Has anyone paid off their mortgage quickly?

bmwguy

pwurple wrote: »

Removing direct debits is a big one, subscriptions for sky, gym membership you never use etc... and actually, paying down your mortgage may not be the best financial thing to do if you have high debt elsewhere.

It almost goes without saying, but always make sure you pay off the highest interest loan first. So if you have a credit card debt (I sincerely hope no-one has!), then that's probably the most expensive. Prioritise getting rid of that. Then any term loans, like car loads, credit union loans, old student loans etc.

THEN, when everything else is clean, start working on the mortgage.

As well as ditching the little luxuries if you want, there's savings to be had with keeping an eye on utilities and providers.

Tracking your money can be a useful tool, seeing where your outgoings are, and thinking about what you might want to adjust.

If you're looking for ideas on that, swapping to an electric car was easily our most significant saving notion in the last few years... Hundreds per month saved there with the cheap tax, uber-low maintenance cost (no engine = no spark plugs, no oil changes yippee) and not having to pay for fuel anymore.

I hope you didnt change from an old car to an electric car JUST to save money? They are the future without a doubt but you are probably paying a few hundred a month on payments in line with how fast it is depreciating

If you chose a new electric car over a new combustion engine car becuase you wanted a new car then thats possibly a good move. Buying new cars is rarely a financially sound move for most people but it is nice to have a new car all the same.

crkball6

crkball6 wrote: »

While I appreciate the reference and the joke.

A take out coffee a day over the life time of your mortgage adds up to 38,000e

That's just 1 coffee, there's no point looking at easy ways to do what you want to do.

In order to put a big dent into it you need to do a _lot_ of small things.

Reduce spending / increase income.

You need to make a huge amount of sacrifice over a very long sustained period of time which is very hard, which is why most people don't do it.

Scoffing at not wasting money on take away coffee's is one of the reason's most people will fail to do what you want to do.

If giving up a coffee would be hard, imagine cancelling the family holiday, or not buying the car, cycling to work. One family I saw recently in the guardian who weigh food etc to avoid waste in order to pay the mortgage off quicker.

It's hard, really hard. If you're looking for a quick fix. You might be easier looking into knocking off a rich relative.

I'm sorry tone doesn't come across well in text format...I wasn't being sarcastic I was saying yes I do spend a lot in takeout coffee. Sorry for misunderstanding it is something that does add up and advice I will take on board. I have no rich relatives to knock off unfortunately (!).

mydarkstar

mydarkstar wrote: »

My credit union started doing switcher mortgages last year at 2.9%. It is secured on the property, it isn't simply a CU loan. It's not common but it's not illegal! I don't qualify for it yet but it's a decent deal if you meet their criteria regarding term, LTV and mortgage balance.

What credit union are you with?

mydarkstar

Deleted User wrote: »

What credit union are you with?

Cana Credit Union, it's for Revenue staff. Family members can open accounts too.
www.canacu.ie

mydarkstar

mydarkstar wrote: »

Cana Credit Union, it's for Revenue staff. Family members can open accounts too.
www.canacu.ie

Cool I'm going to look into it that's a great interest rate. Thanks for advice.

Oh sorry it's only for staff ah no typical!

manonboard

Hi OP

I was pretty successful at this so I would like to offer you the meager advice i found useful.

I paid about 80% of my mortgage in about 30% of the time. I've saved a whooper long term on interest.

Few tips:
It took time for me to realize that mortgage is cheap borrowing. The reason why i mention this is many fold.
Obvious ones. Pay off all interest loans before it that are higher in the interest.

My mortgage is 4%. I make about 8-10% on my money when i'm paying attention.

It was odd mentality for me, an ordinary irish guy purposefully not paying off a loan. However money in investments made me more than paying it back. It makes financial sense. So if you are any use at investing, or not, learn to be. Although it lacks the security feeling of paying off a mortgage. You are creating more wealth for yourself, and its also actually safer given that you can get that money in cash far faster than selling a house. This is important if you ever need to help yourself in an emergency.

If you are not going to invest and are going to pay it off. Try pay every 4 weeks. Especially if you earn a weekly wage of some sorts. Its an extra payment per year, and it adds up.

Any impulse buying over say 500-1k. I looked up how much time that added to my mortgage, and also my interest. To find out what it was really going to cost me.. It quickly made some impulses go away.

There is also the rewards of potentially renting it out after pay off whilst you travel off the rent money. It is nice to have positive rewarding visuals or feelings to stay on track.

Switching mortgage is also a great option. Keep an eye on the market. You can switch even within the same bank onto other products sometimes.
That keeps costs way down.

ct5amr2ig1nfhp

This is a good idea in theory. But what savings product do you have that is returning "well in excess" of 3%?
And is that after DIRT?

bmwguy wrote: »

Would you consider building a fund through saving? If you can get a return in excess of the mortgage rate and don't mind investing it's an option. I have one going now a few years and it's returning well in excess of the 3% interest rate I have on the mortgage. So I think my money is better off going there. I reckon in 12/15 years time it will be enough to clear my mortgage if the markets go well meaning a 35 year mortgage will be cleared in 18 years or so.

brendan86

lolli wrote: »

Hmm I don't know the interest rate off hand to be honest (something is telling me its 6.9%)

Im paying it back over 10 years so its not too bad

6.9% is quite a difference over the 10 years. I take it your LTV on property would be like <50% and you should be able get 3% if you took out a mortgage..

I dunno how much the loan is for but say its for 100,000 @ 6.9% the overall interest you pay over the 10 years is 38,700.

Now if you were with a bank and 100,000 @ 3% over the 10 years total interest you pay is 15,800.

That's over 110% of a difference which is quite a difference. You are paying a extra 22,900 over the 10 years by going with credit union.

If your loan is for 50k just half the figures I put in total interest and its still a significant saving had you taken out a mortage.

lolli

Umm yes they do?

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

Credit unions don't do mortgages - loans secured on the property. You might have a loan from your CU, but it is not a mortgage, unless your CU is very, very unusual (and possibly illegal).

Mrs OBumble

dubrov wrote: »

I'm going to play devils advocate here.

Mortgages are pretty cheap borrowing. People always quote huge amounts of interest being saved when paying off a mortgage but due to inflation that interest saved will buy you a lot less in 35 years.

Be prudent but i wouldn't be killing yourself saving in your 30s/40s and then find you have loads of money in the bank at 65 but nothing to spend it on

That's true. But it depends on what you want to do with your life.

I saved very hard during my 30s, and was able to take an extended holiday in my 40s due to that. The sort of extended holiday that I might well not be able for once I'm retired. Effectively the usefulness of the interest saved is a lot more to me now than it will be in 20 years time, even if the monetary value ends up being less.

Everyone's circumstances are different, so its very hard to give advice.

But reducing debt is almost always a good idea.

lolli

Hey, thank you so much for that, I must check out the rate when I get home from work, its only for €37,000 at the moment so its not too bad. I didn't even really think about the interest rate, at the time I was only in the process of being made permanent in my job so that's why I couldn't go for a bank mortgage.

brendan86 wrote: »

6.9% is quite a difference over the 10 years. I take it your LTV on property would be like <50% and you should be able get 3% if you took out a mortgage..

I dunno how much the loan is for but say its for 100,000 @ 6.9% the overall interest you pay over the 10 years is 38,700.

Now if you were with a bank and 100,000 @ 3% over the 10 years total interest you pay is 15,800.

That's over 110% of a difference which is quite a difference. You are paying a extra 22,900 over the 10 years by going with credit union.

If your loan is for 50k just half the figures I put in total interest and its still a significant saving had you taken out a mortage.

Tombo2001

Something you have to understand when you take a loan is the concept of amortization.

For example - you borrow 200k at 5%.

If you repay over 20 years you will repay a total of 316k.
The monthly repayment is 1320.

If you repay over 35 years you will repay a total of 423k.
The monthly repayment is 1010.

Additionally - the idea of repaying the high interest loans first.....for me, I've only ever had 1 type of loan, that's the mortgage. If you cant meet year to year expenses (eg holidays or school fees) off year to year income; then you should spend less.

anewme

Paying mine off early.....though not saving much on the interest as its a low rate......mine should be 519 and Im paying 1,000 a month, will be finished in around 7 years.

Just want it gone.....

smokingman

Paid mine off once without even passing "Go" on the same round...fun times!

bmwguy

Madeleine Slow Buckle wrote: »

This is a good idea in theory. But what savings product do you have that is returning "well in excess" of 3%?
And is that after DIRT?

It's returning an average of 8% before taxation. It's an investment fund. I dug it out for someone earlier these are my returns since I started it. It's doing the business for me anyway now that there's about 40 grand in there it should grow nicely if it repeats. Leave it go for another 10 years or so adding to it monthly. Wasting your time keeping it on deposit. It's obviously not without risk though I accept that do maybe some people would prefer to just pay the mortgage off.

2010 14.99%
2011 - 3.25%
2012 14%
2013 13.91%
2014 12.34%
2015 9.64%
2016 5.66%



But it's not without risk like overpaying a mortgage is.

pwurple

bmwguy wrote: »

I hope you didnt change from an old car to an electric car JUST to save money? They are the future without a doubt but you are probably paying a few hundred a month on payments in line with how fast it is depreciating

If you chose a new electric car over a new combustion engine car becuase you wanted a new car then thats possibly a good move. Buying new cars is rarely a financially sound move for most people but it is nice to have a new car all the same.

No, not just, but it was a very large factor.
Whoever asked, it was a Nissan Leaf, we have it since early 2015.

We needed to replace the car anyway at the time, it wanted 2k in repairs, timing belt and some other stuff, it was 13 years old.. I personally didn't take out a loan for the car, we have been saving for a car anyway for a few years, so I diverted that monthly saving amount into the mortgage. But if I had... by my savings tracker, the car would pay for itself outright in just over 3 years. There's no way it depreciates to zero in 3 years.

There are second hand electrics available, the same as any other. Every car depreciates.

Anyway, I'm very happy with it, it saves us thousands every year, and takes decent chunk out of the mortgage term. If you write down how much you spend on your car.... everything now, fuel, servicing, repairs, the lot. And see how much goes when you switch to electric.

I think everyone should have a financial plan. We have one, with assets / liabilities listed, monthly outgoings, and goals. We check it every few months and see if we're on track. Childcare is my bugbear... but they won't be this young forever. I've done that since my very first job at age 16, and it's worked for me. I'm an average irish mammy in my 30's with a husband, a couple of kids and a reasonable job, living in cork. No inheritances, no handouts. Just keeping our eye on the financial ball. It's worked out ok so far for us, and some of our like-minded friends. I'll let you know when we get to our 60's if we're still in good shape.

SozBbz

BOI have a decent calculator online to tell you exactly what either a once off payment/monthly over payment would mean for your motgage which is really handy.

I'm fixed currently but they allow me to overpay 10% each month, which I don't even notice, its only about €80, but even that amount makes a difference, apparently it will knock 5 years off my term and save me almost €25k over the course of the mortgage in interest.

I'll be making a lump sum payment when my fixed term is up and after than I'll be shopping around for a better rate. I don't plan to fix again or if I do, it will be for a shorter term than my current term (3years, which I've 1 year and 3 months left on).

brendan86

lolli wrote: »

Hey, thank you so much for that, I must check out the rate when I get home from work, its only for €37,000 at the moment so its not too bad. I didn't even really think about the interest rate, at the time I was only in the process of being made permanent in my job so that's why I couldn't go for a bank mortgage.

It could be worth looking into KBC they offer 3,000euro switcher deal to cover fees etc which may only cost 1,500 and you get to keep the remaining.

Now I dunno if your eligible with such a small mortgage of 37,000, if you were it would be a pretty sweet deal. I do know there minimum mortgage requirement is 30k so you may be able.

Tombo2001

No disrespect to any of the ace investors out there but here are the regarding asset market returns at present:

(I) Returns on (close to) zero risk investments, such as cash on deposit, are close to zero.

(II) People saying that they've found funds that have done brilliant should caveat that with "Investment prices can fall as well as rise".

(III) Stock markets have gone up steadily for the past five years. It doesn't take a genius to find a fund that will rise in value in that environment.

The previous five years, stock markets fell quite dramatically. They might do the same between now and 2022.

The question is about whether to pay off a mortgage early.

If the answer is - no because you can great returns if you are "savvy about investments" - sorry but there is a lot of colour and detail that that needs to be filled in around that.

Its pretty easy to be savvy when markets are going up. Less so when they are falling. No one here know what stock markets will do in the next five years.

pwurple

Tombo2001 wrote: »

Additionally - the idea of repaying the high interest loans first.....for me, I've only ever had 1 type of loan, that's the mortgage. If you cant meet year to year expenses (eg holidays or school fees) off year to year income; then you should spend less.

I agree in general with this, I prefer to save for things, but sometimes life throws something unexpected at you. I wouldn't be that smug about being fortunate in that regard.

Funeral costs or travel to be somewhere at end of life. Unexpected healthcare costs. Car is banjaxed when you need it for work. All your clothes (which you need for work) are wrecked in a flood, and insurance won't pay out for a year.

Sh*t happens in life, all of the above have happened to me, and a short loan can be necessary. That's when to stop overpayments, grab a loan if needed, and pay that down instead. Then get right back on track.

Tombo2001

pwurple wrote: »

I agree in general with this, I prefer to save for things, but sometimes life throws something unexpected at you. I wouldn't be that smug about being fortunate in that regard.

Funeral costs or travel to be somewhere at end of life. Unexpected healthcare costs. Car is banjaxed when you need it for work. All your clothes (which you need for work) are wrecked in a flood, and insurance won't pay out for a year.

Sh*t happens in life, all of the above have happened to me, and a short loan can be necessary. That's when to stop overpayments, grab a loan if needed, and pay that down instead. Then get right back on track.

I'd agree to some degree; but I would feel personally that people should have a 'margin' built into whatever savings they have so that they have enough to cover the small unexpected events.

No more so than redundancy. How do you pay the mortgage if you are let go.

Car - for me, even more than the mortgage - people just don't work out how much they are spending on cars. Between buying the vehicle, repairs, insurance, tax, petrol....on an annual basis how much its costing. Especially if you are a two car family. I haven't had a car for 10 years; I reckon its saved me 40k (any half decent car car will cost you 4k per annum between depreciation, fuel, insurance, tax, servicing, nct, tyres, repairs). I can get around by bike 99.5% of the time for any journeys I might have made by car. And its better for you.

bmwguy

Tombo2001 wrote: »

No disrespect to any of the ace investors out there but here are the regarding asset market returns at present:

(I) Returns on (close to) zero risk investments, such as cash on deposit, are close to zero.

(II) People saying that they've found funds that have done brilliant should caveat that with "Investment prices can fall as well as rise".






I definitely put that caveat in my posts it is not without risk to my capital what I am doing. I'm not savvy at all I did consider choosing my own investments in stocks but wouldnt have the patience or attention to detail to do it so i went down the managed fund route.
Although stock market returns long term have been very positive over 100 years. I do see some short term risk to capital but not worried long term. Even the 2008 crash was recovered in 3 to 4 years whereas housing hasn't.

Sorry for divergence but these are the reasons I don't think paying off a mortgage at low interest rates is a good idea when there is better use for
My cash. In my opinion anyway. As I said earlier I will probably use it to knock last 10 years off my mortgage.

SozBbz

So, I've just been inspired by this thread to call BOI and ask what I can do about my current fixed mortgage @3.6%. I've 1 year 3 months to run on my fixed term. So they'll charge me aprox €500 to break out, but I can immediately re-fix at 3%, which saves me €1300 versus seeing out the rest of my 3 year fixed period, so net I'm €800 better off by making a phonecall.

Also I found out that if I want to pay off €10,000 during my fixed period, the penalty is about €25, so thats also totally worth doing

Cyrus

tell you what folks im all for keeping your mortgage term reasonable and being sensible about debt, but some of you dont half sound miserable

as some other posters have said you have to balance living your life with paying the mortgage down, we are all going to die, it could be tomorrow, and much like people saying you will never wish that you worked more when you are on your death bed, i doubt you will wish that you saved more.

Cyrus

SozBbz wrote: »

So, I've just been inspired by this thread to call BOI and ask what I can do about my current fixed mortgage @3.6%. I've 1 year 3 months to run on my fixed term. So they'll charge me aprox €500 to break out, but I can immediately re-fix at 3%, which saves me €1300 versus seeing out the rest of my 3 year fixed period, so net I'm €800 better off by making a phonecall.

Also I found out that if I want to pay off €10,000 during my fixed period, the penalty is about €25, so thats also totally worth doing

now that is interesting (the second part that is)

effectively you can make extra lump sum payments on a BOI fixed mortgage then?

SozBbz

Cyrus wrote: »

now that is interesting (the second part that is)

effectively you can make extra lump sum payments on a BOI fixed mortgage then?

I asked for the penalty on €10k which was just under €25, and €20k, whcih was just under €50, so it seems proportionate.

I don't know if the amount of my mortgage is relevant but I owe about €190k and am 21 months in (to a 35 year term - although I've already been overpaying 10% per month which has already shortened that somewhat).

They caveat it by saving the cost fluctuates from day to day, but that would be indicative, so just give them a call on the day you want to pay the lump sum to confirm the rate is somewhere in that ballpark.

Cyrus

SozBbz wrote: »

I asked for the penalty on €10k which was just under €25, and €20k, whcih was just under €50, so it seems proportionate.

I don't know if the amount of my mortgage is relevant but I owe about €190k and am 21 months in (to a 35 year term - although I've already been overpaying 10% per month which has already shortened that somewhat).

They caveat it by saving the cost fluctuates from day to day, but that would be indicative, so just give them a call on the day you want to pay the lump sum to confirm the rate is somewhere in that ballpark.

ok thanks for that, im moving to a BOI fixed mortgage shortly, that was the one thing i needed to speak to them about, its reminded me!

Bellview

SozBbz wrote:

I'll be making a lump sum payment when my fixed term is up and after than I'll be shopping around for a better rate. I don't plan to fix again or if I do, it will be for a shorter term than my current term (3years, which I've 1 year and 3 months left on).

With boi I was going to switch to kbc but since boi dropped rates I have not changed. One reason for not changing is I would have been on variable while moving over to kbc and the extra interest costs would eat up some of the 3k goodness
What we did was split mortgage in 2. One with 2 year fixed and the other 3 year fixed. Both are at the same interest rate. All going well we will pay off a lump again in 2 years time ..as it allows us keep rainy day fund in place. It also gives some protection if interest rates rise.
What I found is that banks are more reactive on sharing what is best for your finances which for folks not savvy with numbers can be expensive.. and a lot of folks are not as savvy as the banker.

In the spirit of diversity
- I overpay the mortgage to an extent
- save to an extent
- invest to an extent
- feed a decent executive pension

I'm hoping to have the 30 year mortgage paid off 8/10 years early ..... I can access the pension from age 50 if needs be so that allows me to "save" less than I otherwise would.

kyeev

Paid off my mortgage about 6 months ago (age 40).
No great trick to it, built a house rurally in the crash (2009/2010), had decent lump sum deposit, 10 year mortgage, horsed every spare penny into it.
Paid it off 3 years early.
Saved about ~25k in interest.
Lived fairly frugally in fairness but don't drink(much)/smoke/gamble so it wasn't that hard.
Key was I started saving the day I started work thanks to the Charlie McCreevy save 3 euro and I'll give you a free euro scheme.
Thanks to the savings kick start that gave me, I had a sizable deposit saved by the time I was in my early 30s.
Was living in shared rented accomodation for over 10 years which allowed me to keep saving while renting.
No magic bullet here just one good choice made in my early 20's to start saving.

Now, I have to start worrying about the pension...

rsynnott

tedpan wrote: »

Definitely switch down to a 20 year. The interest on 35 is just nuts.

Alternatively, leave it at 35, but overpay as if it were 20 (or whatever your target timespan is). The proper amount to overpay can be figured out quite easily with http://drcalculator.com/mortgage or similar. That way, if you continue the overpayment, you're done in 20 years and you've paid the same amount of interest as you would have on a 20 year loan, but if for whatever reason you need to reduce payments for a while, you can just go back to your real payments without asking the bank.

This only works if you're on a variable rate, of course.

EDIT: Oops, people already said this, should've read to the end before commenting

rsynnott

bmwguy wrote: »

Would you consider building a fund through saving? If you can get a return in excess of the mortgage rate and don't mind investing it's an option. I have one going now a few years and it's returning well in excess of the 3% interest rate I have on the mortgage. So I think my money is better off going there. I reckon in 12/15 years time it will be enough to clear my mortgage if the markets go well meaning a 35 year mortgage will be cleared in 18 years or so.

You actually need to be making over _6%_ on your investment for this to make sense (assuming you're higher rate), because your investment income is taxable.

brendan86

Bellview wrote: »

With boi I was going to switch to kbc but since boi dropped rates I have not changed. One reason for not changing is I would have been on variable while moving over to kbc and the extra interest costs would eat up some of the 3k goodness
What we did was split mortgage in 2. One with 2 year fixed and the other 3 year fixed. Both are at the same interest rate. All going well we will pay off a lump again in 2 years time ..as it allows us keep rainy day fund in place. It also gives some protection if interest rates rise.
What I found is that banks are more reactive on sharing what is best for your finances which for folks not savvy with numbers can be expensive.. and a lot of folks are not as savvy as the banker.

I am sorry but how do you make out BOI rates are better than KBC? KBC have some of the most competitive rates for new customers including fixed and variable.

SozBbz

brendan86 wrote: »

I am sorry but how do you make out BOI rates are better than KBC? KBC have some of the most competitive rates for new customers including fixed and variable.

I got offered 3% for 2 year fixed on the phone with them earlier today.

What are KBC offering?

listermint

SozBbz wrote: »

I got offered 3% for 2 year fixed on the phone with them earlier today.

What are KBC offering?

2.9 i believe

Cyrus

SozBbz wrote: »

I got offered 3% for 2 year fixed on the phone with them earlier today.

What are KBC offering?

no 2% cashback with KBC though

brendan86

SozBbz wrote: »

I got offered 3% for 2 year fixed on the phone with them earlier today.

What are KBC offering?

I think its 2.99% 2 year fixed if you sign up to the current account deal. And you get 3,000 switcher deal. I just dunno what bellview was on about the interest rate would eat the goodness out if he switched and there same rates.

BOI fixed rate might be all well and good signing up now but do you know what variable rate you will be on after, its a lot worse than KBC thus more costly in long run.

SozBbz

listermint wrote: »

2.9 i believe

I'd just think that 0.1% might not merrit the hassle of switching just yet. I'd have to switch my current AC also, and while I know they have people to help this happen, a friend of mine did this recently and it was anything but a smooth process.

Its something I'll review over the course of the mortgage - I won't be someone just sitting there paying whatever rate they charge me!

pwurple

Cyrus wrote: »

tell you what folks im all for keeping your mortgage term reasonable and being sensible about debt, but some of you dont half sound miserable

as some other posters have said you have to balance living your life with paying the mortgage down, we are all going to die, it could be tomorrow, and much like people saying you will never wish that you worked more when you are on your death bed, i doubt you will wish that you saved more.

Lol, Well, we're Irish, so we don't like to gloat.

Naw, we have it pretty good. I think concentrating on a goal and seeing results is very satisfying.

Sure, we didn't take a foreign holiday for a few years when childcare was crippling us, because we reasoned that babies don't remember holidays anyway. But now, yup, we take a holiday. It might be camping, but it's still fun.

We eat well, because we are good cooks, and go out to eat once a month, or more if we can. And we have a cleaner. That's defo luxury. We have a nice house, in a lovely area with a decent garden, and a reasonably new car. A healthy family, and without crucifying debt. I'm fairly proud of it tbh. I wouldn't call myself miserable! It's been work and dedication, but I'm pretty chuffed with the results.

On my death bed, I hope my kids will appreciate the decent life we tried our best to provide for them, which, yes, includes savings and hopefully some knowledge on how to do the same as we did.

SozBbz

brendan86 wrote: »

BOI fixed rate might be all well and good signing up now but do you know what variable rate you will be on after, its a lot worse than KBC thus more costly in long run.

Well I plan to never really pay their variable rate. I'll either keep fixing for 1 or 2 years at a time (won't do more than that again) and shop around if I feel theres better value to be had when my fixed periods are coming to an end.

brendan86

Cyrus wrote: »

no 2% cashback with KBC though

BOI cash back is a joke its to fool people there getting a good deal. Look at there variable rates. In fairness it works for them because majority of people don't understand mortgages and just see 2% cashback that's great and 3% fixed for 2 years. After that 2 years you will be on a lot higher rate than most competitors.

As for EBS 2% cash back, that's a good offer far better terms than BOI

listermint

pwurple wrote: »

Lol, Well, we're Irish, so we don't like to gloat.

Naw, we have it pretty good. I think concentrating on a goal and seeing results is very satisfying.

Sure, we didn't take a foreign holiday for a few years when childcare was crippling us, because we reasoned that babies don't remember holidays anyway. But now, yup, we take a holiday. It might be camping, but it's still fun.

We eat well, because we are good cooks, and go out to eat once a month, or more if we can. And we have a cleaner. That's defo luxury. We have a nice house, in a lovely area with a decent garden, and a reasonably new car. A healthy family, and without crucifying debt. I'm fairly proud of it tbh. I wouldn't call myself miserable! It's been work and dedication, but I'm pretty chuffed with the results.

On my death bed, I hope my kids will appreciate the decent life we tried our best to provide for them, which, yes, includes savings and hopefully some knowledge on how to do the same as we did.

Have a cleaner but cant take a holiday.

No thanks not for me , Id clean up after myself and head to the sun once a year

SozBbz

Cyrus wrote: »

tell you what folks im all for keeping your mortgage term reasonable and being sensible about debt, but some of you dont half sound miserable

as some other posters have said you have to balance living your life with paying the mortgage down, we are all going to die, it could be tomorrow, and much like people saying you will never wish that you worked more when you are on your death bed, i doubt you will wish that you saved more.

I totally agree with this - I only over pay because it suits my particular circumstances. I go on I'd say one major and 3/4 minor holidays per year, and I don't watch my day to day spending. I'm the one out there eating all that smashed Avocado

The reason I've such leeway is two fold. I work in a job where my salary is mixed between fixed (my basic) and variable (bonus). I only borrowed based on my basic income, when in reality I earn more than that. Also I've had a pay rise since then so what I've borrowed is modest in comparison.
Secondly, my OH lives with me so he contributes, meaning that while I borrowed as a single person, in reality theres a couple paying off this mortgage.

Based on the above, sure I could flitter it away, risk it on the markets, or save it for almost negligible return.... I think chipping away at the mortgage seems a good idea, low effort way of doing stuff with the money.

Bellview

SozBbz wrote:

I got offered 3% for 2 year fixed on the phone with them earlier today.

SozBbz wrote:

What are KBC offering?

2.99 for kbc

Innocent123

Not sure if its been mentioned but:

I've indexed my repayments by 1%. Its been a while but from recollection it was a written instruction to the bank instructing an increase in repayments by 1% a year to be taken from the capital.

In a nutshell this means that for every €100 I pay an extra €1. The impact on the term was significant and it can be stopped at any point. On requesting this I received a full amortisation table from the bank detailing the potential years cut from the term of the mortgage.

At some stage I intend to increase the index percentage and knock a few more years off

Cyrus

brendan86 wrote: »

BOI cash back is a joke its to fool people there getting a good deal. Look at there variable rates. In fairness it works for them because majority of people don't understand mortgages and just see 2% cashback that's great and 3% fixed for 2 years. After that 2 years you will be on a lot higher rate than most competitors.

As for EBS 2% cash back, that's a good offer far better terms than BOI

ive already had the EBS 2% :P im switching after 6 months to get the BOI 2% and ill switch at the end of the 3 years to whatever the best variable or fixed rate is at the time

vmb

My mortgage started in Feb 16. Since then, instead of 950 Euro/month, I am paying 3500. p/m

I have everything calculated, I will save 110.000 euros in total and finish in only 5.5 years instead of 29 years. The total amount of interests at current rate will be only about 18k euro. Best decision ever .

This has a bad side, of course. my savings are very poor. If something happens I can return to the original payment amount.

Bellview

brendan86 wrote:

I am sorry but how do you make out BOI rates are better than KBC? KBC have some of the most competitive rates for new customers including fixed and variable.

My comment is on 2 year and 3 year fixed as .01 per cent difference.im only giving my experience having spoken with both banks in last 3 weeks

You are correct on variable.

Mooooo

TBH interest rates being at an all time low I'd try and fix at a low rate for as long as possible only going fixed for 2 years may have you coming off it as interest rates rise so the variable or fixed rate offered then may well be higher. Who knows interest rates may well stay down for a bit yet but likely to rise at some stage

brendan86

Cyrus wrote: »

ive already had the EBS 2% :P im switching after 6 months to get the BOI 2% and ill switch at the end of the 3 years to whatever the best variable or fixed rate is at the time

So KBC variable rate after fixed period = 3.5% if you set up current account

BOI variable rate after fixed period = 4.5%

Quite easy to figure out which is best BOI won't be long clawing back your 2%.