Old hand needs a fresh pair of eyes on SOA

WASHER

Spirit, I notice you have put a £100 saving per month in your SOA, do you have any savings? I ask because if you do, and saving interest rates aren't great at the moment, in my opinion, it would be better to pay off the overdraft, it is costing you a fortune in interest each month.

WASHER

Life insurance/life assurance is one thing I personally wouldn't recommend cancelling since you have a mortgage, just my opinion though. I have seen thread upon threads on this board where a partner/husband has died and no life insurance was in place, some of the threads were heartbreaking, homes at risk etc.

I agree with closed on the shares and bonds, sell and get rid of some of the debt.

What is the £65K asset?

LilacPixie

closed wrote: »

£100 savings/month, you have debts, stop saving, ditto life assurance. £2k/month left over, the debts should be gone in 6 months.

Sorry to disagree with you closed but I would say life insurance is pretty much an essential expense for someone who has a family/commitments.

Spirit_2

I suspect the OP has a stressful and time consuming career earning over £3700K per month,


When I joined DFW I earned more but we had huge debts - incurred after OH was made redundant - he had been the main earner.

We spent a lot on supporting others, interest payments, food (£666) and no monthly budget - with debt repayments we had limited surplus income.

We have come along way but I am concious that I am doing myself harm by trying to work fulltime - I have stepped down a level in career terms, but tire easily and have little energy for life outside of work - I have to now reduce my working hours but am anxious to get debts clear before I do. Mr Spirit does almost everything around the house - and we have help in the garden.

I will be 50 in the summer, was a work-a-holic up until about a year ago - but am just not up to it anymore.

My health circumstances are such thatI am not expecting a long retirement. Hence our debt busting up until now has been good going whilst still 'living' a bit. My focus has changed at the moment though -to reduce my earnings and still feel secure. It is really important to me.

Spirit

catmiaow

Spirit wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 3
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 3
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 3792 Wow great income what is your job if you don't mind me asking?
Partners monthly income after tax....... 2375
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 6167
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 1159 See secured debts section
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 196 - Same as above
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 197- If all your neighbours are a band lower than you and you can check this online, you should be appealing again.
Electricity............................. 41- Seems ok is this the best deal have you shopped around? If you change use a cashback site.
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 112 - Do you shop around as there are huge savings to be made by changing suppliers each year?
Water rates............................. 8
Telephone (land line)................... 39 Too expensive we pay £25 pm for landline & net
Mobile phone............................ 0
TV Licence.............................. 13
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 22
Groceries etc. ......................... 300 Not bad but could be cut down to £150/200 with meal planning, we spent £80 pm for two of us and 2 pets
Clothing................................ 70 Do you really need this?
Petrol/diesel........................... 250
Road tax................................ 22
Car Insurance........................... 63 Is this the best deal?
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 40
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 40 - Shop around
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 100 Shop around this seems very expensive
Other insurance......................... 18
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 120
Haircuts................................ 52 I get my hair cut at a local salon for £10 and she does an excellent job
Entertainment........................... 100 - Do you really need this much?
Holiday................................. 200 This should be used to clear debt at the present time.
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Savings................................. 100 Put this as an emergency fund
bank fee................................ 15
Bank Interest........................... 76
Gardener................................ 80 OK if you need this could you not get it done fortnightly to save £40?
Boiler servicing........................ 21 Aga service costs around 64 PM and call outs around the same, might be cheaper in the long run to consider replacing it if its costing this much to service.
Sports clubs............................ 76
Field Rental............................ 21
Cesspit................................. 27
Total monthly expenses.................. 3578

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 375000
Shares and bonds........................ 3000
Car(s).................................. 3000
Other assets............................ 65000
Total Assets............................ 446000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 72847....(1159).....2.5< Is the mortgage amount right as it seems expensive for what you borrowed - shop around an see if you can get a better deal.
Mortgage (mum).................50000....(196)......3.99 My mortgage is the same and I am paying less as on a better rate - shop around
Total secured & HP debts...... 122847....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
barclaycard....................2946......35........10.9
Overdaft 1.....................2000......17........18.9
Loan...........................8338......222.......7.9
Overdarft 2....................4000......59........12.9
Total unsecured debts..........17284.....333.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 6,167
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 3,578
Available for debt repayments........... 2,589
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 333
Amount left after debt repayments....... 2,256
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 446,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -122,847
Total Unsecured debt.................... -17,284
Net Assets.............................. 305,869
Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using IE browser.

Just giving you some tips,which I hope help, Pay of the debt with the biggest APR first. You have great income but to me it seems your not looking for the best deal and a lot of money is being wasted such as £50 pm for haircuts. Good luck!

Spirit_2

I have thought about the £100 savings . The savings are in to a share club - if I came out now I would crystalise a loss - and it is my 'social life' (how sad) so will stay in for while.

We had already disposed of our endowments to pay off other debts.

The £65000 is £50000 in mums flat, the remaining £15000 is a classic vehicle - huge fun but we have decided it will go this spring. We are not phased by this - we did sell our 4x4 and horse trailer as part of our debt busting .

DD pays for her car maintenance/repair/AA cover , petrol, tax.

Spirit_2

catmiaow

I will pm you my job.

Mortgage - we reduced the term as I had put it out to a later date when my husband was not working and we wanted to pull it back in. It will be paid off in 5 1/2 years. It is 2.5% - we could not improve on this. May fix if rates go up.

Mums mortgage - interest only @ 3.99%

Electric on a fixed price deal until 2011- not had an increase in 2 years - could not improve on it and will be sad when it ends.

Oil - we are currently £800 in credit - so hope to reduce this from April. I do watch oil prices and buy when it is low.

Phone an internet annoys me - we can only get BT - service is hopeless and expensive - I use 18866 for overseas calls as Mr spirit is away a lot.

I do meal plan! see my sig for grocery challenge... must try harder.

Buildings insurance - includes contents - we thought we had shopped around! Will look again.

Hair cuts - will rethink this.

Clothing - Mostly work clothes. Mr Spirit has a job in the public eye and I need to look the part.

I will treat the shares as an "emergency fund".

Garden help - see earlier posts

Cooker/heating/hotwater - only 5 years old - this has been a problem this year, but our choice of engineer may have meant it was not well
maintained.


Thanks
Spirit

NGlady

A job in the public eye and needing to look the part... sounds glamerous!!

Spirit_2

When people discover what he does they are always interested, when they discover what I do they yawn.:rotfl:

tallyhoh

You are paying money for an overdraft & then saving some of it??

It should be possible to reduce your grocery bill a lot more, out of £160 a month I feed 3/4 adults, 2 dogs, bird & run a car. It can be done.