FinancialBliss: My mortgage free journey…

Well, it's finally here. The year I'm hoping to be mortgage free. Is still by no means a walk in the park and things could still go seriously pear shaped. Hopefully I'll get comfortable with the credit card stoozing, as it's this that's allowing me to make big overpayments at present.

Without further waffle, here's my current list of aims for 2012.
[STRIKE]
1. MFW 2012 - Overpay by £10,400.[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]2. Log the monthly mortgage interest.[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]3. Become mortgage free BEFORE 12/12/12.[/STRIKE]
4. Cycle commute into work.
5. Update draft SOA and publish.
[STRIKE]6. Create a MSE Avatar.[/STRIKE]
7. Balance current and credit accounts.

1. MFW 2012 - Overpay by £10,400.
I've joined these challenges in the past as a little bit of motivation on the side. There's no getting away from the overpayments in 2012 in that if I don't manage somewhere in the region of £10,400, then we don't stand a chance of being mortgage free in 2012.

#29 - Overpay by £10,400.00.

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

January: 866.67 / 866.67 / 8.33% / 862.59 / 862.59 (-4.08) / 8.29%
February: 866.67 / 1,733.33 / 16.67% / 1,202.59 / 2,065.18 (+331.85) / 19.86%
March: 866.67 / 2,600.00 / 25.00% / 1,112.59 / 3,177.77 (+577.77) / 30.56%
April: 866.67 / 3,466.67 / 33.33% / 1,112.59 / 4,290.36 (+823.69) / 41.25%
May: 866.67 / 4,333.33 / 41.67% / 1,112.59 / 5,402.95 (+1,069.62) / 51.95%
June: 866.67 / 5,200.00 / 50.00% / 1,212.59 / 6,615.54 (+1,415.54) / 63.61%
July: 866.67 / 6,066.67 / 58.33% / 1,362.59 / 7,978.13 (+1,911.44) / 76.71%
August: 866.67 / 6,933.33 / 66.67% / 1,533.09 / 9,511.22 (+2,577.89) / 91.45%
September: 866.67 / 7,800.00 / 75.00% / 3,564.94 / 13,076.16 (+5,276.16) / 125.73%


Total overpaid: £13,076.16

2. Log the monthly mortgage interest.
Logging the monthly and daily interest allows me to understand my mortgage product better and thus plan ahead in payment and overpayment terms. Continue to log the mortgage interest as per previous years, until the point in the year I become mortgage free.

Opening Balance: 23,172.41

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

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

January: 900.00 (887.41 / 12.59) / 47.36 (1.53) / 852.64 / 22,319.77
February: 900.00 (887.41 / 12.59) / 41.14 (1.47) / 858.86 / 21,460.91
March: 900.00 (887.41 / 12.59) / 43.71 (1.41) / 856.29 / 20,604.62
April: 900.00 (887.41 / 12.59) / 40.56 (1.35) / 859.44 / 19,745.18
May: 900.00 (887.41 / 12.59) / 40.07 (1.29) / 859.93 / 18,885.25
June: 900.00 (887.41 / 12.59) / 37.02 (1.23) / 862.98 / 18,022.27
July: 900.00 (887.41 / 12.59) / 36.42 (1.17) / 863.58 / 17,158.69
August: 900.00 (887.41 / 12.59) / 34.58 (1.12) / 865.42 / 16,293.27
September: 900.00 (887.41 / 12.59) / 31.70 (1.06) / 868.30 / 15,424.97

Totals: Payment / Interest / Net reduction.

Minimum: 900.00 / 31.70 / 852.64
Maximum: 900.00 / 47.36 / 868.30
Average: 900.00 / 39.17 / 860.83
Grand Total: 8,100.00 / 352.56 / 7,747.44

Balance outstanding: 15,424.97

Ring-fenced mortgage savings: 15,500.00

Net mortgage: :j:j:j £0.00 - Could clear using ring fenced savings :j:j:j

Credit card stoozing information:
Tesco CC @ 0% : 5,025.00
Nationwide CC @ 0% : 6,449.82
NatWest CC @ 0% : 2,372.00

Total CC debt: 13,846.82

3. Become mortgage free BEFORE 12/12/12.
Despite liking the 12/12/12 date, it's going to be financially beneficial if I can become mortgage free before 12/12/12. I have a date in mind, but don't want to put further pressure on myself by committing to it. Any date before 12/12/12 counts as a success here.

4. Cycle commute into work.
This isn't something I've just conjured up on New Year's Eve or today. I've been pondering over this for some time and (on paper) looks like a very sensible option.

Of the list of objectives, this could actually be the most difficult - probably in the initial motivation, so in the spirit of (20)12 and my 12/12/12 target, I've broke this down into (originally a dozen), but now a baker's dozen, ie 13 sub-challenges:

• [STRIKE]4.01 : Cycle into work at least 12 times.[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]4.02 : Cycle into work at least once per month in 2012[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]4.03 : Cycle into work on 12 consecutive working days[/STRIKE]
• 4.04 : Reduce my commuting spend to 1/12 of previous spending
• [STRIKE]4.05 : Commute with an average speed of 12mph or more on commute into work[/STRIKE] Achieved: 14Mar - 12.4mph
• [STRIKE]4.06 : Commute with an average speed of 12mph or more on commute from work[/STRIKE] Achieved: 15Feb - 14.4mph
• [STRIKE]4.07 : Cycle more than 1,212 (two twelve's) commuting miles in 2012[/STRIKE] Achieved: 14Aug
• [STRIKE]4,07A : Cycle more than 2,012 commuting miles in 2012 - inspired by mortgage reduction novice - post #1855[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]4.08 : Commute for more than 12 x 12, ie 144 hours into / from work[/STRIKE]
• 4.09 : Cycle more than 52 (weeks) * 12, ie 624 recreational miles
• [STRIKE]4.10 : Included in the 624 recreational miles, cycle 12 recreational routes of 12 miles or more[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]4.11 : Attain a maximum commuting speed between two and three twelve’s, ie 24 to 36 mph[/STRIKE] Achieved - Maximum speed 34.0 mph - 29Mar
• [STRIKE]4.12 : Loose 12 pounds or more in weight[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]4.13 : Do a longer recreational cycle route of 3 x twelve's - 12 + 12 + 12, ie 36 miles[/STRIKE]

There's quite a lot going on here - I'll address this separately when I get the time...

Cycle commute stats:
Summary:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AnhcWfGMRVgddFpTWDZIbnRTSnFDMlhKTHJhQS1aR1E#gid=0

Detail:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AnhcWfGMRVgddGNmWGhidkNhWFZBLUZkeUNKeE5qM2c#gid=0

Bit of background on the cycle commute:
Home: 98.172 ft / 29.923 metres
Work: 223.821 ft / 68.221 metres
Difference: 125.649 ft / 38.298 metres




4.10 Cycle 12 recreational routes...
1. 22/01/12 - 15.67 miles / 1h 32m / 10.1 mph
2. 10/03/12 - 24.83 miles / 2h 37m / 9.4 mph (avg) / 36.5 mph (max)
3. 10/06/12 - 41.89 miles / 4h 05m / 10.4 mph (avg) / 26.1 mph (max)
4. 12/06/12 - 22.82 miles / 2h 06m / 10.8 mph (avg) / 22.7 mph (max)
5. 01/08/12 - 24.06 miles / 2h 25m / 9.9 mph (avg) / 23.5 mph (max)
6. 18/08/12 - 55.73 miles / 5h 21m / 10.4 mph (avg) / 36.8 mph (max)
7. 26/08/12 - 13.08 miles / 2h 08m / 6.1 mph (avg) / 28.6 mph (max)
8. 28/08/12 - 13.27 miles / 1h 32m / 8.5 mph (avg) / 22.1 mph max)
9. 02/09/12 - 16.29 miles / 1h 19m / 12.3 mph (avg) / 32.6 mph (max)
10. 05/09/12 - 18.53 miles / 1h 55m / 9.6 mph (avg) / 26.7 mph (max)
11. 13/10/12 - 20.56 miles / 2h 04m / 10.4 mph (avg) / 25.6 mph (max)
12. 29/12/12 - 38.72 miles / 3h 55m / 9.8 mph (avg) / 31.2 mph (max)
13. 31/12/12 - 16.04 miles / 1h 11m / 13.4 mph (avg) / 33.1 mph (max)

4.12 Loose 12 pounds or more in weight
Weight loss graph:


5. Update draft SOA and publish.
Have "messed" around with a SOA in the past, but never published one. Review or start again from scratch with the aim of finally getting a SOA out in 2012.

6. Create a MSE Avatar.
A little item of fun - create a MSE avatar for myself. Don't know much about this at present, eg do they need to be of a certain size etc, but aim to do this in 2012 as it's something I've wanted to do for a while.

7. Balance current and credit accounts.
This objective is for better money management. Balance the current accounts within 7 days of the statement dates and balance the credit card account(s) by the payment due date.


With 2012 being such a big year for me, I'm intending to review these monthly and updating this post.

FB.

abouttimetoo wrote: »

Hi FB

Just to say how well you are doing and I'm excited for you that this is the year for you :j:j:j

How is Mrs FB feeling now that the MF date is fast approaching?

Hi ATT / TallGirl and a happy new year to you both!

Mrs Bliss - Bit of a love hate thing going on here. Has mentioned in the past of the (worry of) large amounts of income I'm throwing at the mortgage, but pretty much leaves me to it, so I've a free reign on what goes.

Not quite sure she knows I'm aiming for a 12/12/12 landing, but I do mention frequently that I'm aiming to be mortgage free in 2012. For the current strategy, where I'm putting overpayments into savings instead of the mortgage, but growing credit card debt at 0%, this could be a high risk, but I could pretty much clear the CC (at the expense of the mortgage). Just takes a bit of management.

In terms of the relationship, I manage the finances, pretty much get the final say on any large purchase etc, while Mrs Bliss does the school runs, does the shopping, washing ironing etc - ie the usual stay at home mum stuff. Works for us at present and I'm very fortunate to be able to support the family.

ATT - Don't beat yourself up about lack of overpayments / money management. I'm not always as good as I may appear in my online persona, but at least you're aware of mortgage overpayments and the huge benefits they're giving you.

I've had conversations in the past where people have asked why are you overpaying your mortgage - get the money spent etc, so now I don't bother. Much better to mention / voice any queries here on the MFW board.

@TallGirl - I dropped into your new diary earlier today, but didn't manage to find the time to post a reply - one for later.

FB.