Welcome to this week’s Personal Finance Blog Love edition – Friday’s Fab Links! How has your week gone so far? This week, the hubby and I received news that our mortgage (on our rented property) is increasingly soon due to rising interest rates. The mortgage is going up by over £40 per month and quite frankly, this news is not all that appreciated!
We have made enquiries as to whether we can switch mortgages with our lender and it looks like we can but there are some hefty admin fees for arranging a better deal as well as tie in periods.
I wouldn’t usually mind about a short tie in period since this rental property might serve as part of our retirement fund in the future but we have been having some major problems in renting the property and are actually considering selling the house. If we’re tied in we won’t be able to do that without paying a huge fee.
Some time ago I published a post about our Noisy Neighbour Nightmare, where we were concerned about the noisy neighbours who lived next door to our rental property. Well, to cut a long story short, we found some tenants (great) and the offending neighbours have been keeping the noise levels down most of the time (also great). But alas, some new neighbours have moved in on the other side and things are now not going so well.
According to my tenants, there have been several armed police outside on a few occasions because this new neighbour has been causing trouble whilst carrying a weapon. This person has also been physically abusing his partner in their house so that my tenants can hear what’s going on. My tenants have called the police and spoken to next door’s landlord (as have I on many previous occasions) and going from past experience, I’m not sure the appropriate action will be taken to deal with the problem.
And so my tenants are unhappy and have said that they may leave. If they leave, the hubby and I will have to consider selling the house because it’s been nothing but a burden the last year or so with problem neighbours. The area just isn’t what it used to be.
With this in mind, I think we’re going to have to suck up the extra cost on the mortgage for now. I just don’t think it would be wise to tie ourselves into anything.
Aside from that piece of news, the rest of the week has gone well. My daughter and I are surviving the first few days of the Summer holidays and I haven’t quite ran out of things to do with her just yet!
Here are my recommended blog reads from this week:
Earlier this week, I wrote a post about what it’s like living day to day in a Debt Management Plan (DMP) which is based on our own experience of a DMP. So when Sara from Debt Camel recently published a post called Life in a DMP – what is it really like? it caught my attention. Sara has been able to publish the results of a survey undertaken by Payplan (one of the UK’s leading Debt Management Companies) which aimed to consult with people in a DMP to see how their lives had changed and whether their perspective on money had altered. The findings are very interesting so if you’re considering a DMP, you should definitely read this.
The Frugal Farmer hosted a great guest post from Brian at Luke1428 called A Singular Focus of Paying off Debt Leads to Peace. In his post, Brian describes the distractions many of us face when we really should be doing more to clear our debt as well as the emotional benefits that becoming debt free brings.
Cherie from The Queen of Free recently posted 7 Ways You Might Be Wasting Money. Cherie explains how overlooking the fine print on bills may lead to money being frittered away as well not paying enough attention to the consequences of home items like leaky faucets and toilets!
Michelle from The Shop My Closet Project wrote a post called Why $500-$1000 Should Be Your Individual Debt Repayment Minimum. Michelle writes about why attacking your debt with a high repayment leads to better motivation and results. She also has some tips for making extra money too.
Thank you to the following for mentioning Disease Called Debt in their recent posts!
- Frugal Friday Favorites 2 – Lasting on Little
- Simple Sunday 15 – The Joy of Simple
- Life, Blog, Finance – The Write Budget
In case you missed any posts on my site this week, here they are:
- The Lemonade Stand Book Review and iPad Mini Giveaway (there’s still time to enter!)
- Day to Day Living With a Debt Management Plan
I hope you enjoy the above reads and if you haven’t already, *shameless plug* please like my Facebook Page!
*Original image courtesy of Flickr and modified by Disease Called Debt
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16 Comments
I’m going to check out 7 Ways You May Be Wasting Your Money! I’ve never read Queen of Free before.
Kalen @ MoneyMiniBlog recently posted…24 Things That Are More Likely to Happen Than Winning the Lottery
Hope you enjoy the post Kalen! Queen of Free is a new site I found this week! 🙂
Oh no! Your rental house sounds like a nightmare situation. I hope you guys get things figured out. If the area is truly going downhill like that, maybe selling the property would be in your best interest.
Kayla @ Shoeaholicnomore recently posted…Budget Check 7/25/2014
Thank you Kayla! Yeah, I’m beginning to think that too, it’s just a shame because the house isn’t worth what it was due to the property market decreasing. But sometimes, it’s best to cut our losses to get a more peaceful life… we shall see what happens!
It’s never nice to find out that a monthly expense is going up, what a bummer. Thank you for sharing a link to my site!
Lauren recently posted…How a Smartphone can Make You a Savvy Consumer
You’re welcome Lauren! Have a lovely weekend!
I’m so sorry your rental place has been plagued with horrible neighbors. I don’t understand where common decency has gone. About a month ago our downstairs neighbors had some sort of party until 11pm on a weeknight. Nevermind the fact our own landlords at our old basement apartment were always super loud, stomping everywhere. It’s a little ridiculous! Maybe this new neighbor will get kicked out (or arrested) with one too many police calls?
E.M. recently posted…Being Grateful: Thirty-Sixth Edition
Thanks E.M. for your kind words, I really hope he’ll get kicked out very soon so that my tenants won’t leave! Sorry to hear about your neighbours too – some people just don’t care do they! A late party mid week is out of order, especially when most people have work the next day.
I’m so sorry to hear about the neighbors next to your rental property. It’s so frustrating because you feel powerless. We have a yucky neighbor two doors down who runs an illegal tattoo parlor out of his camper in the back of his house. You have to understand the neighborhood is super nice, so it’s very, very obvious when his clients (gang members) stop by for a bit of ink. Sigh.
Thank you very much for including my post this week. I’m really trying to focus on amping up my debt repayments. I’m over owing money to other people. It’s such a waste.
Michelle recently posted…Why $500-$1,000 Should Be Your Individual Debt Repayment Minimum
Hi Michelle you’re welcome! Sorry to hear about your neighbour too, that sounds awful. You can’t choose your neighbours and it’s a shame when one person ruins a nice place for everyone else because of the ‘activities’ they’re involved with! Hope that guy moves on soon. 🙁
Your rental situation sounds like a nightmare! I hope you get that sorted, either way.
Nicola recently posted…I’ve Received An Award!
Thank you Nicola! I hope so too… 🙂
Sorry to hear about the property troubles. Lots of people like to focus on the positives of owning, but I think the negatives need to be brought up more. Owning property is no joke! Hope everything works itself out!
Lisa E. @ Lisa vs. the Loans recently posted…Summer So Far & Liebster Part 2
Thanks Lisa! It is certainly a headache at the moment. Unless you can buy a house that is detached and a good distance away from anyone else, you just can’t guarantee what the neighbours will be like… 🙁
So sorry to hear about the mortgage and the tenants neighbors. 🙁 I live in a very crowded area and one bad neighbor can make life complete hell. when the neighbor next door rented out his place on air bnb, there was a family that lived there for a month and the kids were awful and the man and woman would argue constantly. If they were there permanently, I tell my landlord I was leaving. Hope everything turns out OK!
Tonya@Budget and the Beach recently posted…People Who Love What They Do
Thanks Tonya! I checked in with my tenants yesterday and nothing really awful has been happening in the last week. Maybe the police have taken action! Fingers crossed that is the case. I’m glad you didn’t have to put up with your pesky neighbours for too long!