# Clear your Mortgage in 2 years!



## pennypincher (5 Jan 2006)

Not sure if this is the correct thread,but as it's to do with mortgages.Did any one see tonights programme on BBC2 about 8 families from all walks of life who work with a financial adviser to clear their mortgage in 2 years.My understanding from tonights episode is that unless you are self employed you don't stand a chance!In the first year tonights group saved 14K sterling in 12 months...seemed pretty good.Has anyone here managed to do the same....clear your mortgage(150K) in a few years,without winning money,inheritance etc?


----------



## Meccano (5 Jan 2006)

I started to watch it, but changed channels after 10 minutes. Very boring reality TV type rubbish. No special tips - just save like mad.
I paid off my last mortgage in 6 years by putting every interest rate decrease and salary increase into the payments. 
Askaboutmoney.com inspired me to do it!

One snag though - having paid off the mortgage I wanted to rent the house out and buy a new place to live in. Then realised I would be paying tax on the full rental income as I had no debt to offset against it any more!


----------



## ClubMan (5 Jan 2006)

Hopefully you didn't switch over to _C4's _20 places to buy property abroad! Yawn....


----------



## dam099 (5 Jan 2006)

Saving like mad won't do much for the typical first time buyer here with a mortgage of 3-4 times gross salary. 2 years is impossible for most normal people.


----------



## 10to1 (6 Jan 2006)

My Bank offered to split my new mortgage by part remortgaging my existing property and the balance on the new property to avail of tax relief. Illegal but it's being done my solicitor told me However, having been advised here on this site I didn't go for it. Selling instead and investing elsewhere.


----------



## CCOVICH (6 Jan 2006)

I wasn't too impressed with the ideas (i.e. they were fairly obvious, or wouldn't apply to most typical families).

It's actually cheaper for me to have my lunch at work (heavily subsidised canteen)
I gave up smoking 2 years ago
I don't drive to work
I'm funny, but not funny enough to do 2 stand up shows a week
My girlfriend is a terrible singer

I switched over after the wife did her first 'gig' in the old folks home.

I guess the idea is ok, but only if you have a 'fairly low' mortgage, i.e. I would agree with what dam099 says above.  According to the paper, this show is going out for 24 episodes.

One thing that struck me-were the two of them declaring the 'cash' income from their entertainment gigs?


----------



## X-Man (6 Jan 2006)

reality tv at its best NOT! did you all see the strain it put on the relationship.only for the guy those 2people would be seprerated.

like imagine living on 15€ per week   come on live a life and enjoy


----------



## my2leftfeet (6 Jan 2006)

I thought it was awful that they were under so much pressure that they weren't able to relax and enjoy a couple of days hols in a mobile home - which was only costing them a couple of hundred pounds. What's it all about if you can't take some break from the pressure?


----------



## Audrey (6 Jan 2006)

The big thing that struck me was HE is making money out of claiming he can help people to give up smoking, and SHE is unable to give up smoking!!  Doh!


----------



## ribena (6 Jan 2006)

I was really disappointed with it.  I was hoping there might be some other ways of saving money other than quitting smoking, taking the train to work, making your own sandwich and taking on a second job a couple of nights a week!  As far as I could make out, they seemed to have two cars.  If he was taking the train to work, could they not have sold his car?  She seemed to get pretty tight money-wise and was nearly taking it to the extreme.  It can't be good for any relationship.  As for the guy supposedly giving advice, he was dull and boring.


----------



## ClubMan (6 Jan 2006)

If people want to discuss politically correct racial/ethnic terminology please start a new thread. I have removed posts referring to this that are not relevant to the substantive issues raised in this thread.


----------



## Vanilla (6 Jan 2006)

X-man, I thought Irishpancakes point was well made and put very politely. Your comment was unnecessary and jarring. 

In relation to the programme, I wonder if there will be families in weeks to come who ( as I would imagine would be more common than last nights couple) would be unable or unwilling to have second jobs, and if so, how will they clear their mortgage early?

I thought the programme was interesting, sure it was basic, but realistically what else can be expected? After all I'm sure noone was expecting to hear a miracle way to clear their mortgage early that we havent heard of before. Therefore cutting down on spending and increasing ones income are the only possibles anyway. Well, other than the lotto.


----------



## Glenbhoy (6 Jan 2006)

> After all I'm sure noone was expecting to hear a miracle way to clear their mortgage early that we havent heard of before. Therefore cutting down on spending and increasing ones income are the only possibles anyway.


 
You think?  Well for anyone interested I was thinking of getting a nice little pyramid scheme up and running, join up now - remember the early bird, catches the most worms


----------



## Gordanus (6 Jan 2006)

I was in and out of the room so didn't see it all, but was there any mention of childminding? Childminding costs? The impact on the kids of the parents' massive reduction in spending or increased time at work or increased tiredness? They didn't seem to make any allowance for a social life either - no wonder the couple nearly split up!


----------



## Cyrstal (6 Jan 2006)

Saw it last night too, don't think they mentioned what the breakdown of anything they spent there money on, bar what they had to cut out like buying lunches and ciggies.  Total waste of time, I thought they might come up with something that we didn't already know??  Was tempted to buy the book that coincides with the program, before I saw the program...well there's 20 euro I can pay off my own mortgage


----------



## nelly (6 Jan 2006)

never saw it but i think that these folks must have had maybe only a few years of normal payments left anyhow, as one starting out on a 35 year mortgage i can't see it making a difference to most buyers nowadays.


----------



## Cyrstal (6 Jan 2006)

Nope they had 22 years left of repayments on it.  And the repayments in total were going to double the amount that was left on their mortgage.  Think it was about 85K left, and the interest would be about 70K over the 22 years repayments


----------



## CollyD (6 Jan 2006)

I believe the question was:

"Has anyone here managed to do the same....clear your mortgage(150K) in a few years,without winning money,inheritance etc?"

And not what did you think of the sad programme.

I have'nt done it and as mentioned earlier in the thread would probably only work for low mortgage, but you could work hard to get the mortgage down so you could really reduce the term thus eating into the principle alot sooner and paying less interest to the bank.  That is how I see it very hard with a large mortgage but very possible to cut the term in half.


----------



## Meccano (7 Jan 2006)

There's another catch to pedalling hard to pay off your mortgage early. You are probably going to put all your spare cash into the mortgage - so savings are going to be nil or minimal - meaning no safety nets. 
But even more crucially - you can't invest. 

When I was throwing every spare penny I had into my mortgage - my mates were out investing in property. The net result was that by the time I paid off my own mortgage, they had rental property investments which increased so much in value they could clear their own mortgage if they chose to sell the investment property. 
And the growth was all supplied by a rising market and their tennants rent - while the lads swanned around in nice cars.

I got a great feeling of acheivement out of paying it off - no doubt about that. It was nice to be mortgage free for a few years. But on the whole, I think it wasn't really the smart move, not in a rising property market with low interest rates. Next time round I would BORROW and INVEST rather than save and scrimp. Lesson learned!

Interesting that this prog comes out when the UK property market is sluggish, and interest rates there are high. No more mileage in making property investment reality shows - nobodys interested - so, lets make a cheap 'pay off your crippling mortgage' type reality show instead!
The property market here is still booming! Incredibly! Takes nerves of steel though.


----------



## RainyDay (7 Jan 2006)

Meccano said:
			
		

> When I was throwing every spare penny I had into my mortgage - my mates were out investing in property. The net result was that by the time I paid off my own mortgage, they had rental property investments which increased so much in value they could clear their own mortgage if they chose to sell the investment property.
> And the growth was all supplied by a rising market and their tennants rent - while the lads swanned around in nice cars.
> 
> I got a great feeling of acheivement out of paying it off - no doubt about that. It was nice to be mortgage free for a few years. But on the whole, I think it wasn't really the smart move, not in a rising property market with low interest rates. Next time round I would BORROW and INVEST rather than save and scrimp. Lesson learned!


Your conclusion that they were right & you were wrong is based on hindsight. In a rising market, they may well come out better off than you. In a stagnating or falling market, you may well have come out better off than them. There is of course no reason to believe that markets will continue to keep rising for ever. You also need to factor in all the time/effort they put into finding tenants, doing their accounts, mowing the grass etc etc.


----------



## Meccano (7 Jan 2006)

Yep - at the time I was convinced by all those GURUS who told us the property market was heading for a crash, so I hunkered down. Of course the GURUS have been proven wrong...again...and again...and again.....


----------



## markowitzman (7 Jan 2006)

I saw the program and thought it was very poor. I also saw the belly dancer program and thought it was equally poor.
Little or nothing of the importance of budgeting in either programme.
Even something as simple as having a budget box in one's house to allow for day to day expenses.
For what it is worth we live off one of our incomes and use the other for investments and have a household budget.
Regarding investments like pension and savings I am a firm believer in paying yourself first.
The first cheque each month is for savings.
By doing this we hope to have a better chance of reaching our goal of an early retirement.
Do others do similar?


----------



## GeneralZod (7 Jan 2006)

By paying yourself first do you mean that you'll always pay X amount into savings even if you've got a personal loan/credit card balance outstanding?

For what its worth I set a budget and save set amounts every month according to a big target like a house deposit. I don't list all my expenditure but watch my balance on-line and will postpone non-essential spending until there's money in the account.


----------



## markowitzman (8 Jan 2006)

If I dont have the money for something will not put it on credit card or on personal loan.
Yes always money into savings first as this is to fulfill long term goals. My future is my most important expense.
The three month emergency money is in deposit account covers unforseen expenses.


----------



## Brendan Burgess (18 Jan 2006)

I have now watched the first two programmes in the series, and they really are stupid. 

The second programme was about a couple of around 40ish with three teenage kids. Their income is around £50k and their mortgage is around £50k on a house worth £350k. 

Why on earth would they want to pay off that mortgage in 2 years? It makes absoultely no sense at all. They were eating porridge. They grew vegetables in an allotment. He was working weekends, having said that their family is their first priority. The kids gave up their horses. He gave up his flying lessons. 

They were a nice couple at the start of the programme. They give 10% of their income to charity. They spend time with their family. Then this guy "who has turned major businesses around and who has advised world leaders" tells them that it is good financial planning to pay off their mortgage. It's complete nonsense. 

They both got involved setting up new businesses and neither of them have good business skills. They were taking ridiculous risks for a pay off which was not really necessary.

I have been critical of Show Me the Money, but at least, it's occasionally entertaining, and Eddie's advice is usually good. 

Brendan


----------



## ClubMan (18 Jan 2006)

Hey! I eat porridge the odd morning. What's wrong with that!?


----------



## Marion (18 Jan 2006)

I didn't see the show, but I presume that they ate porridge because they couldn't afford to eat anything else because of their obsession in paying back the mortgage over 2 years.

Madness!

Marion


----------



## Brendan Burgess (19 Jan 2006)

They were eating porridge every day and the programme focussed on it a good bit. The kids said they liked it occasionally, but not every day.


----------



## Thirsty (19 Jan 2006)

I'd only worry if you were eating porridge 3 times a day - as in the movie My Left Foot


----------



## ribena (19 Jan 2006)

I saw the progamme last week too. It was the biggest load of horse crap I ever saw. I definitely won't be tuning in again, not even out of curiosity. There's nothing wrong with eating porridge (even though I absolutely detest the stuff!) but this family took it to the _extreme_. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think they were eating it as a meal other than breakfast. The kids faces said it all, they were in sheer agony having to eat so much of it. I'm sure you could cut back on your eating habits some other way. Not only did the poor family get porridge in a bowl but they also stopped buying biscuits so they made Flapjacks instead to eat ...... flapjacks being made with porridge oats!! I'm sure their digestive systems were thrown out of kilter  

The mother also decided to set up a business selling hampers and when asked what price she was going to charge she was able to quote a price of something like £90 but she had absolutely no idea how much profit she was going to make out of it.  I can't even remember what the husband's second job was it was so boring..........


----------



## ClubMan (19 Jan 2006)

Are you all sure that this programme is not some form of comedy or reality show? It sounds great so far!

She wasn't selling porridge hampers by any chance? Did they wear clothes made out of porridge?


----------



## 892896 (19 Jan 2006)

In the first series the couple were arguing a lot.
I'd draw the line scouring second hand shops for clothes suitable for her daughter. In the 2nd episode the couple owed only 50K. Why would paying off the mortage be so beneficial to them ? I had to laugh when I saw the hens. Still I'll watch it again tonight.


----------



## Janet (19 Jan 2006)

892896 said:
			
		

> Why would paying off the mortage be so beneficial to them ?



They said that in a couple of years their children would be starting to get to the age where they'd go to university and wanted to have the extra income to fund that.


----------



## ribena (20 Jan 2006)

Okay, it's killing me to know what happened last night.  Did anyone watch it?? Was it as whacky??


----------



## Vanilla (20 Jan 2006)

It was about a gay couple living in Cornwall. One worked full time as a social worker, I don't think the other worked, but was an artist ( paintings). Their mortgage was about £90,000.00. By the end of the year, they had tried a decluttering business ( never took off, got one job only), a childrens party business ( which was doing very well until the artist decided to concentrate on her paintings and abandoned it) a gay wedding coordinator business ( had only started this), and the social worker was training to become a life coach at night as well as organising gallery space and an exhibition for her partner who was a bleeding heart too fragile for this world and couldn't do anything for herself. There was a fair bit of bleating on about wanting to donate to charities and being honest and Christian in all their dealings with others. I liked the social worker, she was hard working and genuine. I found the artist a little self-centred, but that was the dynamic of the relationship I suppose. At the end they said they had thought of an idea for an internet business which might well do fantastically but wouldnt disclose the idea just yet. I will probably keep watching the series just because there is nothing else worth watching anyway. But frankly the more I watch the less I am enthused.


----------



## nicelives (20 Jan 2006)

Yeah, I thought the one who started the children's party business should have stuck with that while painting in her spare time. She said she needed to paint in the same way that she needed to breath but why the exhibition idea took off I'm not sure. She ended up cancelling party bookings which had obviously come about because of their work in publicising it to focus on getting 40 paintings done in 8 weeks. They both had some good ideas which they were great at starting but continuing something through once it got started was a real problem with the couple.


----------



## delgirl (20 Jan 2006)

Similar story with the porridge in the last show - these two were cutting costs by making pots of vegetable soup, which cost £1.50 a go and lasted for two days!  Thereby knocking I think around £300 off their annual grocery bill.  I think it's a bit extreme.


----------



## 892896 (20 Jan 2006)

Thought the espisode was a bit dull last night.
There is nothing groundbreaking in the series.


----------



## TheSphinx (20 Jan 2006)

Hi guys

What is the point in saving and scrimping like mad over a long period of time, is everyone missing the bigger picture here, that is not what life is all about - can people not live comfortably, and do the things they want to do, as opposed to live a restricted life, I have known people who saved, invested and scrimped all there life, you won't bring it with you at the end of the day. Life is for the living guys!!!


----------



## ClubMan (20 Jan 2006)

TheSphinx said:
			
		

> Life is for the living guys!!!


 Presumably you'll tell the person planning your inheritance to blow it on themselves instead so?


----------



## TheSphinx (20 Jan 2006)

ClubMan said:
			
		

> Presumably you'll tell the person planning your inheritance to blow it on themselves instead so?


 
I never expected any inheritance from anyone - my dad got the inheritance, and gave me part of it as a gift. I won't be having any children - so I will have no siblings to leave anything to. I totally would agree on people spending money when they are alive, you won't spend it when your not and thats for sure.
But you are missing the point, there is no point in saving money to an extent were you are unhappy. You can still leave something for someone to inherit and still live a life.


----------



## caseypoole (3 Feb 2006)

Andrewa said:
			
		

> The big thing that struck me was HE is making money out of claiming he can help people to give up smoking, and SHE is unable to give up smoking!! Doh!


 
I've finally got around to reading this site and find it most interesting.

I have highlighted this comment above as I was the person in the 1st programme in the series.

As a hypnotherapist I can only stop people smoking who really want to and to be honest she doesn't! 

With regards to our relationship and comments about us almost splitting up, and the presenter Rene saving us, this is nonsense.
We have only ever met the guy 4 times.

Please remember this is tv and they only show the things that they think will make it more interesting like the arguing etc.
They must have about 100 hours of tape on us for a 58 minute programme.

What they didn't show was me being the 1st ever comedy hypnotist ever to appear in Qatar in the Middle East and in Buffalo New York.

In answer to someone elses question about declaring tax on cash payments: Why wouldn't we? Isn't this against the law? 

Some of the opinions on here are very good though, and I would probably have said similar things.

If anyone has any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.

All the best

Sean Casey-Poole


----------

