To be mortgage free: overpayments and stuff
Tomorrow marks a month since I secured a new mortgage on my home, giving me the funds I needed to complete “project £20k” thus buying Karl out and transferring the deeds to solely my name. In total: £97,617.23 — £77,617.23 to pay off the old mortgage and £20,000 for Karl.
This week the first mortgage payment came out of my account, taking the mortgage account balance to £97,467.00
You’d be forgiven for thinking my mortgage payment was £150.23, because that’s what you get if you subtract the current balance from the original lending figure. Except it wasn’t: it was a nice round £500, which is made up of £477 actual mortgage payment due and £23 overpayment which I set up as soon as my mortgage went through (because I can afford an extra £23 but if I have to manually transfer it each month I’ll find other ways of using it!) This basically means that in a month I’ve accumulated £350 worth of interest.
THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY POUNDS.
How am I going to be mortgage free in five years if I blink and £350 is added to my mortgage balance? Well, here’s what I’ve done so far:
- I released the premium version of my mail form and have started working on the membership area. If I can sell 1 copy of my premium mail form a week for a whole year, that’s £939.12 which would take 4 months off the term of my mortgage and could save me £1,174 in interest.
- I transferred some money from freelancing straight to the mortgage pot. If I can work just a few hours a month for a year I could earn around £1600 which would take 7 months off my mortgage and save me £1,985 in interest.
- I’ve done a lot of work on Soft Play Reviews, a project I started two years ago, and if I can earn just a couple of quid a week through ads I’d save myself £131 in interest.
Combined, just these 3 things could take a year off my mortgage and save me £3,240. Even if I can’t be “mortgage free in five years”, who can balk at saving over three thousand pounds?
Other things I’ve done this month:
- I didn’t eat out because of whole30, which saved me money.
- I was more careful about what I was eating (again, because of whole30) and this also saved my money: the idea that whole30 has to cost a bomb is hugely erroneous.
- Sold some old things on ebay which have been sat in the back of my wardrobe for years, and made £91.11 (minus fees) … although I imagine a big chunk of that will go on postage!
Can I keep up the momentum? Can I do even better? Only one way to find out…
Originally published on Jem - on parenting, pets and PHP
