Pay Off £200k in 100 months!

SwitchyChick

Mortgage interested was calculated yesterday, details as follows:
Mortgage Interest: £630.23, after offsetting £423.25 so value of offset = £206.98. Have paid the difference (plus a bit extra) off the mortgage. :T

Will do a separate post re: the other finances below.

Switchy

SwitchyChick

Well, we saw our FI yesterday & it made for a grim encounter. The S&S ISAs & OH's pension pot have lost about 17% in the last 6mths or so. The only up side is that it could have been a LOT worse.

Anyhow, as an attempt to recoup a little of the losses we are going to shift the ISAs over to the HSBC FTSE Early Bonus Plan. This basically gives us 5 chances to achieve a return of 12.5% based on the growth of the FTSE from a start date of 22 May 09. The plan runs for a maximum of 5 years and if the FTSE on 22 May 2010 is the same or higher than the same date the preceding year we get our capital back + 12.5%; if not the plan rolls forward into the following year. If the FTSE is the same or higher on 22 May 2011 we get our capital back + 25%. And so on...

I'm willing to take a punt as, in the short term, I can't see the ISAs achieving 12.5% this year and it would be nice to recoup a little of what has been lost this year. Only time will tell if we've made the right decision. Ho hum.

I've added a little more to the stoozepot courtesy of an old CC of OH suddenly providing CC cheques. Odd, most companies seem to be cutting back. I'm still waiting to see whether either of my MBNA cards will come up with anything too. Could be waiting a long time, eh? :rolleyes:

Thats all from me for now.

Switchy

SwitchyChick

Another chunk paid off the mortgage this month: £1320.03 (£1000 being the regular overpayment & £320.03 being the difference that offsetting makes - it has virtually halved our mortgage interest).

A fair chunk of offset is from stoozing. The 0% for purchases cards are taking a bit of a hit at the moment because I'm using them to book our flights, accommodation & excursions for our big family trip to NZ at the end of the year.

Switchy

setmefree2

SwitchyChick wrote: »

Another chunk paid off the mortgage this month: £1320.03 (£1000 being the regular overpayment & £320.03 being the difference that offsetting makes - it has virtually halved our mortgage interest).

nice :T:T

StuartGMC

SwitchyChick
Seeing the interest reduce through offsetting is a great motivation. We are now 100% offset, but it'll reduce when credit card bill is taken.

Good luck with the ISA, I bet you are hoping that the present growth is a bear rally and it dips before 22 May?

We were down significantly on our Funds (S&S) ISAs but have continued to purchase units whilst they were cheap; have seen significant growth in the past 2 months and if it makes you feel better we were over 50% down earlier in the year, now it is "just"23% down.

We will continue to invest in the markets, save and OP because overall you need some balance in this big plan.

SwitchyChick

Where have the last 2 months gone?

I haven't spent much time on the forums over the last few months so feel like I've lost touch a bit. I've still been doing my bit & paying off my monthly mortgage amount but have lost track of where everyone else is up to! If the weather takes a turn for the worse that's where I'll be, catching up on the forums ...

We've managed to have a couple of long weekends away: in Ayrshire in April to celebrate my dad's 70th and an Enid-Blytonesque family break in the luvlee area around Silverdale in S Lakes.

As predicted the credit cards have (almost) been maxed out by my NZ plans. So far I have booked the flights via Hong Kong with Cathay Pacific (including 2 nights' hotel accommodation on outward & return legs); all of our NZ accommodation (10 stops!); 2 internal flights in NZ; 1 interisland ferry crossing; 1 scenic rail journey & 1 overnight river cruise - phew! All that remains is to arrange car hire & book some of the more specialised trips (whale watching anyone?) Don't worry - I have a gigantic (A3) spreadsheet so I can keep track of the schedule as well as the expenditure! :rotfl:

Still managing to pay off around £1200/month off the mortgage and have a (very) vague ambition of being able to pay it off by the time our current mortgage deal ends in about 18mths! I have a lot more work to do on this before I can make it a definite goal but we'll see

Hope to catch up with you all soon.

Switchy

taka

I'm so jealous about you going to NZ! Good luck whale watching - I tried to do that in Kaikoura but the weather was too rubbish and we had to head back to shore. I looked a bit like this >>> _pale_ It was cancelled for the next day or 2 thereafter too. I did manage to swim with dolphins there though which was one of my childhood dreams! Amazing, amazing, amazing! :j Fingers crossed you get good weather!

getmore4less

Hi, Switchy

We are considering a NZ trip sometine this winter be interested in a breakdown of your trip.

SwitchyChick

Hi GM4L
If you're planning to go this winter my advice would be to book your flights as soon as you can. I was told that the closer you get to your preferred travel date the less choice you'll have & the more you'll pay. A couple of friends who have flown long-haul also advised me to break the trip midway and you might want to consider doing the same.
As to our time in NZ itself I did quite a lot of research online & read Lonely Planet & Rough Guides to NZ. General rule of thumb seemed to be that if you wanted to visit N & S Islands to divide your time spent there to 1/3 in NI & 2/3 in SI & thats roughly how ours has panned out.
Because we will be in NZ for Xmas & N Year we're doing our trip back-to-front (or upside-down if you like), i.e. starting in SI & making our way back to NI. This is purely so we can spend the festive period in the glacier & fiord areas - again a personal preference.
Our stopping points are: Auckland, Queenstown, Te Anau + Doubtful Sound, Wanaka, Franz Josef, Christchurch, Kaikoura, Wellington, Rotorua & back to Auckland. Most of the stops are for 2 nights with the exception of Auckland which has worked out 1 night at each end of the trip. We're walkers/hikers/nature-lovers rather than thrill-seekers/adrenaline junkies and that influenced my choice of places to stay. And although NZ has great beaches we're more interested in surfing or walking beside them than lying on them!
I've booked all the accommodation myself & mostly direct with the lodges/motels/etc. In a couple of cases Expedia was cheaper & I did it through them. I used TripAdvisor to help me narrow down where I wanted to stay relevant to our budget.
Hope this helps. If you would like any more info just ask!
Right, now I'm going to book my dolphin/whale trips. I have been advised to book well in advance (6 months is a little extreme I know, but my 0% for purchases deal on my CC runs out this month & doesn't need paying until the end of the year), so Kaikoura here I come...!

Switchy

suisidevw

Make sure you SWIM with dolphins in Kaikoura. One of the best experiences of my wife and I's lives. Whale watching via helicopter was incredible and a real treat.

Enjoy, it's my favourite country in the world and I have visited a lot! Jealous !