The Mortgage Free in Three - Take 2 challenge (MFiT-T2)

Jock_Tight

financialbliss wrote: »

Good news is that we have three new challengers who are mortgage free or fully offset:

mummyofonechild (138)
Jonsey Bonsey (177)
SparkleBlack (15)

Well done to you three - brings the grand total so far on our mortgage free roll of honour to 8:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=tks17oKUg5u0jJOsscg4G1Q&single=true&gid=5&output=html

Financial Bliss / Maz123.

I have been fully offset since the start of the challenge however dont want to be added to the roll of honour until I actually pay off the mortgage

Big thanks to FB & Maz123 for the chart updates :cool:

Re costs going up, we have been lucky to get pay rises, not large but enough to cover increased fuel and food costs. We also got a rebate on our energy costs as we are using less than billed.

We are ahead of target due to some good OP's during the past year.

All the best,
Jock

diadeb

I have just posted my update, which actually shows as having gone up. This is due to purchasing another property for my holiday business, so in the long run it will hopefully improve our finances. At least we are still over the halfway mark.

Due to spending so much on our garden landscaping we also decided to stop the big overpayments in order to build up the savings again for the next round on our never ending home improvements.

We are still making small overpayments and putting some into a savings account which I count as offset.

We too have really noticed the increasing costs - particularly fuel and food. £80 now to fill up our large diesel tank which is truly scary.:eek:

DD is doing her A levels and has left school. No job on the horizon (she has her head in the sand a little - hopes the problem will go away I think) and so I really worry about supporting two grown up children at home now. Why is it ok just to expect your parents to provide everything? I cannot relate today's kids to the society that I grew up in. We had to fend for ourself and I had left home and was married at 20. 20 year olds today seem like babies by comparison!

Kaz2904

I'm not sure if I will even encourage mine to stay on to do A levels. I said last night to MiL that really, uni etc depends on what they decide they want to do. If they have to go to uni to get the qualification to do the job, then so be it. If not, then we won't put ourselves out to fund them. That sounds bad but do you know what I mean? Hopefully they will choose a job which has on the job training.
We are trying to educate them already about the cost of everything and how to finance life but obviously they are only young so don't fully understand. I think you can't ever fully understand until you have to do it for real.

tiddles

Sorry I'm late updating this time. My balance has unfortunately only reduced by £546 this quarter, due to having to take money out of the offset account to pay for roof repairs. We still need to pay for more work to be done on the house, but should be able to succeed in this challenge if we stay focussed!

Thanks to everyone for your support.

RosieTiger

Kaz2904 wrote: »

I'm not sure if I will even encourage mine to stay on to do A levels. I said last night to MiL that really, uni etc depends on what they decide they want to do. If they have to go to uni to get the qualification to do the job, then so be it. If not, then we won't put ourselves out to fund them. That sounds bad but do you know what I mean? Hopefully they will choose a job which has on the job training.
We are trying to educate them already about the cost of everything and how to finance life but obviously they are only young so don't fully understand. I think you can't ever fully understand until you have to do it for real.

That's such a difficult position for kids now, uni offered a place to grow up a bit while getting an education. Biggest problem now will be having to seriously ask themselves the question of whether the future career they will get from going to uni will pay back the cost of going there. Sadly it might not.
Not convinced education system helped here by offering courses that have no real value in the real world.
If you can instill some sensible ideas around finance, at least they should be able to make any decisions with their eyes wide open.

black_taxi_2

my bank has told me my o/d facility comes to an end aug.

bizzarely because im in a better financial position---cleared all debt

they offered me a new loan which i declined

so my £1000 o/d facility will become £0

my o/p will be lower next few months because i want a safety net--build up bank balance--so im never o/d

reality hit---if banks cant make money out of you--they turn the screw

im staying with bank because on-line account is excellent to use--lloyds

benbenandme

Benbenandme creeps in having forgotten all about the challenge .... I am so so sorry, I did the original mfit challenge and loved it, promptly signed up for this one then somehow things have taken over and I forgot it

However, I have reduced my mortgage to just under £30k now (see sig for accurate current figure), so can I either be updated or deleted, whichever is best

I don't think I'll get to my target due to various unforeseen events over the last year, but I am still plugging away as best I can

Kaz2904

I have spent some time going over my accounts this afternoon. It's looking a bit grim. We have £1723 odd outgoing each month before we even consider cash spends like food and non monthly payments such as car tax and all insurances. We have £2500 incoming each month but we need to repay £9000 to our savings. Food and fuel are spiralling out of control. I have spoken to DH and he agrees that I should take over all shopping now so that we only have one person spending. We are going to have to be really careful with fuel costs. Thankfully the children will be on holiday from school soon and that will see our fuel costs going right down.
I have got to try and get us out of this. We are in for the long haul now, this recession is going to really be long and tough and we are just so lucky that we are in the position we are in now because if we owed more, I dread to think what would happen.
I think I am going to have to spend a lot of time on the old style board from now on

brizzledfw

Kaz..hope it all works out.

Hi all - have been away for ages..and late completing my update. Sorry FB. Done now but understand if I missed out. Am almost a week a]later after all! Its actually gone up..boo... as although I made a sizeable overpayment when I left my last job I have now had to take that out again to pay for some solar PV panels. We are buying these for a mixture of reasons, not least the environmental ones but also as it will make a difference to our electricity bills with the new feed in tariff prices. The scaffolding is up and they should be on next week. So forwards and sideways I guess.

I am going to try and increase our regular overpayment to £500. That should help long term. However new job is PT with much increased commuting costs and am not sure I have yet adjusted to living on a smaller income to before. Will just have to budget hard and think carefully before every purchase I think.

Best of luck to all

black_taxi_2

MFW in 3 years has been great because it set a target

you learn valuble lessons along the way---mainly known an unknown expenses/setbacks/acheivements

1.main acheivement so far has been to reduce debt/mortgage from 48k to 33k
2.my first target-clear 8k debt loan was acheived this month
3.my next target will delay my MFW date-lower payments---but i have to do it(o/d facility withdrawn---dont want anymore loans)
4.building my bank balance up to 7k(5k emergency fund--2k upfront monthly payments(will include 580 o/p mortgage)
5.this target should be reached around feb 2012
6.once this target is reached i will be back on track for MFW early 2016
7.you get a reality check when you set targets--feeling slightly depressed i will be 3/4 years late but im still reducing my debt yearly

all the best