Canne's Aussie Mortgage Free Diary

canne_2 · 17 June 2009 at 10:59AM

Hi, My name is Cheryl. I'm Australian and live in the Illawarra which is the area south of Sydney in New South Wales. My parents and I own a house which is 10 minutes drive from the beach and at the back windows you can see the escarpment.

My parents and I all have the same inherited disability so we are unable to work so we are all on disability pensions. I also have a son, he's 9 and goes to a primary school nearby. A website called simple savings alerted me to this forum and I have been reading the mortgage diaries for a few months and I have commented on Financial Bliss's diary.

My Dad is English, he was born in West Ham and we visited England when I was 4 and I have quite a few memories of that time including visiting the Tower of London and seeing Big Ben and the Crown Jewels and Buckingham Palace. We stayed with a relative in Cambridge and did all the touristy things...

The house we bought here in 2001 was becoming unsuitable for us as my son got older. We paid off the $50 000 mortgage in 3 years in November 2004 and we got another 150 000 mortgage and built an extension with another bedroom, a bathroom, big living room, extended the laundry and refurbished my parents bathroom and also did some internal work.

The mortgage balance last November 2008 was 134 400. It is now as of June 17 2009: $117 547.90. Because we are getting 3 pensions and family allowance and carer's allowance, our income is quite high so we can pay quite a lot off each fortnight. I pay bits and pieces as I can as well. I also do the occasional online survey...

Well, I have said enough for now, I hope to update as I pay this mortgage down...

Edited to add:

Mortgage as of 19 March 2010: $99 755.15

I am no longer receiving family allowance as my son is now living with his Dad overseas for most of the year. Due to increases in our pensions over the last few months, this should have no affect on our mortgage paydown progess...

Here is a google spreadsheet showing my overpayment progress for 2010...

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Ar8xYIS7-oYodEV2T3lwMmZONm5QSW0xSDFIejBqNmc&hl=en

setmefree2 · 17 June 2009 at 11:09AM

to the MF board and

with your MF journey. I look forward to reading about your progress.

Kind Regards

SMF2

Tesco_points_addict · 17 June 2009 at 7:42PM

Yehhhhh, now you're here you're stuck with us lot:rotfl:

Your house sounds gorgeous, I'm very jeleaous.

Keep up the good work, you sound motivated already, can I ask what disabilty you have? My Mum has parkinsons disease which at times can be very dibilitating for her.

TPAx

canne_2 · 18 June 2009 at 1:25AM

Hi Setmefree and TPA. Thanks for your welcome!

Yes I'm stuck with you people now LOL...

The disability my parents and I have is schizophrenia. It's very well controlled by medication and I am very lucky, if you met me you wouldn't be able to tell I had it. I often get asked what work do I do and I have to explain. I can get sick if I am under too much stress which happened a few years ago so I am very careful now...

Yes our house is 200m2. 4 bedrooms, study, 2 bathrooms, laundry, 1 kitchen and also a potential kitchen in the extension. There are kitchen cupboards and the wiring to put a stove in, we just haven't put one in. The house is in 2 sections, my son and I live in the back and my parents live in the front and we are separate from one another. Before we had the house extended there was a lot of tension between us and fights but that is all in the past now we all have our own space...

canne_2 · 20 June 2009 at 4:09AM

We have some extra income in the next month or so. Next payday, we have the utilities allowance which will be an extra $259.40. Then in July we will receive $1022 as a family allowance supplement which is paid every year. We will also get an education tax refund of $375 as I spent money on computing equipment which qualifies for the refund. We will also get telephone allowance of $57 between us...

My spreadsheet says we can pay to the mortgage including the minimum payment:

25 June 09: $1276
9 July 09: $1035
23 July 09: $2161

This will bring the balance to $114 081. I have factored in interest as well. We are paying 5.23% variable rate on a basic loan which is one of the lowest rates around... Fixed rates are higher than that. In Australia the variable rate loan is the most popular loan taken out...

Tesco_points_addict · 21 June 2009 at 7:44PM

canne wrote: »

Hi Setmefree and TPA. Thanks for your welcome!

Yes I'm stuck with you people now LOL...

The disability my parents and I have is schizophrenia. It's very well controlled by medication and I am very lucky, if you met me you wouldn't be able to tell I had it. I often get asked what work do I do and I have to explain. I can get sick if I am under too much stress which happened a few years ago so I am very careful now...

Yes our house is 200m2. 4 bedrooms, study, 2 bathrooms, laundry, 1 kitchen and also a potential kitchen in the extension. There are kitchen cupboards and the wiring to put a stove in, we just haven't put one in. The house is in 2 sections, my son and I live in the back and my parents live in the front and we are separate from one another. Before we had the house extended there was a lot of tension between us and fights but that is all in the past now we all have our own space...

Well done you for sharing you illness, so may people don't. I suffer from depression(oh, i've admitted it out loud), which can also be very dabilitating at times, although at the moment it is under control. It is very difficult as you never know when the 'demons' may strike...I assume this is similar for yourself??????

Anyway, good luck, you deserve it.

TPAx

canne_2 · 25 June 2009 at 2:53AM

Hi TPA,

no, I don't get depressed and the schizophrenia is in full remission so I don't get any symptoms. I just can't handle stress well, that's all. So I am very lucky and I try as much as possible to keep my life stress free. I succeed at that mostly...

It was payday today and I have paid $776.18 to the mortgage. Along with the $510 minimum payment, that's $1286.18 altogether. Interest of $520.45 is posted today as well as an $8 monthly fee so when all the maths is done the balance is $116 790.17

setmefree2 · 25 June 2009 at 2:59PM

well done on that OP :T

canne_2 · 26 June 2009 at 8:37AM

Thanks setmefree!

I have interest checking software which I got free with a money magazine and it is predicting that interest for next month will be 499.07. We will crack the $500 barrier! Although there are only 30 days in June so that helps...

Tesco_points_addict · 26 June 2009 at 9:05AM

Well done Canne, fantastic overpayment.

TPAx

canne_2 · 28 June 2009 at 8:03AM

The vertical blind in my parent's bedroom is in disrepair so we are getting a quote on Thursday to get a new one. I am expecting it to cost about $200... We really need a new one in the loungeroom as well but we can live with that for the time being. The blind we are having replaced has black marks on it and can be seen from the street and it is impossible to clean...

We will still be able to make an extra payment but it will be something like 325 extra instead of 525.

Canne's Aussie Mortgage Free Diary

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