How's everyone planning to handle the crazy mortgage rates?

[adviceseeker22]

One of my sub accounts expires in November and I'll have to pay £350 on top! If both subaccounts were to expire my mortgage would double ;(

@honeyandfizz obviously yes however when things ease they can.

Off the top of my head it's 100 to open a fund and a minimum of 25 there after... Again people could consider helping dc by opening up I vestments for them so it's second nature when they be come earners.

And or sipp, self invested personal pension.

It will be difficult will probably need a second job. At the moment I work a 9 to 5 job Monday to Friday in the civil service no overtime. Those with a second job what sort of work do you do and when do you work? I have tried applying for a 2nd job in admin, insurance, public sector etc but the hours clash with my current job. What second jobs do you have and when do you work them?

Also a lot can happen between now and January - why would you fix now when there are so many unknowns?

@AHM5619 Because it's then worst-case scenario. If your deal ends within the next 6 months and you secure one now, you can always change it up until the point it's due to start if the rates improve. But if they go up, then you've already secured a better rate.

I took on evening work. I sold personal possessions. We didn’t buy petrol. We didn’t have heating. We turned off the lights. We ate a lot of potatoes. It was a real struggle but it was just the two of us - no DC at that point. We did keep the house and paid off the mortgage (it was interest only like most at that time) after the 25 years. I was 44 when we became mortgage free.

@honeyandfizz when times are better they can save for rainy days like now. This time can be spent doing all the background reading, research and education.

average size house in SW London. Kicking ourselves for not fixing for longer than 2 years. Just fixed to a 5 year - rate gone up from 1.4% to 5.4% a few weeks ago. Would be 6.6% if we fixed this week.

monthly payments gone up from 2.6k to 4K pcm. It’s a killer.

I had friends saying we should buy the biggest we could afford - the £1m plus houses I suppose (which in London is still just a decent sized semi). We borrowed way way less than our max and I’m so glad we did.

4% increase equates to 1.5k extra per month. That is insane.

We are luckily on a fixed rate of 1.29% until April 2027 but have recently secured some extra borrowing for renovations at 5.44%. We are only using this as a contingency if, when we start opening up the house, there are nasty surprises - we have until mid dec to drawdown.

We are working on the basis that all spare cash until sept 2025 is spent on the house (there’s a lot to do) which coincides with DC2 starting school freeing up what was being spent in childcare fees and gives us around 18 months to try to save to pay down so will see what interest rates are doing then.

upshot: we are luckily ok at the moment but definitely conscious of the potential for spiralling costs and trying to put a plan in place to help.

we don’t think delaying the works is the right thing as house really needs it plus can’t see building costs coming down any time soon

@SleepDreamThinkHuge i always wondered about getting a “night staff” job in a supermarket - pay might not be massive but you often get significant discounts on food which would obvs help