After looking at our National Hero Eddie Hobbs on the TV in shows like Show me the money and Rip-off Republic, I decided to take a bit of his advice. My SSIA matured a couple of months back and left me with an extra €250 a month that I had been saving for the last 5 years. I decided to ignore all the banks advice about all the great loans and extra debt that I could get myself into with my €250. I instead increased my repayments on my mortgage by €250 per month.
I had expected that this would reduce the term of my loan by a couple of years. I was really shocked when I got a letter from the bank on Friday informing me that I had just knocked 8 years off my mortgage!!! This is also saving me a small fortune on interest.
Thank you Eddie Hobbs, you now have a fan for life 🙂
#1 by Paul Browne - Technology in Plain English on September 19, 2006 - 8:40 am
Just so you can calculate exactly how much you are saving , check out Karl’s mortgage calculator at: http://www.jeacle.ie/mortgage/
Warning! twiddling the knobs can be very addictive.
#2 by John McClean on September 28, 2006 - 8:17 am
It’s definetely worth keeping the habit up (maybe even readjust the monthly investment upwards to correct for erosion due 5 years of inflation!). But with interest rates so low, you could get a much better rate of return with other investments (equity funds, forestry scheme, Eddie Hobbs even suggests that we could be at the begining of commodities bull run – I’m currently very nearly finished Loot!).
#3 by Stephen Downey on September 28, 2006 - 9:42 am
That’s very true about the inflation eating away at everyones SSIA
I have been looking into other forms of investing recently. I was on a course last week about investing in value stocks run by Rob McManus. It was very interesting and really quenched any fears I might have in investing in equities. There is another one coming up in October and I would really recommend it.