Printable View
Next week it's going to happen; €52.000 will be transferred from our savings account into a checking account. Then, the same amount will be made payable to our mortgage lender and we'll be the full owners of our own place. The thought of that still makes me very excited :)
Well done you! :)
Just 29 years to go here ;)
Our first mortgage we paid of in 15 years, the second in under 7 years. Even though the second one was twice the amount of the first one :)
Christ. :bulb:
Having a monthly income that is mortgage-free is too delicious to contemplate.
Noice. :up:
Mortgage-free does sound nice. Congrats, Hazir! Will you have a loan-burning party once you get the deed?
Also, kudos for deciding that you want to keep the property. No worries about selling it some day down the road, or if that would be a financial loss. Must be a great sense of ahhh in that. :)
:) Yes, that's why we had the ambition to pay it off in the first place. From now on all costs for living here (including utilities and taxes) will amount to less than 10% of our monthly income.Quote:
Originally Posted by Timbuk2
It doesn't just sound nice, it is nice. The procedure doesn't quite work that way in Holland. We don't have physical deeds or something like that and we're already the owners of this place in the cadastre. Maybe we can burn the contract for the loan once the mortgage has been stricken from the cadastre.Quote:
Originally Posted by GGT
Step one initiated: €52.000 has been transferred out of savings.
Massive congrats Hazir! :up:
Grrrrr... the money still hasn't arrived at the checking account. ****
Depending on the interest rate, it might have been wiser not to pay it off so quickly and instead invest that money in the booming stock mark- oh, wait.... :(Quote:
Originally Posted by Hazir
Threading water we've done long enough, actually we would have done marginally better leaving the money in savings but this simply feels much better than the €120 a year we would have had extra :)Quote:
Originally Posted by EyeKhan
Our prime consideration is not ROI, but the lowest fixed expenses possible.
P.S. money has appeared in checking account.
Same dilemma I face. I could liquidate stocks to pay a sizable chunk of my mortgage, but it feels silly to walk away from the dividend income and potential capital appreciation. Then again it's not like said dividend/capital growth has been very high this past year.Quote:
Originally Posted by EyeKhan
But congrats to Hazir, that's really wonderful. :up: How does this impact your retirement planning?
Significantly of course; I already have a fairly reasonable pension ahead (combination of SS and company pension fun - which is less scary than in most countries). Now about 90% of our income becomes freely expendable, but the reality will be that we'll put above 25% of it in savings/investments. I am going for retirement at 55 and then would have to bridge about 11 years untill my pension starts. That seems within easy reach especially given the fact that we'll probably move to Istanbul for good at some point.
I agree it feels a bit silly (not very much though) but the overriding consideration is that by paying off early you reduce the need earn an income in order to have a roof over your head. Once you've reached that point, you free up a lot of money to start putting real money to the side AND changes in your jobsituation look a lot less scary.
Just gave the order to pay the money into the account of my lender.
I would hold onto your stocks. The US economy - hopefully - has a lot of upside in the next few years.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dreadnaught
Not so clear on that, EK. PE ratios are running pretty high right now, which might indicate stocks are overvalued. Given that companies can't really cut costs much more, it's unclear they're in for significant growth in the near term. I'm bullish on the US economy long term, but that's not necessarily relevant in a 10-year time frame.
god - 10 year? shit
Congrats!
It won't feel real though untill I get the next statement from my lender, which should say the debt has been paid in full :)
Congrats, Hazir! I'm sure that feels like a weight was lifted! :)
Congratulations mate!
I'm 27 and only £400 away from paying off my student loan. Once that is done the £200 per month that goes into that will now go into the mortgage on an investment property I have. When that happens it'll reduce the length of the mortgage by 10 years!
Smart move :)Quote:
Originally Posted by xaero1
Finally got the confirmation of them recieving my money and notice that 'the interest due' will be recalculated at the first of november. Any excess will be re-imbursed.
They tried to sell me some crap about following the procedure for extra payments, I sent an angry email back that since there were no payments towards the principal stipulated there could be no 'extra' payments and that I considered their requests to follow their procedure a breach of our contractual agreement and in bad faith. :) (reason: following their procedure includes downloading a form, sending it to them and pay on the date they tell me to pay, that just means they can charge me interest for 3-4 weeks extra)
I don't even understand their logic...don't they have to generate a final payoff quote before they get the money?
Congrats. Because of our ridiculous tax system, no one pays of their mortages here.
Not really, under the contract I am not obliged to pay off the principal as long as I pay the interest on it. But because the interest is adjusted monthly I also can pay towards the principal whatever amount I want whenever I want. What they are trying to do is make me behave like somebody who's got a deal with limits on extra down-payments towards the principal. The system overhere is a bit different than in the US; if you have a fixed interest rate you incur a 'fine' if you pay off towards your principal more than the agreed annual maximum.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dreadnaught
Anyway, none of those rules apply to me. And they shouldn't try to enforce them in my case.
I'm prevented from repaying more than 10% of my capital per annum in the fixed-rate period of the loan.
Given that the fixed-rate period of the loan is the first 2 years only, which is when we need to fully-furnish the house etc, I don't think I'll be repaying more than 20% extra of the capital off in the first 2 years. After the 2 years have passed we'll go onto a variable rate (1.49% above base, so currently 1.99% APR as base is 0.5%) which will have no limit on repayments. Of course I'd be delighted if in 2 years time base was still 0.5% and if it were we could repay a fair bit of the capital as the interest will be low. I'm budgeting for 5% base so 6.49% APR.
Wouldn't really count on it being 0.5% still in 2 years, 5% sounds excessively prudent to me though. Not that that will hurt you when you'll be sitting on some extra money.Quote:
Originally Posted by RandBlade
Hehe, just back from Istanbul and I find a letter from my lender. I made a small mistake and appearantly I still have a debt of €43,44 costing me €0,08 a month in interest. I guess the monthly statements are going to cost them more than that. I am a bit tempted to leave it like this untill they offer to cancel the debt :)
Heh, though would they keep the title until you paid them? You should offer to pay the amount but with a lower rate. :noob:
On a similar vein, the Better Half and I are on track to have all debt (except for the mortgage and one car) paid off. That's about $1,500 extra to our savings a month (barring getting a kid or other life changing events)
That's not quite the way it works in Holland. If I decide to have the mortgage stricken from the register I would need a letter from them declaring the debt has been paid in full. The only thing they could do would ask to the courts to declare me bankrupt if I don't pay anything any longer and then exercise their right to recieve the amount due to them before any other creditor gets a go at my assets. Thing is, the courts never would declare me bankrupt as things stand. For the simple reason you need at least 2 creditors to apply for it, and I don't have any other debts.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dreadnaught
In the mean time the house is still in my full ownership.
Yay, I found Hazir's thread using advanced search (I don't usually use that function).
I was going to refinance for a lower fixed rate....but now I'm getting cold feet. I'm not really sure what to do now. Morgan Stanley keeps calling me, asking for the final paper work, and I keep stalling. Seems to me they need me more than I need them. I paid off my only credit card, and paid the last installments on my son's orthodontia. Basically, I'm debt free except for this mortgage. I have a lot of equity, and our housing market is only seasonally soft. Big house and big yard, requiring more work than I want to do. One son left at home who loves this place....I could wait three more years....but ageing works faster than we expect, and I'm getting tired.
Any advice out there?
I would say go ahead and refinance at the lower rate. Then, take the difference in payment each month and put it in savings! After while, you will have a nice nest egg for whatever you decide to do next. Of course, that will depend on the difference and whether it is enough to really worry about. If it's not a lot of cash per month or year, maybe just stick with what you have.
Yes, it's hard to move from the familiar to the strange and unknown. Your son shows this in wanting to stay in the place he has grown up. You show it in waffling about the refinancing.
Refinancing is usually a good idea. Just crunch the numbers, compare any associated fees to the amount of interest you'll be saving on, keeping in mind the amount of time you expect to continue living in the house, see if you profit from it. If yes, do it.Quote:
Originally Posted by GGT
Thanks, yeah I know that already. I'm trying to make an emotional decision, not necessarily a financial one. I can save some money by refinancing, but at what cost emotionally and physically? I can even make money by selling, but at what cost emotionally for me and my kids?Quote:
Originally Posted by Wraith
I don't understand why refinancing is an emotional decision.
I can understand how selling would be emotional, but refinancing? Unless there's more to it than you've said, I don't get it.
Because my house is just a couple of miles from my ex-husband's house, and his fiance's house (where he's actually living) is a few doors down from that. Our older son is trying to clean up his dad's house, which is a rat-trap piece of shit. Both kids socialize with friends from that neighborhood, but also friends in my neighborhood.Quote:
Originally Posted by Wraith
Even going to the doctor turns into "oh, you live down the street from us, are you the one with the red bench under dogwood trees?" Small town stuff.
The ex is marrying his fiance in September, at the home they've been expanding (while his house is falling apart just a few doors down). And our previous "family home" is in the triangle.
I've been slowly losing my mind in this bizarre incestuous place. I've had enough "therapy" to sound like a Dr. Phil show....but my sons are old enough now to say "Don't leave us here with him, but don't move us somewhere new!" Younger son wants to complete HS and graduate with his friends. Another three years from now.
:cry:
So the real decision is whether or not to sell and move then, not whether to refinance?