Latest news with #MaryCameron
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Mortgage broker reveals $112,000 home loan mistake: ‘Costing you a bomb'
A mortgage broker has revealed how Aussies could shave thousands off their home loan and pay it off quicker by making one simple change to their repayments. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) cut the cash rate this week, providing welcome relief to millions of borrowers, but there are other ways to save aside from getting a lower interest rate. Most banks and lenders will set monthly home loan repayments as a default and Cameron Capital founder Mary Cameron said it could be 'costing you a bomb'. She said just switching the frequency of your repayments to fortnightly or weekly can make a surprisingly big difference to your loan. 'Having a smart structure and paying it off with these earlier and more frequent payments [means] that you can save over $100,000 over the life term and four years of your loan,' Cameron told Yahoo Finance. RELATED RBA cuts interest rates delivering cash boost for millions of mortgage holders Hidden $3,000 per year cost of cashless revolt as record number of banknotes hoarded ATO $2,548 tax refund cash boost for 2.6 million Aussies Cameron gave the example of a borrower with a $550,000 home loan with an interest rate of 5.8 per cent over 30 years. They would have monthly repayments of $3,208, but if they switched to fortnightly repayments of $1,604 they could take four years off their loan and save $109,000 in interest. If they switched to weekly repayments of $802, they could save four years on their loan and save $112,000 in interest. Cameron said to consider how often you get paid. If you are paid weekly or fortnightly, it might make sense to match your repayments to your pay can paying fortnightly or weekly save me money? The reason for the difference is because you are actually making more repayments during the year compared to monthly. That's because by paying half the monthly amount every two weeks, you'd make the equivalent of an extra month's repayment each year, as there are 26 fortnights in a year, which works out to 13 monthly repayments annually. There are similar benefits for weekly repayments too. 'It's a sneaky little way of actually slipping in an extra repayment for the year. So by paying it off weekly, you're actually without realising it getting a whole month repayment in that annual year,' Cameron explained. Interest is also calculated daily, so the more frequently your debt is being repaid, the lower your interest costs will be. Cameron said most banks will allow you to switch to fortnightly or weekly repayments. You can ask your mortgage broker for help with this or call up the bank directly and make sure it suits your personal circumstances. How else could I save on my home loan? If you're looking for more ways to pay off your loan quicker, Cameron said keeping your repayments the same after the RBA's recent cash rate cuts could be worth considering. Vanguard calculated that borrowers with a $600,000 mortgage and 25 years remaining on an interest rate of 5.8 per cent could pay off their loan more than a year earlier and save $29,705 in interest over the life of their loan just by keeping repayments the same after Tuesday's rate cut. 'You're smashing down the loan a lot sooner, just keeping the repayments the same without reducing your repayments to the new, smaller amount,' Cameron said. CBA, NAB and ANZ revealed millions of borrowers have already been doing this, with just one in 10 opting to lower their repayments following the May rate cut. Westpac is the only Big Four bank that automatically drops repayments for customers paying the minimum amount. Popping any lump sum bonus money you receive, like any tax refund, is another way to bring down your home loan, Cameron said. 'Even if it's once a year and they get $5,000 from their tax return, throw that in your mortgage account. Don't keep it in a savings account because it's doing nothing for you,' she said. You could also consider rounding up your repayments. 'If your repayment is something like $2,378 per month, just round it up to $2,500 a month,' Cameron said. 'You'd be surprised with just that $130 extra a week, throwing that in other than just the standard amount that you're required to make, how that little extra adds up massively over time.' Aussies have also been switching to different banks, with recent ABS data revealing nearly 100,00 mortgages switched to a different lender in the June quarter. That works out to more than 1,000 mortgages refinanced a day.
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Mary Cameron, mother of PM David who gave decades of public service and was a model of discretion
Mary Cameron, who has died aged 90, was a voluntary Justice of the Peace for nearly 40 years and mother of the former prime minister, David (now Lord) Cameron. A modest figure, she was unintentionally propelled into the limelight in 2016, when she signed a petition against Conservative plans to close 44 children's centres in Oxfordshire, at one of which she volunteered. The centre shut after a spending review instituted by her younger son – David Cameron, the then-prime minister. The row escalated at Prime Minister's Questions, when the Labour MP Angela Eagle bellowed: 'Ask your mother!', in reference to government cuts. Turning to the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, David Cameron responded: 'Ask my mother? I think I know what my mother would say. I think she'd look across the Dispatch Box and she'd say, 'Put on a proper suit, do up your tie and sing the national anthem.' ' Corbyn had been attacked for his tatty clothes and for failing to sing God Save the Queen at a Battle of Britain memorial service. Shortly afterwards, Cameron raced out of the chamber to ring his mother, to warn her that there might be a minor blast of press attention. In 2017, Mary Cameron won the Oldie's Mother Knows Best award for the valiant campaign against her own son. Receiving the award, she confessed to being astonished to see that Jeremy Corbyn had taken her advice: 'I should share this with the Leader of the Opposition – ever since that Prime Minister's Questions, he has smartened himself up and looks reasonably respectable. I only wish my family were so obedient and I'd like to say good luck to him.' Mary Cameron was a dignified presence during her son's six years in Downing Street. It was a difficult time – her beloved husband, Ian Cameron, died in 2010, only four months after their son became prime minister. Whenever she was grilled by the press, she remained a model of discretion. The Daily Mail sketchwriter Quentin Letts asked Mary Cameron for a comment on the day her son became Tory leader in 2005. 'She fixed me with the disdainful look a tigress might cast at a dung beetle,' recalled Letts. After Mary Cameron won the Oldie award, David Cameron said: 'Mum has a great sense of public service and doing the right thing. She never lectured us about these things – that was not her style. But as children we watched her serve as a magistrate, year after year, weighing up difficult decisions with judgment and compassion. 'She just had – and has – a simple and straightforward sense of what is good and right and fair.' Mary Cameron had encouraged her son's interest in politics as a teenager. 'Mum said you must talk to Cousin Ferdy,' David Cameron recalled. (Cousin Ferdy is Ferdinand Mount, head of Margaret Thatcher's policy unit from 1982 to 1983.) Mary Cameron rang Mount up, asking if the 16-year-old David could interview him for the school magazine. Mount said he was busy, and that he was restricted by the Official Secrets Act, but might be in touch. Moments later, Cameron rang up his office to book an appointment. He turned up at Downing Street, in Mount's words, 'looking pink and perky, not yet the size he grew to, but abounding in self-confidence'. Mary Fleur Mount was born on October 22 1934 in Wasing, Berkshire, the second of three daughters of Lieutenant-Colonel Sir William Malcolm Mount, 2nd Bt, and Elizabeth Nance, née Llewellyn. She grew up with her sisters, Cylla and Clare, at Wasing Place, once identified as the original of Rosings in Pride and Prejudice. The family nanny, Gwen Hoare, looked after the Mount girls and, later, Mary Cameron's children. The Mounts started in business as Mount & Page, a stationery firm on Tower Hill, London, making maps for Samuel Pepys's Admiralty. The company diversified into manufacturing vitriol, used for ink and dye. With the proceeds, John Mount bought the Berkshire estate and built Wasing Place in 1770. The first baronet, Sir William Mount, was Conservative MP for South Berkshire between 1900 and 1906 and between 1910 and 1922. Two previous Mounts had been Conservative MPs in the 19th century, but none attained the high office of David Cameron. Mary Mount was educated at St Andrew's, Pangbourne, before working for Anthony Blunt at the Courtauld Institute. When he was unmasked as a Soviet spy in 1979, she was so disturbed that she resorted to sleeping pills. 'We teased Dad about Reds in his bed, not just underneath,' said David Cameron. In 1962, she married Ian Cameron, a stockbroker, later moving to the Old Rectory at Peasemore in Berkshire. Ian Cameron had been born with unformed legs, but this did not affect his brio for life. David Cameron said: 'His answer was to play cricket, tennis… riding. He was a great dancer, a great bon viveur. 'Even when he was a double amputee, he'd get himself on a train at Didcot and go to work. He never retired. He was a dynamo.' Mary Cameron threw herself into charity work and local life at Peasemore Church. She sat as a voluntary magistrate for nearly 40 years. 'I used to come home with stories to warn the children about the perils of doing the wrong things,' she recalled. She adjudicated in the case of the Newbury bypass protesters, including the eco pin-up boy, Swampy. She sat, too, in civil disorder cases involving women at the nearby Greenham Common peace camp. When her younger sister, Clare Currie, was involved in an anti-cruise missile protest, Mary Cameron recused herself. She was vice-chairman of the Newbury Spring Festival, a local music and arts festival. She enjoyed watching racing – on the flat and jumps – but was not that keen on horses themselves. Still, she selflessly drove her elder children, Alex and Tania, to riding events across the county. Tania recalled: 'She could be seen traipsing across muddy fields or along busy roads in pursuit of an errant pony that had removed its rider.' An enthusiastic gardener, she was still potting up tulips and planting roses in her mid-eighties. She enjoyed accompanying David Cameron to watch Wimbledon. David Cameron describes his mother as 'a classic 'giver back' and very rock-like to her friends – through their own trials and tribulations'. She was selfless in her dedication to her husband in his final years. She developed Alzheimer's, some time after David Cameron launched his 2012 'National Dementia Challenge', with its plan to double research spending. After leaving office he became President of Alzheimer's Research UK, revealing that his mother had the condition. Mary Cameron's elder son, Alexander Cameron KC, died in 2023. Her three other children, Tania, David and Clare, survive her. Mary Cameron, born October 22 1934, died February 2 2025
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Mary Cameron, mother of PM David who gave decades of public service and was a model of discretion
Mary Cameron, who has died aged 90, was a voluntary Justice of the Peace for nearly 40 years and mother of the former prime minister, David (now Lord) Cameron. A modest figure, she was unintentionally propelled into the limelight in 2016, when she signed a petition against Conservative plans to close 44 children's centres in Oxfordshire, at one of which she volunteered. The centre shut after a spending review instituted by her younger son – David Cameron, the then-prime minister. The row escalated at Prime Minister's Questions, when the Labour MP Angela Eagle bellowed: 'Ask your mother!', in reference to government cuts. Turning to the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, David Cameron responded: 'Ask my mother? I think I know what my mother would say. I think she'd look across the Dispatch Box and she'd say, 'Put on a proper suit, do up your tie and sing the national anthem.' ' Corbyn had been attacked for his tatty clothes and for failing to sing God Save the Queen at a Battle of Britain memorial service. Shortly afterwards, Cameron raced out of the chamber to ring his mother, to warn her that there might be a minor blast of press attention. In 2017, Mary Cameron won the Oldie's Mother Knows Best award for the valiant campaign against her own son. Receiving the award, she confessed to being astonished to see that Jeremy Corbyn had taken her advice: 'I should share this with the Leader of the Opposition – ever since that Prime Minister's Questions, he has smartened himself up and looks reasonably respectable. I only wish my family were so obedient and I'd like to say good luck to him.' Mary Cameron was a dignified presence during her son's six years in Downing Street. It was a difficult time – her beloved husband, Ian Cameron, died in 2010, only four months after their son became prime minister. Whenever she was grilled by the press, she remained a model of discretion. The Daily Mail sketchwriter Quentin Letts asked Mary Cameron for a comment on the day her son became Tory leader in 2005. 'She fixed me with the disdainful look a tigress might cast at a dung beetle,' recalled Letts. After Mary Cameron won the Oldie award, David Cameron said: 'Mum has a great sense of public service and doing the right thing. She never lectured us about these things – that was not her style. But as children we watched her serve as a magistrate, year after year, weighing up difficult decisions with judgment and compassion. 'She just had – and has – a simple and straightforward sense of what is good and right and fair.' Mary Cameron had encouraged her son's interest in politics as a teenager. 'Mum said you must talk to Cousin Ferdy,' David Cameron recalled. (Cousin Ferdy is Ferdinand Mount, head of Margaret Thatcher's policy unit from 1982 to 1983.) Mary Cameron rang Mount up, asking if the 16-year-old David could interview him for the school magazine. Mount said he was busy, and that he was restricted by the Official Secrets Act, but might be in touch. Moments later, Cameron rang up his office to book an appointment. He turned up at Downing Street, in Mount's words, 'looking pink and perky, not yet the size he grew to, but abounding in self-confidence'. Mary Fleur Mount was born on October 22 1934 in Wasing, Berkshire, the second of three daughters of Lieutenant-Colonel Sir William Malcolm Mount, 2nd Bt, and Elizabeth Nance, née Llewellyn. She grew up with her sisters, Cylla and Clare, at Wasing Place, once identified as the original of Rosings in Pride and Prejudice. The family nanny, Gwen Hoare, looked after the Mount girls and, later, Mary Cameron's children. The Mounts started in business as Mount & Page, a stationery firm on Tower Hill, London, making maps for Samuel Pepys's Admiralty. The company diversified into manufacturing vitriol, used for ink and dye. With the proceeds, John Mount bought the Berkshire estate and built Wasing Place in 1770. The first baronet, Sir William Mount, was Conservative MP for South Berkshire between 1900 and 1906 and between 1910 and 1922. Two previous Mounts had been Conservative MPs in the 19th century, but none attained the high office of David Cameron. Mary Mount was educated at St Andrew's, Pangbourne, before working for Anthony Blunt at the Courtauld Institute. When he was unmasked as a Soviet spy in 1979, she was so disturbed that she resorted to sleeping pills. 'We teased Dad about Reds in his bed, not just underneath,' said David Cameron. In 1962, she married Ian Cameron, a stockbroker, later moving to the Old Rectory at Peasemore in Berkshire. Ian Cameron had been born with unformed legs, but this did not affect his brio for life. David Cameron said: 'His answer was to play cricket, tennis… riding. He was a great dancer, a great bon viveur. 'Even when he was a double amputee, he'd get himself on a train at Didcot and go to work. He never retired. He was a dynamo.' Mary Cameron threw herself into charity work and local life at Peasemore Church. She sat as a voluntary magistrate for nearly 40 years. 'I used to come home with stories to warn the children about the perils of doing the wrong things,' she recalled. She adjudicated in the case of the Newbury bypass protesters, including the eco pin-up boy, Swampy. She sat, too, in civil disorder cases involving women at the nearby Greenham Common peace camp. When her younger sister, Clare Currie, was involved in an anti-cruise missile protest, Mary Cameron recused herself. She was vice-chairman of the Newbury Spring Festival, a local music and arts festival. She enjoyed watching racing – on the flat and jumps – but was not that keen on horses themselves. Still, she selflessly drove her elder children, Alex and Tania, to riding events across the county. Tania recalled: 'She could be seen traipsing across muddy fields or along busy roads in pursuit of an errant pony that had removed its rider.' An enthusiastic gardener, she was still potting up tulips and planting roses in her mid-eighties. She enjoyed accompanying David Cameron to watch Wimbledon. David Cameron describes his mother as 'a classic 'giver back' and very rock-like to her friends – through their own trials and tribulations'. She was selfless in her dedication to her husband in his final years. She developed Alzheimer's, some time after David Cameron launched his 2012 'National Dementia Challenge', with its plan to double research spending. After leaving office he became President of Alzheimer's Research UK, revealing that his mother had the condition. Mary Cameron's elder son, Alexander Cameron KC, died in 2023. Her three other children, Tania, David and Clare, survive her. Mary Cameron, born October 22 1934, died February 2 2025 Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
