Best financial decision

Buying our first home and paying off the mortgage as quickly as we were able.

We have been mortgage free for a considerable number of years, and able to spend money on what we wish, plus add to savings.

*Humbertbear. Was always advised that running a private pension alongside a company pension was illegal. Do you mean you had one then the other?*

This is 100% untrue. Utter nonsense

We never had much money, with 5 children to rear, but my best decision was to always manage to put a little away in savings each week, and never to buy anything on hire-purchase. We furnished our house with second-hand stuff, and hand-me-downs.

The only debt we ever had was our mortgage. It seems laughable, now, that it was a struggle to afford the £17 a month we started off with, on a house which cost £2,575! When the interest rates rocketed, soon afterwards, it was even more of a struggle.

Due to my late husband's poor health we never had a private pension, and now I just have the basic state pension. My unmarried son lives with me, though, and is very generous with his share of the expenses.

I'm still a saver. The "quick, quick, think!" advert on tv really makes me mad. Most people should be able to save a little for emergencies, instead of resorting to high-interest loans.

We had
A repayment mortgage.
Never reduced payments when motgage payments went down.
Used a small windfall to reduce our first mortgage .
Payed off second mortgage in nine years which was six years early.
All good decisions.
We are not rolling in cash but OK

Advising my Son when he was only 20 to buy a property to rent, with a small inheritance he came into.
He was thinking of going to Goa for a year and "blowing it" as he said.?
Twenty years later, he now has 5 properties rented out and his own home, all mortgage free.
Clever Mummy! ?

We have a small business. This morning we received a letter from the bank telling the cost of just having a business account is going up 30% per month in June. On top of that we pay for everything connected, cheques, cash in/out, DD in/out. I only bank once a month. The bank's greed is breath taking. If I can find a way out of this I will. Has anyone any suggestions? I need a Best Decision!!

Best decision was selling a lovely house that I adored but which was mortgaged. Now in a smaller house but mortgage free with money in the bank.

Gillybob, I'm with you on this one. All my financial decisions have had one thing in common - they've all been disastrous!

Humbertbear. Was always advised that running a private pension alongside a company pension was illegal. Do you mean you had one then the other?

Paying up our mortgage early. We didn’t owe much but managed to pay it off. Really pleased we did now.

Always absorbed the regular mortgage rate interest by pulling in our belts rather than extending the repayment time. Eventually managed to clear the mortgage. Such a relief! I remember my husband and I making a point of going together to AN to pay the final instalment it was such a relief/achievement for us. Guess what? They needed £5 for the 'final certificate'. We simply didn't have that so had to go back next payday. Embarrassing (but only a little).

Apologies as well for going off on a bit of a tangent. My sister was asked if she would be a guarantor for her daughters husband to get a loan with Amigo. She stupidly said yes although she lives in a council house, retired, lives on her own and only has her pension. Her daughter died in November last year with cancer age 30 so her husband had to give up his job to look after the 3 children. He has now. managed to get back to work for 3 days but it doesn't cover the payments for the loan. My sister is sick with worry as the loan company is now coming after her.

Leaving my Local Authority job after 29 years was mine. I was 46. It was a final salary scheme and I took a risk by taking a job in a private school (admin., not teaching). I froze my LA pension and joined the school’s pension scheme. It wasn’t final salary but the school paid 9% of my salary into my pension, which I matched. I took my LA pension and lump sum at 60 but worked another 2 years at the school.

I was obviously taxed on the whole of my pension but by taking advantage of the school’s salary sacrifice I was able to put my pension money into my pension pot. This, in turn, gave me another lump sum at 62, which I used for a loft conversion to our bungalow.

The Government stopped this re-cycling of pension money just before I retired, but I still managed to build up another substantial pot in 2 years. That was as a result of the excellent advice given by the school’s financial adviser, whom I saw privately. I am now drawing down from this pot until I receive my state pension in 2021.

Best financial decision?
To use savings up to not work and thus buy time with a sick relative.

Best decision I ever made was to get divorced and get a council house, which I bought. Then married again many years later and sold the house. We were then able to pay of the mortgage.

Marrying money....no, seriously, spending well below (but living comfortably) my personal allowance when married, I bought and sold AIM listed stocks and shares with the remainder, learning as I went. A few mistakes but nothing drastic.
After putting aside my initial investment I reinvested the rest and so on and built up quite a nest egg which I still carry on doing today.
My OH works in the upper tier of banking and is quietly impressed by my 'fun' as he calls it.
It's not something I have to rely on for an income but it makes me happy to see it grow from an acorn into an oak tree.
Other than that, I've never worried or had to worry about money...luckily, so there was no scrabbling to make sure my retirement would be comfortable.

Taking out a repayment mortgage instead of an endowment mortgage, in the 1990s. Interest rates were high so endowments looked like a good bet, and had been previously as people not only got their mortgages paid off but usually had a lump sum over too. But my husband was against them and had done all the maths. He would also quizz each financial advisor: "how much money do you make if you sell us an endowment mortgage?" The answer was, basically, 10x the commission of a repayment! And as soon as interest rates started to fall, his scepticism was vindicated. It was lovely to see our repayment mortgage decreasing every year whilst our income went up, and we were able to afford to pay extra, and so paid it off early. Some friends of ours are still paying off their mortgage in their 60's (as the endowment didn't make enough money to clear it).

The best financial decision we've made is to seek the services of a well trusted and recommended Financial Adviser who has overhauled various pension pots and investments and given us valuable information in terms of what to put where and, most importantly, why. His admin is second to none and we understand where we're at, what it means in terms of retirement plans and how we can flex to suit. It's been very impressive so far, long may it continue.

gillybob - words fail me! How much more can you both cope with!

Apologies for going off on a bit of a tangent here but Unbelievable as it sounds our LA have just sent me the terms of their new lease agreement for the small factory unit we rent from them . We have been in the unit for over 20 years and probably could have bought it 5 times over but have never been in the position to get a deposit together . Anyway they only want to put the rent up 20% ! I can’t believe it . I really can’t . With so many economic uncertainties, the plight of NE industry , the automotive industries etc. Up here They see business as a cash cow to keep their own executives in the manner to which they are very accustomed. I have never felt so defeated as I do right now .
Sorry rant over ...... for now .

I think the relief of owning your house outright gives is indescribable.

I can remember when DH was facing redundancy in a industry, where he was one of thousands in that position. I looked in our local paper and realised that if things got really bad and we had to sell our then home, we would have enough equity left after paying back the mortgage to buy a small 3 bedroomed house in a local town.

We knew that whatever happened the family would have a roof over its head. The reduction in our stress levels when we realised this was immense.

Ditto gillybob. X

We lived in a tied house so let our home out. Not always problem free but was the seed for our financial status. It helped when, like Gillybob, the financial crisis hit and all my income from my business had to pay the business mortgage. Thank goodness my DH had a proper job. I think the interest rate was about 18.5%. Horrendous.
Then I sold the business and invested the money, now I work from home and hope to continue for a couple more years (because I enjoy it and it’s flexible) so haven’t needed to access my small private pension yet although I did take my state pension last year.

I remember when we chose to pay off our mortgage when I was 40, by means of massive downsize (OH had had to leave work because of ill health) our accountant was dead against it because of losing tax relief - but we were both clear that we just wanted the roof over our heads to be secure so we could bring up family in some certainty.

Probably the best decision we made was to use the lump sum gratuity that DH got when he finished his Army service to pay off most of our mortgage. It made a considerable difference to the amount of money we had to live on as, though his civilian job carried a reasonable salary, it was never going to match his service pay. Within a few years, we had paid off the rest, and being mortgage free was a very good feeling. When my SiL had a considerable windfall a couple of years ago, they made the decision to do the same thing and the money they saved in mortgage payments softened the blow when DD lost her job and they were down to one salary for a while.