Age:
40
Spouse’s/Partner's age:
39
Annual gross income from employment or profession:
€80,000
Annual gross income spouse:
€70,000
Type of employment:
Both in private sector
Expenditure pattern:
Not great savers, not great spenders
Rough estimate of value of home
€350k
Mortgage on home
€280k remaining - we've been paying this mortgage for ~8 years now. Payment of ~€1250 per month.
Mortgage provider:
Danske bank
Type of mortgage: Tracker, interest only, fixed rate
Tracker
Interest rate
ECB + 0.5%
Other borrowings – car loans/personal loans etc
None
Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month?
Yes
Savings and investments:
Savings: €250k...spread across various banks, state savings etc
Stock: €80k (after tax, if cashed in)
Do you have a pension scheme?
Yes, we max out at ~20% per month
Do you own any investment or other property?
Yes….and this is where it gets complicated.
My widowed Father (aged 80) lives in a house that I bought him. He lives there rent-free, and has been for the past 8 years
Mortgage : €240k with Ulster Bank (Tracker of ECB + 0.9%)
Paying interest-only of €240 per month
Ages of children:
Three children < 10 years, all in school
Life insurance:
Yes.
What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you?
We were due to come off the interest-only tracker with Ulster bank three years ago (5 years was agreed interest-only period in contract) but they have not yet come looking for me and I haven’t been in touch with them. But we need some resolution to this.
My question: we need to start paying capital off the Ulster Bank mortgage but we can’t easily pay capital + interest on two houses from monthly wages.
There are two options that we are seriously considering, and can’t make up our minds which path to go down:
1) We have enough cash/stock to pay off the mortgage of our primary residence. If I do that, I could then start paying off the capital on my Father’s house each montha and resolve the Ulster Bank issue. Benefit of this is that we get to own our house but it would wipe out a significant amount of our cash buffer, leaving €50k. And I would be doing Danske Bank a nice favour in off-loading such a decent tracker.
2) Just to drip-feed our savings into the Ulster Bank Mortgage. Benefit of this is that we keep our cash buffer in case of any shocks (e.g. redundancy, kids’ schooling, illness). But is the buffer that we have too large?
Even though my Father’s house is on a higher tracker rate, I would prefer to pay off my primary residence first rather than that house. To be blunt, my father's not going to live forever and my plan was always to just sell that house when he passed away as it's not somewhere I would want to live. I always viewed the interest-only path as a low cost (cash-flow efficient) approach of providing for him.
Thank you in advance.
40
Spouse’s/Partner's age:
39
Annual gross income from employment or profession:
€80,000
Annual gross income spouse:
€70,000
Type of employment:
Both in private sector
Expenditure pattern:
Not great savers, not great spenders
Rough estimate of value of home
€350k
Mortgage on home
€280k remaining - we've been paying this mortgage for ~8 years now. Payment of ~€1250 per month.
Mortgage provider:
Danske bank
Type of mortgage: Tracker, interest only, fixed rate
Tracker
Interest rate
ECB + 0.5%
Other borrowings – car loans/personal loans etc
None
Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month?
Yes
Savings and investments:
Savings: €250k...spread across various banks, state savings etc
Stock: €80k (after tax, if cashed in)
Do you have a pension scheme?
Yes, we max out at ~20% per month
Do you own any investment or other property?
Yes….and this is where it gets complicated.
My widowed Father (aged 80) lives in a house that I bought him. He lives there rent-free, and has been for the past 8 years
Mortgage : €240k with Ulster Bank (Tracker of ECB + 0.9%)
Paying interest-only of €240 per month
Ages of children:
Three children < 10 years, all in school
Life insurance:
Yes.
What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you?
We were due to come off the interest-only tracker with Ulster bank three years ago (5 years was agreed interest-only period in contract) but they have not yet come looking for me and I haven’t been in touch with them. But we need some resolution to this.
My question: we need to start paying capital off the Ulster Bank mortgage but we can’t easily pay capital + interest on two houses from monthly wages.
There are two options that we are seriously considering, and can’t make up our minds which path to go down:
1) We have enough cash/stock to pay off the mortgage of our primary residence. If I do that, I could then start paying off the capital on my Father’s house each montha and resolve the Ulster Bank issue. Benefit of this is that we get to own our house but it would wipe out a significant amount of our cash buffer, leaving €50k. And I would be doing Danske Bank a nice favour in off-loading such a decent tracker.
2) Just to drip-feed our savings into the Ulster Bank Mortgage. Benefit of this is that we keep our cash buffer in case of any shocks (e.g. redundancy, kids’ schooling, illness). But is the buffer that we have too large?
Even though my Father’s house is on a higher tracker rate, I would prefer to pay off my primary residence first rather than that house. To be blunt, my father's not going to live forever and my plan was always to just sell that house when he passed away as it's not somewhere I would want to live. I always viewed the interest-only path as a low cost (cash-flow efficient) approach of providing for him.
Thank you in advance.
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