DH keeps making mortgage overpyamentd ton reduce the term

[Redratefree]

We have a take home of £4k and a £1.9k mortgage. DH keeps making overpayments to the term of the mortgage, it was 27 years but it's been reduced to 25.25 years due to overpayments. However, I want him to reduce our monthly payments as this will give us more breathing space. He disagrees and wants to continue to reduce the term because it offers more flexibility when remortgaging. I received 2 emails from the bank this weekend for 2 overpayments of £500 and then one for £50, as soon as he gets paid he'll make an overpayment.

You can specify if you want the overpayment to reduce your term or if you want your term to remain the same and the monthly repayment to reduce.

You don't necessarily have to pay penalties - a colleague was paying something like £1 a month for years on his outstanding mortgage just to avoid paying early repayment penalties.

Oh! I’ll amend my post.

If you have a car, and clothes, and a house, plus you can pay the bills, of course it makes sense to pay down the mortgage. Common sense and good planning.

To sacrifice financial security for a “nicer” car is ridiculous, frankly.

i think that is an extreme interpretation of what OP is saying.

people have different financial goals. OP isn’t talking about not paying the mortgage to buy a nicer car, or not saving to buy a nicer car. She is talking about reducing the (quite extreme) level of overpayment to the mortgage to buy a nicer car.

im not into cars at all, but I treat myself to nice holidays. I could use that money to overpay my mortgage but I chose to pay the mortgage, save, and live. I have not sacrificed my financial security😊. You can be financially secure without overpaying your mortgage.

Good on him.

Would he agree to stopping the overpayments for a stort time? He could concentrate on saving a kitty/buffer of a few thousand so that you always have funds to replace the fridge.

Once you have a buffer of savings, it is sensible to overpay.

Do you think the amount he is overpaying in sensible and balanced? When you say good on him do you believe OP should have no say on the family finances?

I have been quite shocked at how so many people on this thread have ignored that this should be a joint decision.

the spending money this leaves a family of four with is quite modest. This man will become one of those old men who has lots on the bank but can’t bring himself to spend it. There has to be balance of both parties don’t agree to a frugal lifestyle. I certainly wouldn’t!

allocating 62% of your monthly income to a mortgage is not financial security it is obsessing over one debt and I suspect is leaving them exposed.

Owning a house is expensive white goods/plumbing issues come up all the time I get not sense they have any sort of buffer for if for example a boiler goes and then where are they. You can get money back from a mortgage at all

and life should be led a little bit - scrimping and scraping for what

that said one issue is why the actual mortgage is 50% of their joint income in the first place that is HUGE - I would expect a max of 40%

This is exactly what I was thinking. There really needs to be a conversation - I agree paying a mortgage off early is very sensible but it should be an agreed strategy, not him arbitrarily paying money into the mortgage (OP mentioned she only knows it’s happening when she sees the transaction go through )

OP, who has actually said very little and not explained a great deal, hasnt said the house is falling apart around their ears, she says they have savings and hasnt identified gaps in their ability to fund the basics. She cites a nicer car and nicer clothes as a reason not to make the overpayments.

OP also hasnt said how regularly the overpayments are or whether they are at the same level every month, so how do you come to understand that the debt is being 'obsessed over'?

She said she had 2 emails this weekend. She hasnt mentioned what the other overpayments have been or for how long.