To be debt free by 30 I need to start now! - Gingernutbizkit's 2010 diary

gingernutbizkit

FINANCIAL UPDATE.

We had a great pay day yesterday (with both of us getting extra payments) and then found out that both credit cards (which are paid off each month) were significantly less than we thought they would be. Plus our easter break has ended up cheaper than we budgeted for so all this means that we already have the £15K I wanted to for a month's time :T.

Currently our mortgage stands at £146,076.18 so my new goal is to have saved £16,076.18 to make it a nice round number!

Our total debt currently stands at £139,660.07 which means....
1) We're under the £140K mark :j
2) We have achieved the figure needed for our MFiT target so currently 2 months ahead of paying our mortgage off in three years :j:j
3) For our pay £50,000 off this year we have so far achieved 29% of that goal.
4) Since our get real date in October 2008 we have paid off £38k or 21% of our debts :j:j:j:j

I know it probably seems silly/sad having all these targets but having goals really spurs me on and it's not something that come naturally to me so I have to keep reminding myslef of what we trying to achieve and why.

Ging x

gingernutbizkit

Hi all,

Well, tomorrow is the last day of our current mortgage. We went to see our financial advisor this morning and now my head is well and truely pickled!

Basically he said to stop overpaying our mortgage and to put the £3500pcm into stocks and share ISA's as the return will be far greater. I know he's probably right as our mortgage is so low %-wise at the moment but psychologically I like seeing the amount come down every month. Anyway, looking at his projected figures it was clear that not only could we pay off our mortgage by 12/12/12 but if the return is still good then we will have a nice extra amount too. Thing is although the risk is VERY low currently, I have been bought up to take no risk at all when it comes to finances so find this alla bit scary.

We will get statements of our 'Investment Portfolio' (how grown up does that sound and pretty impressive considering the debt we were in 18 months ago) in October and May and will review it at least yearly.

I need really to redo my SOA and speak with Mrs Ging as this does make our budget a lot tighter.... and it was tight enough to begin with!

Ging x

gingernutbizkit

Hi all,

Just a little update.....

Finances.
I spent a lot of time over the last two days looking at our SOA. We have now cashed in one ISA as it has a very low rate and we can't transfer elsewhere due to our new S&S ISA's being opened up. We kept the other one as our emergency money (as I do have a tendency to pay everything to the debts and leave us with no funds for things that break down:o).

Today I have written a cheque for £3000 to go to my student loan and have transfered £7500 in my account ready to pay to the mortgage on Monday morning. Some of my other savings we are using now to pay for feb's holiday as this way we can get a early booked and (hopefully) cheaper flight.

I have written a budget (again) for us and to meet the £3500 payment each month to the plan our advisor has given us we will have to be VERY strict with ourselves, even more than we have already. There are areas where our spending has been creeping back up and we need to get back on top of it.

Weight.
Took the plunge and finally rejoined slimming world. Three weeks and I've lost 9.5lbs so so far so good. i have loads to go but hoping to get to my 2 1/2 stone award by my birthday at the end of July. Just about on track for that I think. I need to find some more exciting recipes and look at how they fit with my budget. At the moment the fresh fruit and veg has been costing a firtune so need to go back to cheaper shops.

House.
I have the money saved now for sorting out our front garden which is great as I hate looking at it whenever I come home! The money for the door we are having fitted is still sitting there.... as the door is also still sitting there having not been fitted since it was supposed to be in december :mad:.
We have definately decided to more home in 3 1/2 years time so we absolutely have to pay off our mortgage in the three years to achieve the bigger place (and probably start the whole process again:rotfl:).

I think that's all, I'm off to search the forums to get myself back on track budgetwise.

Ging x