Need some mortgage busting advice...

[Megan]

With the emergency fund, you could put that in a 100% offset account so that you have quick access to the money, but it still reduces the amount of interest you pay on your loan.
In regards to if you or DH died, all accounts would be frozen (if in joint names) anyway, so you wouldn't be able to access anything for a while. I know 2 people this has happened to and both had to borrow money and rely on others for meals and to pay bills until the legal side of things was sorted out.
Would be wonderful to be mortgage free in 8 years. You have made me want to get motivated to do something about mine!

[Winter]

Hey Megan - We'd love an offset account but we'd have to refinance and to be honest, the loan we have now has been really good to us. They have kept the interest rate lower than the big 4 by about 0.7 percent which is fairly significant.

You have got me thinking with the Emg acct being in joint names. It is. Which means it might be frozen in case of death....hmmmm...might have to stop into the bank and ask some questions. Not point having an emergency fund if it can't be accessed in the worst case scenario.

Hey RayRay - I think you're right about DD's pocket money....poor darling. I feel bad cleaning out her stash....but you're right. I'm going to do it quickly, like ripping off a bandaid - here I go.... I left her $50 so I didn't clean her out completely! I feel bad...

[~Kaz~]

Don't feel bad Winter. Owning your own home sooner will give you (and therefore her) so much more security. If you reach your goal, like Ray said, you'll still have plenty of time to build her education/home fund. Check how much interest that extra $600 a year will save you and the time it will knock of your mortgage in an online mortgage calculator. Bet its significant.

There's actually a book written by a woman - think her last name is Bell (???) Not sure on that. Anyway - it's called How to Pay off your mortgage in 7 years (by somebody who did it in 5). Or something like that. It's got heaps of money saving tips and tricks. She's an accountant so some of the money calculations get a bit anal (IMHO) like whether it was financially worth it to buy a deep freeze to buy wholesale/bulk meat and how long it would take the freezer to pay for itself in meat savings etc but there are some good ideas in there. Your local library might have a copy?

[Winter]

Thanks Kaz, I'll have to have a look for it. I'd love to do it in 5 years! I don't think I can and still eat!

[Laranna]

You'll find that all the accounts would be frozen in the event of death. Definitely talk to your bank about that. If your mortgage interest rate is higher than the emergency savings account interest rate and you don't get charged any fees (or very little) for redrawing, then I'd be inclined to stick it all onto the mortgage because you'd be saving more in the interest.

That book Kaz mentions is by Anita Bell. If you google her, it will come up. I agree she tends to be a bit anal about some things, at the end of the day it's how much you are willing to sacrifice lifestyle wise in the short term.

[Winter]

Thanks Eluned - I transfered just over half from the emergency fund into the mortgage, this way I am covering my bases. I love internet banking!

Fionas - I've bought myself a meal planner pad from kikki.K so am going to get stuck right into that in the new year. Have an extra freezer & slow cooker so can fill that up too.

I'm going to have to set up the set amount each month for DH & I. We've been talking about it for ages. How much do people normally allocate themselves?

[fionas]

We have about an eighth of our joint fortnightly income each as our pocket money or a quarter of it in total.

TBH, that's probably too much- we could live on less.

But the trick is making it an amount that is not too restrictive. If you make it too frugal then one partner will end up resenting it and start putting stuff on the credit card when they run out of money. Then the other partner starts thinking, "hang on, why should I just live off my pocket money if they're shoving stuff on the credit card."

That's what happened in this house anyway but we're back with the program now.

Although the amount we give each other is generous, it does mean that we can save up for our own 'me' stuff too. I never have to justify clothes/haircuts because I pay for them out of money I've saved from my pocket money. Likewise DP with beer/model trains etc.

[fionas]

They have kept the interest rate lower than the big 4 by about 0.7 percent which is fairly significant. (

This reminds me. Our bank gives us a 0.7 discount off the standard interest rate on what they call their wealth package. It's a bit of a misnomer because you actually get it if your mortgage is $250K+ so it should be called a debt package not a wealth package

Now I think I read somewhere that most banks do this - it's pretty standard but sometimes you have to ask them as they may not have done it automatically. So if your mortgage is more than 250K and you don't already have a discounted interest rate, maybe look into it - or ask a mortgage broker.

My biggest tip, which you probably already do is to only give yourself and DH a certain amount of spending money per pay. Everything else bar household spending goes on the mortgage. The best way to reduce household spending for us is meal planning. Less visits to the supermarket, more lunches taken to work and less trips to supermarket = less stuff that we don't need.