Are you coming to the end of your fixed rate mortgage product?
Are you worried about what to do next?
We know it’s a tough market right now and nothing financial seems to be easy. As with any big expense, the most important thing to take into consideration is affordability. Getting your finances in order and getting appropriate mortgage advice so that you have a true picture of what you can afford is key.
Help is at hand
Here is a checklist to help your get your finances in order.
1. Know what you earn – What is your total monthly income?
2. Know what you spend- What are you total monthly regular outgoings?
It’s critical to be honest with yourself about the amount of money you spend each month. Apart from the obvious monthly bills and grocery shopping, include everything! Your coffee shop spend, pubs, hairdressers, eating out, snacks, meals, even newspapers, if that’s your thing. And don’t forget your pets.
3. What are your annual expenses?
These are the insurances, the holidays, the rainy day fund for that boiler that needs replacing or car repairs. How do you pay these? Do you keep money aside each month to cover them or are they ‘hitting’ your monthly income?
4. Are you able to increase what’s ‘in the pot’?
If push came to shove, what could you cut out and do without? Or at the very least reduce? Things like the daily coffee at Costa, the expensive online streaming subscription(s) – do you need them all? the visits to the pub?
With all the small number crunching done, you will have an idea of what’s left over to pay your mortgage. Knowing the maximum amount that you can afford to spend on monthly mortgage payments can help you to come to your own conclusions about the next steps.
Mortgage advice that covers the whole market
At HSC Financial Advisers our focus is you and getting you the right mortgage to suit your ongoing and future needs. As a totally independent company, we view the whole market. We can advise you of the most competitive fixed rate products available, along with the monthly mortgage payments that would apply to your circumstances.
We want you to thrive. Finding solutions is what we do. If the monthly costs of a mortgage were to be near the top end of the scale of what you can afford, you need certainty that you can afford the mortgage for the duration of the fixed term. Alternatively, if the monthly costs of these fixed rate products are only just unaffordable to you, we could, subject to your age, look at extending the term of your mortgage which could reduce the monthly cost to make it a viable option for you.
There are many mortgage options out there and we work to find the best one for you! So if you are coming to the end of your fixed rate mortgage product, get in touch.