SmlSave MFW diary - where to start?

financialbliss

SmlSave wrote: »

Having read through FinancialBliss' thread...

I realised that, after catching up on everybody's MFW story's that mine is probably going to be the longest ever!

Hi SmlSave,

Thanks for the mention!

My #1 medium term goal is to pay the mortgage off. While I’ve over 10k in savings, we’re not actually adding to them month on month – we’re simply using the tax free status of Mrs Bliss to recycle the existing money and get the best interest rates we can, eg Halifax 10%, Lloyds TSB 8%, NatWest cash back offer etc.

Being organised – erm I don’t think so. Despite being completely up to date with keying in the bills at the end of last month, I’ve slipped up somewhat this month and have the majority of the bills to sort out and key in to MS Money.

I’ve a “to do” spreadsheet – to do’s down the left and months as columns. As I do something each month, eg "Log end of month mortgage interest” I tag that month/task cell as complete. So far for September, I’m a bit slow off the mark having only done 15.4% of my tasks. Planning to do some more this evening…

Can I ask what’s your planned mortgage free date – I’ve reviewed your posts to date and I can’t see any target date!

Keep going with the diary!

FB.

setmefree2

SmlSave wrote: »

I realised that, after catching up on everybody's MFW story's that mine is probably going to be the longest ever!

We've already been at this for 5 years:eek: and goodness knows how long we've got to go (I don't think about it;))

A useful MFW mantra is that "It's a marathon not a sprint"

All The Best

SMF2

SmlSave

Thanks Stuart, Finance and SMF2 for your support

No, there's no target date as yet. As its our first house and I hope to be able to move 'up' in bout 5 years I don't feel comfortable setting myself a precise date. Ideally I'd like to be mortgage free when I'm 40, so July 2024.

I'm thinking of setting up a seperate account just for a mortgage account. OH has agreed to put some more into the joint account monthly from December so I might put £10-£30 a month into the mortgage account for OPing in 2010.

moominyak

SmlSave wrote: »

We need double-glazing to be installed. The current wood, single glazed windows leak and let out a lot of heat. The average quote is around £3000! :mad: We are going to look into DIY but still need to find this money somewhere.

Hi SmlSave,

I got my UPVC d/glazing a couple of years back and paid about the same amount - if you want to instantly make yourself feel better about the £3k, get a quote from Everest!

It really has made a huge difference though - I had rotten old timber frames, a bit of really ancient d/glazing and one room with secondary glazing sliding window before.

And don't fret about taking a long time about this - I've only just started, I don't have an actual MF date in mind yet either, and I only wish I'd thought about it when I was in my twenties!

Good luck

financialbliss

SmlSave wrote: »

Ideally I'd like to be mortgage free when I'm 40, so July 2024.

Ah, yes, I'd forgot you're a spring chicken. I'm currently 38, but the plan is to be mortgage free when I'm 42 (2012).

FB.

SmlSave

Spring Chicken - I like that, just got told by my collegue that I'm old! :rolleyes:

cause I'm yawning my head off and want a nap. :coffee: need more......

StuartGMC

"Old man of 43 surrounded by youngsters...."
or
"I'm old enough that I used hyperlinks in 1988 before the internet was born"

I guess I should be doing the Grumpy Old Man bit here then with you lot!

Actually, I suppose I can comment that we have always overpaid since we were 29 in 1994 which was the first time we could afford to buy a house even as two graduates after the last boom-bust recession. However the overpayment was/is not to the degree many of you are doing now and of course you are all benefiting from the daily interest rate calculations for the bulk of your mortgage period. What is really encouraging of course, is seeing the community here working together irrespective of age, mortgage etc so I wish everyone of you success in the plans (is this where I should say "you've all done very well"??)

The other thing is, old folk don't sleep a lot (I'm up at 0500 in the week) at night but SmlSave's comment about an afternoon nap does appeal more these days.....

:rotfl:

......... oops sorry, did I dose off?

EssexHebridean

ROFL @ Stuart!!

I wish we'd started on the OP'ing thing sooner too. The annoying thing is that from when we first had our mortgage in 2003, we had meant to OP on it, but it took us 5 years to get our collective acts together. :mad: I daren't work though how much better on with the target we'd be now had we got ourselves going sooner on it! The main thing is that you have now seen the light and you will get there - so long as the time it takes is less than the time your mortgage had to run in the first place, then you're winning the battle!

StuartGMC

EH - we have always OPed, but when little dd came along disposable dropped in 1997 and impacted the amount. Saved 3yrs by yr 12 for remortgage (now daily interest would have made the savings greater) and will continue. Just wish we could have put in more, as I knew from using the Amortization in QuattroPro (remember that spreadsheet?) if we could find £2000 a year for each of the first 3-4 yrs we would save a fortune - but in those days that was a massive amount extra to find and mortgage calcs didn't help. However, time moves on as always and now even with OP mortgage is just 13.11% of net income, not sure we've alwys made the most of what's left though!

You've a great chance to improve on things in the present system and I know you'll do so.

SmlSave

After a jam-packed weekend I'm back and ready to go!

Worked it out on one of the OP calculators that if I overpaid by just £25p/m I would save £7676.39! :beer: Gosh, that's two years knocked off as well.

It really has made a huge difference though - I had rotten old timber frames, a bit of really ancient d/glazing and one room with secondary glazing sliding window before

moominyak, sounds exactly like ours, we did get a quote from Everest :rolleyes: it came in at £7000! :eek:

The other thing is, old folk don't sleep a lot (I'm up at 0500 in the week) at night but SmlSave's comment about an afternoon nap does appeal more these days.....

:rotfl:

......... oops sorry, did I dose off?

:rotfl: We could start a 'power' nap club, who's up for it?:rotfl:

You guys always make me feel all optimistic when I start to droop.

How were your weekends?