Age: 37
Spouse’s/Partner's age: 37
Annual gross income from employment or profession: €38000
Annual gross income of spouse: €25000
Type of employment: e.g. Civil Servant, self-employed: Civil Servant
In general are you spending more than you earn or are you saving? Just about breaking even, €20 p/w into CU, but generally use this as an emergency fund. Lately seem to be calling for a little withdrawal more frequently.
Rough estimate of value of home: €240000
Amount outstanding on your mortgage: Split between 2 loans
Loan 1 Original Amt 130000 for 20yrs, just completed 2 years c125000 outstanding (I think)
Loan 2 Original Amt 44000 for 5yrs, just completed 2 years c€28000 outstanding
What interest rate are you paying? Tracker Mortgage ECB+1.5, Think it's currently around 6%
Other borrowings – car loans/personal loans etc Husband has CU loan €40p/w c€2000 outstanding
0% finance deal for furniture €25 p/m final payment of €300 in March 09
Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month? NO!!!
If not, what is the balance on your credit card? €5000 on both my CC and Hubbies CC Int 10.5% on mine, c14% on his
Savings and investments: I have around €800 in CU at the moment
Do you have a pension scheme? Yes as in Civil Service, no worries there. Hubby has no pension, was in CWPS but lost job last year and new job is not in construction
Do you own any investment or other property? No
Ages of children: 3 and 1
Life insurance: Hibernian, €202 per year. Basic policy to cover mortgage.
Additional income 332 pm child benefit and 1100 pyear Early Childcare payment
What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you?
We just seem to be constantly struggling week to week. I've economised everywhere I seem to be able, Our ESB is on equilizer €64 per month for a 4 bed house, washing machine seems to be used constantly and now the dryer more and more because of 2 small kids and constant rain. Our landline is c. 45 per month. I've just switched mobile to prepay as I don't use it v often. Hubby's mobile is used a lot more day to day, he is on Billpay, c 120 per month. Childcare €220 per week, Grocery's (Lidl & Dunnes) c. 120 per week, Diesel 30 per week Sky (basic package) 30p/m. I don't really go out very often, maybe once every 4 or 5 weeks for a few pints with hubby, babysitters cost too much! He generally goes out for a few pints on a Sat night to the local, nothing major. And we get the odd chinese takeaway and bottle of wine for a treat, but I defo would not say we live the high life!!
I've just applied for 0% interest CC's for myself and himself, and I just paid off my overdraft from CU savings. Changing my current accout to a fee free one to get Child benefit and Early childcare payment paid into, getting a visa debit card instead of cc with this account. Think I will opt out of overdraft this time.
I really want to get rid of the 2 CC's as we're paying nearly 100 per month interest... That would fill the oil tank for the winter!
I know its something that should be seriously thought about, but I was just wondering about doing something with the smaller mortgage loan. This was originally a consolidation loan and at the time I didn't want to go long term with it. We got it at the mortgage rate. At the time hubby was earning a lot more money and the 1600 pm repayments were OK, (both loans are c. 800 each). We are still meeting the repayments, I would avoid grocery shopping for the week if I thought I'd miss the mortgage! But this is why the CC have creaped up so high, we had to put the car insurance and tax on the CC last month cos we didn't have the money to pay.
Would it be worth going interest only on this loan for a year and clearing the CC's? What happens at the end, would we need to make 3 years repayments in 2 years or does it start again for a 3 year period?
Any advice would be greatfully accepted...
Spouse’s/Partner's age: 37
Annual gross income from employment or profession: €38000
Annual gross income of spouse: €25000
Type of employment: e.g. Civil Servant, self-employed: Civil Servant
In general are you spending more than you earn or are you saving? Just about breaking even, €20 p/w into CU, but generally use this as an emergency fund. Lately seem to be calling for a little withdrawal more frequently.
Rough estimate of value of home: €240000
Amount outstanding on your mortgage: Split between 2 loans
Loan 1 Original Amt 130000 for 20yrs, just completed 2 years c125000 outstanding (I think)
Loan 2 Original Amt 44000 for 5yrs, just completed 2 years c€28000 outstanding
What interest rate are you paying? Tracker Mortgage ECB+1.5, Think it's currently around 6%
Other borrowings – car loans/personal loans etc Husband has CU loan €40p/w c€2000 outstanding
0% finance deal for furniture €25 p/m final payment of €300 in March 09
Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month? NO!!!
If not, what is the balance on your credit card? €5000 on both my CC and Hubbies CC Int 10.5% on mine, c14% on his
Savings and investments: I have around €800 in CU at the moment
Do you have a pension scheme? Yes as in Civil Service, no worries there. Hubby has no pension, was in CWPS but lost job last year and new job is not in construction
Do you own any investment or other property? No
Ages of children: 3 and 1
Life insurance: Hibernian, €202 per year. Basic policy to cover mortgage.
Additional income 332 pm child benefit and 1100 pyear Early Childcare payment
What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you?
We just seem to be constantly struggling week to week. I've economised everywhere I seem to be able, Our ESB is on equilizer €64 per month for a 4 bed house, washing machine seems to be used constantly and now the dryer more and more because of 2 small kids and constant rain. Our landline is c. 45 per month. I've just switched mobile to prepay as I don't use it v often. Hubby's mobile is used a lot more day to day, he is on Billpay, c 120 per month. Childcare €220 per week, Grocery's (Lidl & Dunnes) c. 120 per week, Diesel 30 per week Sky (basic package) 30p/m. I don't really go out very often, maybe once every 4 or 5 weeks for a few pints with hubby, babysitters cost too much! He generally goes out for a few pints on a Sat night to the local, nothing major. And we get the odd chinese takeaway and bottle of wine for a treat, but I defo would not say we live the high life!!
I've just applied for 0% interest CC's for myself and himself, and I just paid off my overdraft from CU savings. Changing my current accout to a fee free one to get Child benefit and Early childcare payment paid into, getting a visa debit card instead of cc with this account. Think I will opt out of overdraft this time.
I really want to get rid of the 2 CC's as we're paying nearly 100 per month interest... That would fill the oil tank for the winter!
I know its something that should be seriously thought about, but I was just wondering about doing something with the smaller mortgage loan. This was originally a consolidation loan and at the time I didn't want to go long term with it. We got it at the mortgage rate. At the time hubby was earning a lot more money and the 1600 pm repayments were OK, (both loans are c. 800 each). We are still meeting the repayments, I would avoid grocery shopping for the week if I thought I'd miss the mortgage! But this is why the CC have creaped up so high, we had to put the car insurance and tax on the CC last month cos we didn't have the money to pay.
Would it be worth going interest only on this loan for a year and clearing the CC's? What happens at the end, would we need to make 3 years repayments in 2 years or does it start again for a 3 year period?
Any advice would be greatfully accepted...
