FinancialBliss: My mortgage free journey…

uzubairu · 2 January 2011 at 11:58PM

First Direct have a 2 year fix at 2.99% (with 65% LTV) and a £99 fee with unlimited overpayments.
They also have 2 year base rate tracker (+1.69%), same LTV and fee with unlimited overpayments too.

They also have an offer (applications received by 31/01/11) :-Free transfer deal where if you move your mortgage to First Direct they will pay your legal fees, the cost of one standard valuation, and your existing lender's enquiry fee.

Hope this is of interest, although it is nice dilema to have.
We won't see the £3x,xxx until late 2012.

Well done on the progress so far. :beer:

financialbliss · 3 January 2011 at 12:06AM

Thanks uzubairu. Bizarrely, I had just opened a new tab a short while ago at moneyfacts.co.uk and had spotted the First Direct products as well as a few others.

FB.

financialbliss · 3 January 2011 at 12:11AM

Aims for 2011.

It’s a little odd starting this off for 2011 when I’ve not reviewed 2010, but I know that if I don’t get something down on “paper”, this side of January, I know I will end up slipping towards the end of the month (2010 aims were not added until 30th January :eek:)

With the running of the MFiT-T2 and base rate challenges, trying to update my own diary and having an “off-line” life too, I’m often pressed for time.

I’m probably cheating somewhat, but I’m planning to draw a line under 2010 by the end of Week 1, which is 9th January. Any aims not completed or updated by then get a fail.

-=oOo=-

I’ve found it difficult to set objectives for 2011, and I may end up adding to the list, but to get pen to paper, here’s what I’ve got to date:

1. Keep diary up to date.

2. MFW 2011 challenge.

3. Log mortgage interest.

4. Year end mortgage value to attain.

-=oOo=-

1. Keep diary up to date.
Been a very hit ‘n’ miss affair since I started the MFiT-T2 challenge. I find that If I keep my diary up to date, I’m using MSE and often lurking on other people’s mortgage diaries, ie I pick up tips / ideas.

Obvious exception is if I’m on holiday, but the plan is to update the diary at least once a week.

Update: 31/12/2011 - Actually very surprised here. Apart from the times I've been away on holiday, I have managed to update the diary at least once a week - sometimes in the witching hour of 11:?? pm though on a Sunday.

2. MFW 2011 challenge.
I’ve done these mini-challenges for the last two years and though I’d add in as an objective in this diary too.

My pledge for the 2011 challenge is here:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=39815068&postcount=125

and I’m aiming to overpay £2,050 in 2011, which would put the 2011 year end mortgage at about £21,000 - but dependent on mortgage direction after March.

#29 - Overpay by £2,050.00

Month: Ideal Pay / Ideal Total / Ideal % / Actual Pay / Actual Total (Diff) / Actual %

January: 170.83 / 170.83 / 8.33% / 70.67 / 70.67 (100.16) / 3.45%
February: 170.83 / 341.67 / 16.67% / 70.67 / 141.34 (200.33) / 6.89%
March: 170.83 / 512.50 / 25.00% / 120.67 / 262.01 (250.49) / 12.78%
April: 170.83 / 683.33 / 33.33% / 200.00 / 462.01 (221.32) / 22.54%
May: 170.83 / 854.17 / 41.67% / 200.00 / 662.01 (192.16) / 32.29%
June: 170.83 / 1,025.00 / 50.00% / 200.00 / 862.01 (162.99) / 42.05%
July: 170.83 / 1,195.83 / 58.33% / 200.00 / 1,062.01 (133.82) / 51.81%
August: 170.83 / 1,366.67 / 66.67% / 200.00 / 1,262.01 (104.66) / 61.56%
September: 170.83 / 1,537.50 / 75.00% / 200.00 / 1,462.01 (50.49) / 72.54%
October: 170.83 / 1,708.33 / 83.33% / 210.00 / 1,697.01 (11.32) / 82.78%
November: 170.83 / 1,879.17 / 91.67% / 200.00 / 1,897.01 (+17.84) / 92.54%
December: 170.83 / 2,050.00 / 100.00% / 791.40 / 2,688.41 (+638.41) / 131.14%

Total overpaid: £2,688.41

Update: 31/12/2011 - achieved with December overpayments.

3. Log mortgage interest.
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. No change for 2011, ie log this data monthly again to view progress made.

Opening Balance: 33,304.75

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

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

January: 1,000.00 (929.33 / 70.67) / 131.57 (4.24) / 868.43 / 32,436.32
February: 1,000.00 (929.33 / 70.67) / 115.64 (4.13) / 884.52 / 31,551.96
March: 1,000.00 (929.33 / 70.67) / 124.43 (4.01) / 875.57 / 30,676.39
April: 887.41 (887.41 / 0.00) / 61.27 (2.04) / 826.14 / 29,850.25
May: 887.41 (887.41 / 0.00) / 61.62 (1.99) / 825.79 / 29,024.46
June: 887.41 (887.41 / 0.00) / 57.87 (1.93) / 829.54 / 28,194.92
July: 887.41 (887.41 / 0.00) / 58.04 (1.87) / 829.37 / 27,365.55
August: 887.41 (887.41 / 0.00) / 56.28 (1.82) / 831.13 / 26,534.42
September: 887.41 (887.41 / 0.00) / 52.76 (1.76) / 834.65 / 25,699.77
October: 887.41 (887.41 / 0.00) / 52.75 (1.70) / 834.66 / 24,865.11
November: 887.41 (887.41 / 0.00) / 49.33 (1.64) / 838.08 / 24,027.03
December: 903.81 (887.41 / 16.40) / 49.19 (1.59) / 854.62 / 23,172.41

Totals: Payment / Interest / Net reduction.

Minimum: 887.41 / 49.19 / 825.79
Maximum: 1,000.00 / 131.57 / 884.36
Average: 916.92 / 72.56 / 844.36
Grand Total: 11,003.09 / 870.75 / 10,132.34

Balance outstanding: 23,172.41

Ring-fenced mortgage savings: 2,460.00

Net mortgage: £20,712.41

Update: 31/12/2011 - achieved with logging December mortgage interest today.

4. Year end mortgage value to attain.
Following on from the MFW 2011 challenge, if I achieve that objective, I’d see a year end mortgage in the region of £21,000, but I also mentioned a scenario C where I wanted to be nearer £20,000.

Obviously the lower year end value the better, but I’d like to try and out do my own MFW 2011 objective and aim for the mortgage to be between £20,000 and £20,999 at year end.

Update: 31/12/2011 - achieved - year end mortgage value is £20,725.00

More objectives to come, should I think of them.

Financial Bliss.

financialbliss · 5 January 2011 at 12:13AM

Mortgage.
Well, it’s after 10.45 on 4th January and despite the mortgage payments leaving our Nationwide current account on 1st January, there’s still no sign of them hitting the mortgage account. Hopefully tomorrow now… Don’t Nationwide know that people need to do stats and graphs? :mad:

While on the subject of Nationwide, I’ve booked an in-branch appointment next week to discuss the mortgage. I’ve also been asked to bring life insurance and home insurance details “so they can save you money”, but I suspect I’ll get the hard sell. Don’t worry, I’ll take a few graphs along and rattle off a few acronyms such as LTV, BMR, SMR, ERC etc. That’ll confuse them

January sales.
Managed to save £2 here, sort of…
Got an e-mail from Travelodge on New Year’s Day regarding a January sale. A quick browse later and we had booked 4 nights away “down south”. Trouble is they wanted a £2 supplement for a credit card payment.

Entered American Express details (better cash back rates) and for reasons best known to Travelodge, instead of billing me for the rooms, they have processed the purchase but just used the credit card details to guarantee the transaction and we need to pay on arrival. Hopefully they’ll not add any supplement at that point.

Spent £130 in total which is a family room x 4 nights at £19.50 for the room and 4 x breakfasts x two adults at £6.50 each – kids eat free.

Ok, so we spend £130 (highlighting earlier paragraph enables you to view the almost hidden price), but last time I used Travelodge, I forgot to book at least 7 days in advance and paid £49.50 plus breakfasts, ie £64.75 for just one night :eek:, so I’m happier with above price - just over double the price for four nights instead of one.

Not necessarily about going without in order to pay the mortgage, but instead getting the best price.

Other stuff...
Scanned in some paperwork, tidied up computer desk (to a point) and balanced current accounts this evening. Don’t feel any more organised at the moment though!

FB.

abouttimetoo · 5 January 2011 at 7:11PM

Hi FB

I've just been caatching up on the last couple of pages on your diary

Here's a wildcard for you to consider (and I wouldn't mention it if I didn't know how organised and disciplined you are

)

I'm not sure how many credit cards you have or what the available limits are but have you consdidered taking a 0% interest cash advance (usually an arrangement fee though) on a card, paying the money off the mortgage (thereby reducing outstanding balance and interest charges) then repaying the money off the credit card instead - could be either monthly or at the end of whatever term you have taken it over so maybe earn some interest on it in a savings account in the meantime. This could either be an option soon for you, or, alternatively sometime towards the end when you could maybe put the full balance on cc?

NB, if you have the 'right' sort of mortgage account and/or credit card then you could also potentially rack up some points/cashabcl if your mortgage provider allowed a repayment by c/c AND classed it as a purchase - some do apparently.

Hope that all makes sense

financialbliss · 6 January 2011 at 12:07AM

abouttimetoo wrote: »

Hi FB

Here's a wild card for you to consider (and I wouldn't mention it if I didn't know how organised and disciplined you are )

I'm not sure how many credit cards you have or what the available limits are but have you considered taking a 0% interest cash advance (usually an arrangement fee though) on a card, paying the money off the mortgage (thereby reducing outstanding balance and interest charges) then repaying the money off the credit card instead

Hi ATT - thanks for dropping in. That makes perfect sense, and I had that as a wild card, but for 2012. Currently have 3 cards:

American Express - paid off in full each month
Barclaycard - paid off in full each month
Virgin - £1,500 balance at 0% until March 2011

Say we do well in 2011 and manage to get the mortgage down to say £20k - clearing this remaining £20k in the last year (2012) is a huge ask.

But I was contemplating looking at it from a slightly different angle. Get a CC with a long as possible duration at 0% for purchases - put as much spending on that card and pay the minimum balance each month.

We pay around £600-700 per month on the CC - only paying the minimum would free up cash and would probably give an extra £500-600 per month to throw at the mortgage once minimum repayments were factored in.

Quick search as of now suggests I could get a 0% on purchases for 13 months (Tesco Bank). Two issues:

Getting a card with a long enough 0% rate - would need 12 - 15 months
Getting a card with a a big enough credit limit to be of use

With the above two points in mind, that's why I was considering it only as a final year option should I find I'm going to overrun on my 12/12/12 target. Once mortgage is out of the way, throw everything at the CC and start saving / planning for Florida :j

Thanks for raising that though.

FB.

financialbliss · 6 January 2011 at 12:17AM

Good news :j:j:j

The January mortgage payments finally cleared today. It's now: £32,326.08

I've updated the graphs on post #1, my signature and the last 100 steps chart, and I've probably updated something else I've forgot to mention too!

FB.

abouttimetoo · 7 January 2011 at 8:22PM

Limits etc allowing it sounds like a good plan! The guys on the credit card forum know loads about that sort of stuff so you can perhaps have a rummage on there nearer the time. I can't bring the details to mind but a read of a great 'wheeze' on there, something to do with using the M&S credit card and then getting their travellers cheques and then paying them into your account whereby you ended up only paying 1% arrangement fee for the 0% cash advance rather than the usual 3ish%. As I said I can't remember the details but it all made sense when I read it but I'm staying away from stoozing for the moment as I've still got 7ishk to repay :eek:

black_taxi_2 · 7 January 2011 at 8:37PM

last 100 steps?

12/12/12 is 23 months away

RosieTiger · 8 January 2011 at 7:43PM

Well done on getting sub £33 - looks very doable for you by the end of the challenge.

FinancialBliss: My mortgage free journey…

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