Five Year Plan

mikenolan · 5 April 2016 at 1:49PM

So I've been lurking for a while and benefiting from everyone else's threads so time I gave something back.

Bought three bed semi in August 2010, dabbled with overpayments during the first two year tracker. Remortgaged ~£94k in May 2013 to a 5 year fix at 3.19% and since then have been hitting the 10% per year overpayment limit.

In personal life, got married in May 2014 and baby is two months old today. Wife and baby are both fully on board with MF ambitions.

The regular monthly overpayments I've been making for the last few years have been put on hold since the start of the year while we work out how much babies cost (answer: less than companies selling baby products would have you believe!) but with a view to make the 10% overpayment as a lump sum later in the year.

Target is to be mortgage free before I turn 40 in 5 years time. Currently have £66,719.10 to go!

mikenolan · 5 April 2016 at 1:53PM

This is our latest SOA for the next year while my wife is on maternity leave. Comments appreciated!

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,513.24
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 89.70
Maternity Pay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,000.00

Monthly Expense Details

In Your Home

Mobile phones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22.00
TV licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.13
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.50
Home phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.50
Cleaning products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Garden maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.33
Household maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.33
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28.64
Council tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105.31
Bank account fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.00
Home insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17.25
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388.00
Food and household shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350.00
Drinks for home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
New Mobile Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.67
Mortgage overpayment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565.00
Mortgage payoff pot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132.00

Motoring & Public Transport

Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63.67
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Car tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21.67
Car insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.00
Car maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29.17
Rail/Buses/Taxis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21.67
Breakdown cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.42
Bike Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
OH's Fuel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00

Savings & Investments

Regular saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
Children Savings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89.70

Family

Pet food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Pocket money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Nappies/Baby extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65.00
Childcare/Playgroups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65.00
Travel insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.92

Entertainment

Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.99
Family days out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Cinema/Theatre trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Shopping for fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Pet costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.17
IT/Computing (antivirus, etc) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Drinking out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Eating out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80.00
Amazon Prime Subscription . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.25

Clothes, Health & Beauty

Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.33
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26.00
New children's clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43.33
New clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00

Big One-Offs

Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.67
Winter holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83.33
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.67

Odds & Sods

Newspapers and magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83.33
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31.25

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,602.94

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,169.18

Most of the figures are pretty accurate based on our actual spend but other areas are probably over estimates.

mikenolan · 12 April 2016 at 12:38AM

Today was my first time cycling to work since the baby was born (and a while before hand when I was on hospital standby!). I ache but it's good exercise, free and didn't take much longer than driving.

Did an audit of the contents of our chest freezer over the weekend. Over 60 boxed up portions of batch cooked meals plus a dozen soups and loads of fish and meat. Aiming to run down supplies over the coming months which should reduce grocery and lunch spend. Today was veggie rogan josh with a pack of spicy couscous.

Finally, had a smart gas and electric meter installed last Tuesday for free by British Gas. Installation was a few days after booking and only took a couple of hours. Was a bit worried that the direct debits based on estimates for the current fixed deal were a little low so this should allow us to keep track on usage and provide accurate bills.

newgirly · 12 April 2016 at 7:27AM

Morning, welcome to the mf board

you have a very detailed soa there! I guess the main tip I would suggest is to continue reading mf threads and perhaps take a look at the old style boards for ideas on how to cut costs a bit more. Lunches for work in particular is one that stands out as it's a fairly easy cost to get rid of.

Do,you use meerkat movie codes? Buy a one day uk holiday personal insurance policy for a couple of pounds and you get a weekly code for a bogof ticket on a Tuesday or weds.

Also how do you get cleaning supplies and a cleaner for £20 pm please, I think I want one

Anyway, congratulations on your baby and best of luck

jodles16 · 12 April 2016 at 3:15PM

Hello and welcome! It sounds like you are already well on track and have a very good plan to get where you want! Amazing! Will pop back and see how you are getting on!

Jodles

mikenolan · 12 April 2016 at 5:38PM

Thanks for the welcome jodles16 and newgirly.

newgirly wrote: »

Morning, welcome to the mf board you have a very detailed soa there! I guess the main tip I would suggest is to continue reading mf threads and perhaps take a look at the old style boards for ideas on how to cut costs a bit more. Lunches for work in particular is one that stands out as it's a fairly easy cost to get rid of.

The budgeted amount (£4.50 lunch + £1.50 coffee/snacks per work day) is quite a bit higher than I usually spend. My go-to lunch is £2.95 and the department brew fund (which I manage with an iron fist!) costs £5 per month for as much filter coffee as I can drink so I'm rarely tempted by Starbucks. I've started bringing my own lunch in this week - let's see how long it lasts.

Do,you use meerkat movie codes? Buy a one day uk holiday personal insurance policy for a couple of pounds and you get a weekly code for a bogof ticket on a Tuesday or weds.

Got one of our car insurance policies and a 1 day UK insurance last year through Compare The Market so we're good for discount cinema, not that we actually have time to go!

Also how do you get cleaning supplies and a cleaner for £20 pm please, I think I want one

Cleaning supplies from Aldi but we stopped paying for a cleaner last year.

selloptape · 12 April 2016 at 8:05PM

Good luck Mike! Wish I could pay mine off when I turn 40

will be following for inspiration.

User1489 · 12 April 2016 at 8:47PM

Hi, are you able to tell me where they installed the smart meter and or how much space/permanent wall damage it makes?

lippy1923 · 12 April 2016 at 8:56PM

Good luck with your journey. MF by 40 is a great goal. Will this be your forever house? Or is there an upsize possibility in the future?

I'm still undecided about my journey. I have always wanted to pay off our house and keep it to rent out and move into a new bigger one with the extra income supporting us. But we may have to upsize in a few years if we have another child, so would most likely have to sell up current house and start a MF mission all over again with an even bigger mortgage. So for now I am OP'ing as much as possible and will see where life takes me

I look forward to reading your progress.

Lippy

mikenolan · 13 April 2016 at 10:26AM

rasputin_thorpedo wrote: »

Hi, are you able to tell me where they installed the smart meter and or how much space/permanent wall damage it makes?

The gas meter (under the stairs) was replaced with a smaller model - didn't seem to be particularly intrusive. I've heard from someone else that they sometimes refuse to install if the pipes are lead - the chap who did our installation mentioned that they were lead but didn't seem bothered. The electric meter, distribution board and the new smart meter transmitter thing (don't remember the technical term!) is in a small cupboard - maybe 80x80x15cm - and there's plenty of space. I did "forget" to mention on the booking form that it was inside a cupboard - didn't want to give them any reason to refuse the installation!

lippy1923 wrote: »

Good luck with your journey. MF by 40 is a great goal. Will this be your forever house? Or is there an upsize possibility in the future?

I'm still undecided about my journey. I have always wanted to pay off our house and keep it to rent out and move into a new bigger one with the extra income supporting us. But we may have to upsize in a few years if we have another child, so would most likely have to sell up current house and start a MF mission all over again with an even bigger mortgage. So for now I am OP'ing as much as possible and will see where life takes me

Probably stick it out here unless multiple additional children appear or we find a ton of money lying around! We like the location and it's got the right ratio of living space to sleeping space.

newgirly · 13 April 2016 at 1:57PM

Probably stick it out here unless multiple additional children appear

:rotfl::rotfl: ha ha that can happen sometimes, I have experience of it

Five Year Plan

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