FinancialBliss: My mortgage free journey…

TallGirl wrote: »

Well done on your achievement FB keep going it is so worth it. Fingers crossed the rates will still be low for you although as a newly MF person I would prefer them to go up a bit.

Hi TallGirl,
Yes - after a absent period, I'm now back on MSE again and one of the diaries that caught my eye was yours and hitting your mortgage free target. What a good start to 2010. I'll have to pop over and say "hi".

FB.

Aims for 2010.

A little later in January than I originally hoped for, but here goes...

1. Mortgage
2. Interest
3. Energy
4. Statement Of Affairs (SOA) :mad:
5. Extra income
6. Receipts :mad:

Achieved: :D:D:D
Failed: :mad::mad:


1. Mortgage.
Reflecting on 2009, we reduced the mortgage by £11,000.04, beating the 2008 reduction of £10,153.22. So, you may not be surprised that I also want to beat the £11,000.04 reduction of 2009.

Our 2010 starting value of £48,499.96. Minus £11k gives £37,499 - this was going to be my original 2010 mortgage objective. But with diverting savings into the mortgage account, this will create a bigger reduction. We should see some good mortgage goals be achieved in 2010, providing we keep up £500 overpayments:

• [STRIKE]January – will clear 50% of the original mortgage value[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]July – mortgage will be sub £40,000[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]August – mortgage balance less that my gross salary[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]September – mortgage balance less than my first mortgage of £38,000[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]November – mortgage balance less than my MFiT objective of reduction to £35,000[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]December – mortgage balance ending on £33,318[/STRIKE]

To be on track for a 2012 landing, I need to be following the dotted line on the mortgage balance summary graph. In order to do that, I need a year end mortgage value of £33,318.

So in summary – I’ll be happy with a year end value below £37,499, ie an £11k plus reduction , but I’m aiming to be very close to or below £33,318 at year end.

Achieved - year end value of £33,304.75

2. Interest.
This is one aspect of the mortgage I find very enjoyable. Nationwide only show one interest charged value, but taking a note of this once a month enables me to produce monthly and daily interest data. This should also be interesting (sorry ) in 2010:

• [STRIKE]March – Daily interest for March drops below £6.00[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]June – Mortgage interest hits £1,000 ~ week 24, ie 14th – 20th June[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]September – Daily interest for September drops below £5.00[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]December – End the year with the December daily interest of less than £4.50[/STRIKE]

Once again, intend to continue logging this in 2010, as it’s an area where you can see a real improvement from one month to the next.

Opening Balance: 48,499.96
Opening Nationwide completion date: December 2014

Overpayments in Blue.
Interest in Red.
Balance in Green.

Month: Payment (Std / OP) / Interest (day) / Net reduction / Balance / Nationwide completion

January: 1,398.03 (898.03 / 500.00) / 191.83 (6.19) / 1,206.20 / 47,293.76 / Oct 2014
February: 1,429.33 (929.33 / 500.00) / 168.71 (6.03) / 1,260.62 / 46,033.14 / Sep 2014
March: 1,429.33 (929.33 / 500.00) / 181.65 (5.86) / 1,247.68 / 44,785.46 / Sep 2014
April: 1,429.33 (929.33 / 500.00) / 170.88 (5.70) / 1,258.44 / 43,527.01 / Aug 2014
May: 1,429.33 (929.33 / 500.00) / 171.45 (5.53) / 1,257.88 / 42,125.21 / Aug 2014
June: 1,429.33 (929.33 / 500.00) / 160.98 (5.37) / 1,268.35 / 41,000.78 / Jul 2014
July: 1,429.33 (929.33 / 500.00) / 161.17 (5.20) / 1,268.16 / 39,732.62 / Jul 2014
August: 1,429.33 (929.33 / 500.00) / 156.20 (5.04) / 1,273.13 / 38,459.49 / Jun 2014
September: 1,429.33 (929.33 / 500.00) / 145.97 (4.87) / 1,283.36 / 37,176.13 / Jun 2014
October: 1,429.33 (929.33 / 500.00) / 145.62 (4.70) / 1,283.71 / 35,892.42 / May 2014
November: 1,429.33 (929.33 / 500.00) / 135.87 (4.53) / 1,293.46 / 34,598.96 / Apr 2014
December: 1,429.33 (929.33 / 500.00) / 135.12 (4.36) / 1,294.21 / 33,304.75 / Mar 2014


Totals: Payment / Interest / Net reduction.

Minimum: 1,398.03 / 135.87 / 1,206.20
Maximum: 1,429.33 / 191.83 / 1,293.46
Average: 1,426.72 / 162.76 / 1,263.73
Grand Total: 17,120.66 / 1,925.45 / 15,195.21

Balance outstanding: 33,304.75

Achieved - no real doubt that this wasn't going to be achieved.

3. Energy.
Aim to try and keep our energy bills from getting out of hand. In the closing weeks of 2009, I registered with imeasure (http://www.imeasure.org.uk) to log and check our home energy usage. Ending 2009 we had a carbon rating of “C”. On the imeasure site this ranges from A+, then A through to G, with A+ being best and G being worst.

Aim to do two things with the energy usage to monitor / keep in check in 2010:

• Weekly – log electric, gas and water meter readings into imeasure.
• Monthly – log electric and gas readings with Scottish Power

The overall energy aim is to try and improve on our imeasure carbon rating of "C". Doing this should mean that we have reduced our energy footprint, ie costs.

Achieved. This has and continues to be a regular occurence, both with imeasure and the electric and gas.

4. Statement Of Affairs (SOA).
With a lot of effort being put into the MFIT-T2 challenge, other objectives in 2009 got put to one side to an extent - especially embarrassing on our own SOA front.

I’ve been banging on about this for a while, but I’m now intending review / refine and make our own SOA public, so that others can potentially suggest areas where we could cut down our expenditure.

:mad: Failed yet again.

5. Extra income.
Despite appearing to be doing well, we’re still a long way off a December 2012 mortgage completion – as of January 2010, we are looking at a completion date of February 2014. One obvious solution is earn some extra income.

Apart from getting Mrs Bliss into work, which we’ve discussed and discounted due to nursery and school runs and Mrs Bliss only being “free” between about 09.00 and 11.30 on school days. This may change after September, when our daughter starts school.

Ideally, I’d like a part time task that brings in some money for not too much effort, but wouldn’t we all.:D I’ve just started looking into proof reading, I’ve started doing surveys again and I’m doing the odd spot of lurking on the Up your income board. Need to find something that pays and I can fit it in when I have the time.

Don’t want to set too optimistic a goal here, but I’d like to earn at least £10 a month throughout 2010, ie a minimum of £120, but basically I'm looking for a steady little sideline until we can get Mrs Bliss into work and have two incomes again.

Achieved. Got a substantial QuidCo cash back which helped attain this. Other small amounts helped to break through the £120 barrier.

6. Receipts.
Typically I let a pile of receipts build up, then do a bulk update in MS Money, just before the credit card is due, or sometimes let it slip for a few credit card statements... :eek:

Aim is to get receipts up to date and clear them by the Sunday of each week. While this won't have a direct impact on the mortgage, if I can quickly analyse the data in Microsoft Money and see that I've already spent a certain amount this year, then this may keep our spending under control.

Initially marked this as a success. Let's see how long before I fail, as I'm nearly 100% sure I'll fail at this one... :eek:

:mad: Failed. Tend to do in fits and starts instead of doing them a few times a week and making sure they are cleared weekly.


Here's hoping I achieve these objectives in 2010.

Financial Bliss.

Last day of January, so mortgage interest time.

Opening Balance: 48,499.96
Opening Nationwide completion date: December 2014

Overpayments in Blue.
Interest in Red.
Balance in Green.

Month: Payment (Std / OP) / Interest (day) / Net reduction / Balance / Nationwide completion

January: 1,398.03 (898.03 / 500.00) / 191.83 (6.19) / 1,206.20 / 47,293.76 / Oct 2014

Totals: Payment / Interest / Net reduction.

Minimum: 1,398.03 / 191.83 / 1,206.20
Maximum: 1,398.03 / 191.83 / 1,206.20
Average: 1,398.03 / 191.83 / 1,206.20
Grand Total: 1,398.03 / 191.83 / 1,206.20

Balance outstanding: 47,293.76

Funds now in place for mortgage and other direct debits coming out from tomorrow.

FB.