are a bill payer more than a saver (as I am) then just keep shoveling money off the mortgage directly and watch that go down. I move both large and small amounts plus make a regular monthly overpayment.
• Time for an overdue update...
  Last October the mortgage stood at Ј64,281.04
  I managed to pay Ј5000 off as an overpayment and we're currently around Ј58,000 ....
  From the windfall, we chose to clear a credit card that had Ј4818 on it.... we were paying Ј100 + a month in interest on that ! That's down to zero and will be kept like that.
  We've also now got a Savings fund of approx Ј6500
  I'm an IT Contractor and had a 3 month period of no work last year... we struggled, hence the Ј4800 in the credit card, and I don't want to be in that position again. I'd like the savings fund to be Ј15,000 eventually but that'll take some time.
  We also have Ј5000 on a 0% card for another 15 months. We're going to pay this off at Ј600-Ј1000 a month.
  At that point, the only debt we'll have is the mortgage and monthly credit card.
  We‘d probably be better off paying the 0% at Ј500 pm and diverting the rest to pay off the mortgage ….
• All change.... just found out the project I'm currently working on is being canned at the end of March
  We have another 2 months of income at the moment and hopefully I'll find something else PDQ. Time to tighten the belt and batten down the hatches.