Home loan redux

[freyakitten]

I worked it out today.

If the conditions of this last year of mortgage repayments continue - that is, no pay increases, interest rate increases, or spending habit changes - Bastard and I will have paid our mortgage out in just over three more years. That's seven and a quarter years after we bought it, even with our lack of a spending plan for the first couple of years.

Comments

[penguin2.livejournal.com]

~faints~ Ye cats, well done! We've another eight years to go on ours, and Himself bought the place eleven years ago (a few years before we met)

[freyaw.livejournal.com]

Well, we bought it based on one salary, and we're paying it off with two, and we're in Adelaide, which has comparatively very low cost of living - back when I was doing the food shopping for my family (Mum would give me an amount well in excess of what was necessary, and I got to keep what was left over. She got to not do her most hated household task. It was a good exchange) I could buy raw materials for food for a week for a family of four who are not small eaters for under $100. With meat of some kind for dinner every night, and steak of some kind at least once a week (fortunately, we as a family like oyster blade steaks which are the cheapest steak cut because of the line of gristle down the middle). Prices have gone up, but not that much. And Bastard frequently brings leftovers home from work (WARNING! ILLEGAL!), which means I can spend the food budget on other things - thanks to leftover Sunday Roasts, I buy almost no meat at all these days, except for bacon, and when stuff I can freeze until we want it for a barbecue is on special.

Compared to most people, our overheads are very low, our entertainment expenses are almost nil (broadband, books, and three or four trips to events interstate between us (when I say 'between us' I mean 'mostly for me') is about the extent of our entertainment expenses), and our weekly transport costs are also low. And all of the unspent money goes into the mortgage.

We also got the type of mortgage where we can redraw at any time (for no (extra) fees), so that we didn't have to keep a cache of ZOMG-money, and so that that potential cache could be earning not-interest.

[penguin2.livejournal.com]

Sounds all good :-)

Compared to most people, our overheads are very low, our entertainment expenses are almost nil (broadband, books, and three or four trips to events interstate between us (when I say 'between us' I mean 'mostly for me') is about the extent of our entertainment expenses)

So just like us, except that neither of us goes on 'trips to events interstate' ever - partly because it's just not the sort of thing we do (for various reasons), and mostly because we're doing two adults and a mortgage on one barely-even-glorified clerk's wage these days!

We did renegotiate our mortgage last year though for a much better deal, which has helped quite a lot.

[freyaw.livejournal.com]

Making sure your mortgage stays the best deal you can get is a Very Good Thing. Including transition fees in the cost/benefit analysis, of course.

Don't forget you guys also have animals, and significant (on a budget) medical costs (in time, if not money). I have the level of medical insurance I have primarily because I get 100% of prescriptions covered, and therefore together with everything else I do medically in a year, it's cheaper overall to go with a more expensive level of insurance than Bastard has. And we have no non-humans that we feed or house.

We did the cost/benefit analysis to getting someone in to vacuum and mop and do the dishes for us, and if/when I get a payrise to cover it, it's in the proposed household budget already. The extra time in which to be productive (or to rest and thus be more effective in the productive time I use) will offset the costs - and the more useful time I have to tend my garden, for example, the more food we shall get from it, and the less we shall spend on food. And the less grumpy Bastard will be - we have Issues about the dishes - and thus the more motivated he will be.

[sandypawozbun.livejournal.com]

Wow. Go you guys. :) DnD on Saturday is a possible if you'd like to celebrate. Or something.

[freyaw.livejournal.com]

:D Unfortunately I'm doing a demo this Saturday - Bastard could go up, if he can be dragged out of his apathy.

[shadow-5tails.livejournal.com]

Pretty nifty, that. Felicitations, and good luck!

[freyaw.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Note all the disclaimers, though :P We are expecting to pay for uni fees next year, though; Even if it is 100% tax-deductible (and it may well drop me down a tax bracket in the 08/09 financial year - and almost certainly will in 09/10), it'll still be a chunk that isn't attracting not-interest.

[shadow-5tails.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know you're not out of the woods yet - hence the luck. But it sounds like you can see the end, and while there's always the unforeseen, it looks like you're doing a reasonable job of planning for what you know is on the path ahead...

What're you studying, then?

[freyaw.livejournal.com]

The accounting qualifications need finishing - an entry-level job with those qualifications finalised would be a minimum jump of $7k/year, and most are significantly above that.

[shadow-5tails.livejournal.com]

Ah. I hadn't realised that there were accounting qualifications. I don't know if the BrainFog ate the fact, or whether I'd just not heard about it... Either way, nifty, and here's to your getting them sorted!

[freyaw.livejournal.com]

The Advanced Diploma is credit towards a degree; depending on where I do it, there's a further 12-18 months full-time involved.

Probably not going to manage full-time, of course :P