Reach for the stars...

MrsMoo2U

Hi Nic, I am back. Loved the picture on my diary and yes you are right Tyrol - you will have to come and visit some time. Now I have tried to catch up but you have been so busy. Well done on RBS. You sound so positive and motivated with VSO so that is a real boost to see. With regards the renting of the flat. When I was moving to Wales I asked an estate agent to look at my house with a view to renting. I thought I needed to do lots of stuff but he said no........ nothing that one lick of paint in one room (bathroom) wouldnt deal with. So why not have a speculative visit from an agent. Give you an idea of what might be required and how much you can get. Bit of research might help before writing all those lists.

niccatw

Thanks Cheri. I figured it might be the Tirol given your love of Loch Lomand.

Don't try and catch up, keep that for a rainy day when you are curled up on the sofa with nothing better to do. Savour the time you had in the last few days in Austria.

I never thought of asking an estate agent speculatively. I've been running away ahead of myself before I can even walk. Again. :rotfl: (Though will need to fix the element in the oven (it's thankfully a double oven) and 2 rings on the hob .)

Course work is never going to be done on time. I am again being a big scaredy cat and not yet calling the prof. I will get there though. I will. I will.

Oh and today the charity that we have been working with in organising the conference in October have agreed to take the risk financially. :j:j:j Otherwise myself and my two colleagues would have had to take it on personally - which just was not going to happen! Our conference will go ahead! :j:j:j All hands on deck...

niccatw

Another £4.85 on way to RBS from bills account. That's all that was left in it by payday!

They've also reduced my overdraft by £450. I'm not entirely sure why but I'm not really bothered - it's now what I asked for it to be when they first gave me it! Perhaps they've noticed it is rarely used.

niccatw

£13.57 on way to RBS from bills account.

£96.96 transferred from RBS current account to bills account to then be transferred back to RBS and into loan account.

Thank goodness for online banking. Such convoluted processes would drive me even more batty if I had to go from bank to bank to do it!

niccatw

Right... been trying to get my head around some very primitive sums! My “gut feeling” plan for VSOing (or wherever else my investigations take me) is to give myself 18 months max... based on 9 months to get shot of RBS and hopefully Northern Rock. Co-incidentally SLC1 will be gone in that time too...

I attempted to make a few phone calls today to up-date the totals, but Saturday is not the day for that!

So instead I transferred another £106.96 to RBS from bills account. Sneaky RBS has taken the scheduled payment of £288.05 from my account but not yet credited it to the loan. Harrumph, just so they can sit on the interest over the weekend! But enough of my feelings on RBS!!! If I can keep up overpayments £250 a month, it could be gone in 6 months...

I also jumped on to the student loans repayment site and I sorted through my “money” filing box (I also have “house” filing box, but that is for another time).




Bearing in mind I do not do maths, here are my rough and ready calculations to date:

• RBS: £2,850.00 ish (once everything that’s to be credited to it, is credited to it)
• N Rock: £2,350.00 ish (rough calculations, probably with interest all over the place)
• SLC1: £925.20 Woo hoo!!!! It’s less than 1k now! This one is right; it’s taken from their website today.
• SLC2: £3,757.38 (Give or take. The interest means it fluctuates depending when you look!)
• HFC: £1,128.55

I won’t worry about the others just now (though did find the receipts for all the things my parents paid for when I first moved in... I owe them £240ish).


So in 6 months I hope to have RBS paid off, N Rock will be sitting around £1,630, SLC1 will be so close to being gone I will be able to smell it, SLC2 I won’t worry about just now as it is income contingent (though I will need to find out what’s what if you are working oversees) and HFC will be under the 1k mark... :j

Wow! That’s no mean feat! As I will also hopefully have completed a post grad diploma course, held a conference and walked a marathon by then too! :A


And I wonder why I’m stressed!! Remind me to tell myself to stop and take as look around now and then! :rotfl::rotfl:


Once that’s all done and dusted, I’ll have 9 months to sort out what I need to do and save up in the UK whilst exploring options oversees!

And back to earth with a bump... today so far I have been mostly cleaning and washing between counting on my fingers and toes. Now I need to do some course-work assessments. Eeek!

I've also been spying the excess clutter! I can get rid of some more of those books! I can!

Finished "All Families are Psychotic" I did really enjoy it, but I wasn't overly happy with the ending. Got the feeling my English teacher might have written the phrase "cop out" on it. Albeit, a much more imaginitive cop out than any of the one's I came up with in High school! :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Now reading "To Die for: Is Fashion Wearing out the World?" until I decide which fiction to go for next. The Book Thief is sitting staring forlornly at me!

But first, a cuppa and some assessments. :eek:

MatyMoo

Nicca

Money stuff sounds achievable in that time frame :T:T:T You go for it girl

Still sounds as though you are doing 6 things at once though :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

niccatw

MatyMoo wrote: »

Nicca

Money stuff sounds achievable in that time frame :T:T:T You go for it girl

Still sounds as though you are doing 6 things at once though :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

6? 72 I thought. :rotfl:

niccatw

Forgot to say I was having a wee nosey on the web (whilst at second job last night) to see what the going rate for rental is around here... it looks like I could reasonably ask for £450 a month.

That won't cover my current mortgage. But then it wouldn't; I got a Northern Rock Together mortgage in 2007... less than 6 months before the country was queueing at it doors to collect their lifelong savings. :eek:

However, in the grand scheme of things, my mortgage isn't too scary. The N Rock in my signature is the bit of my mortgage they "loaned" me as the deposit. What I don't know is if or by how much the value of my flat has dropped. It's not something I can easily guage by looking at other flats either as the area I live in has so many different types of flats and houses, and it is a fairly even mixture of buyers and people renting from housing associations (or buyers who bought from their housing association for far less than I paid) so the averages are completely skewed.

I'm working on the assumption that I won't have anywhere near enough equity to remortgage with the deposits needed these days. But I'll worry about that when I need to. I've done quite enought numbers for one day!

Do you think if I eat an orange and a wee bit of chocolate, it will be just the same as eating chocolate orange? I have a notion! But it would ruin NSD 2 for July. And I can't be bothered to go farther than down to get in the rest of my washing! (Tbh, I can't be bothered to even go that far, but I refuse to be one of those people that leaves their washing on the line for a week ).

MatyMoo

Nicca

You can always get an estate agent out to value the flat for you. But maybe not if you think it has dropped considerably and may make you feel bad.....

Chocolate and orange may not be quite the same but it could be an interesting experiment

Get thee down the end of that washing line woman, can't have the neighbours talking about that wifey that cannie bring in her washing!

MrsMoo2U

Wow, you have been busy with your planning.
Re the mortgage. You may be able to ask NR to convert your current mortgage to rental (they may increase the interest rate though so try anonymously asking a roundabout what if question). You could also consider changing it to an interest only payment for the term of the rental. Most companies want 25% deposit for buy to let mortgages and if that is the way you want to go you need to consider if you do have that much. You may well be best to just get permission from NR to rent for the term that you are away. They may look favourably on it if you are abroad. They want to protect their investment. Be aware that if remortgaging there are often fees to add (I just had a wopping £999 fee to remortgage my flat) and so increasing the amount you owe because they sometimes add it on and charge interest on that too. You will also need to look into landlord insurance if you do rent it out as any mortgage company will insist on that. If you go with a letting agent they often share the cost of the landlord insurance. But then dont forget you will have fees for letting company to cover.
I would start by getting an agent in and ask him

• what would you get per month to rent it ou
• what would you get for selling
• what work, if any, they would recommend you do to let it out
• what fees would they charge to act as a letting agent (not all agents do this so look for one who will sell and/or let)

As for the chocolate orange I would say that is at least one of your 5 a day and the milk in the chocolate would be very healthy too.
Agree re the washing on the line - next door to me leave it out for days.