Paying Off the Mortgage 01 Jul 07
Its been up there on the tag line since we brought this site to life in January, but as yet there haven’t been any posts on the topic of “Paying Off the Mortgage”. So it’s time to get started.
Back at the start of the year, the second series of Pay Off Your Mortgage in Two Years (called “Did They Pay Off Their Mortgage In Two Years?”) aired on BBC2, in the UK. Whilst, I hadn’t followed the original series, based on coffee-break talk at work, I decided to see what it was all about. Not only did I find the programme itself intriguing, but it highlighted some key areas where we’re already doing quite well.
By no means are we going to have our mortgage cleared within 2 years, but the steps we’ve taken aren’t as extreme as those featured in the programme and don’t involve such a major upheaval to our everyday lives. Its also only fair to mention that our ‘strategy’ (even thought we didn’t know we had one) has been to spend less, rather than earn more.
There are some very simple things we do that help to save money every day. I plan to cover some of them in more detail at a later date, but the main idea behind all of them is frankly just not spending more than you have. That doesn’t mean cutting up your credit card (unless you’re seriously in debt) but it does mean thinking more carefully about what you’re putting on it.
Don’t think for a moment that we’re living in some kind of self-enforced poverty though. Being careful with your money means that you should have more available when you really need (or want) it. Sure, most of our savings is targeted for the mortgage, but the good practice of saving money also gives us a fair amount of financial freedom that allows us to do things like heading to the Winter Olympics last year on a whim.
So when will we pay the mortgage off? The honest answer is I don’t know, but its certainly going to be a heck of a lot sooner than if we just made the basic payments every month. Plus, we’ll save a small fortune in the long run.
Posted by Nev in Life , Money , Mortgage with tags finances, money, mortgage, savings
