Mortgage Free - so good they'll do it twice! Wynnvegas aiming for the big house

gallygirl

katsu wrote: »

gally - you aren't one of us are you?

Good grief no, I just have 15 muppets to look after. Well, not strictly true, I have 3 direct reports who are fine (mostly!), it's the other 12 who report to them we have a problem with.

katsu wrote: »

Some people seem to miss out on the understanding that there is an exchange - work for pay not pay for working when it suits!

:T:T:T:T:T how true :T:T:T:T:T

[Deleted User]

Billy
sounds like an interesting week for sure!! Sounds like you are really commited to what you do and do a fantastic job of it! Hope the situation resolves itself ..
Hope you are still enjoying the new bath - mine is now finished!! but no jacuzzi bath unfortunately...when we get a house perhaps....
Good luck on the family mediation/situation ... as I always say ..you can choose your friends ...:rotfl:

LilacPixie

Billy needing a bit of assistance on the viability and practicalities of a self build and being mortgage free. I am being driven nuts by the whole outline permisions vs no planning consents plus if i should be saving or paying off mortgage or both!

wynnvegas

Hi Gally,

At this point, I'm sure nothing would surprise me. I've gotten less understanding in my grumpy old age so I'm less believing of the unlucky in life who seem to stagger from one catastrophe to the next. I think some people may just not be cut out for working life. if nothing else, my departmental heads are listening with a renewed intensity to my lectures on interviewing!

Cheers,

Billy

wynnvegas

Hi TYO,

Resolved, yes. Satisfactorily, not so much. The guy was committed on Wednesday of last week. The story took a few bizarre twists and ended in what I interpreted to be an invitation to push some assistance his way. I'm in part annoyed this week as I'm down in this England (where none of my hotels have 12-jet jacuzzi baths!!!) but Moyra phoned to say that all the water in our street is off due to some debacle with the wind from yesterday (how the wind affects underground pipes is anyone's guess...). Not that I'm calling her snobby, but anyone who intends flushing the toilet with bottles of volvic deserves a wee bit of stick.

Mediation going well. Should tidy that piece up this weekend when I'm back up. Will pop over to your diary now to hopefully catch a shot of the new bathroom. Hope you're enjoying it.

Cheers,

Billy

wynnvegas

Hi LP,

I've read that three times now and I've no idea what's going on! Are you looking to do the same thing as us? If I'm reading it right, you are. I'm seeing one of the planners in Falkirk in a few weeks to discuss how we progress our plans so happy to fold in any specific queries you may have as we're still very new to the idea of re-zoning land. I think my simplistic view of how helpful people will be may be a touch optimistic but I'll approach the process with wide eyed wonder in the hope that I can bluff, charm and buy my way through the necessary processes!

Cheers,

Billy

abouttimetoo

Hi Billy, tut tut, what's going on, no posts for three days

says someone who updates her own thread once or twice a month

Hows things with you?

wynnvegas

Hi ATT,

It got worse. I protest some degree of innocence as you'll see below as mitigating circumstances got in the way. Hope you're well.

Cheers,

Billy

wynnvegas

Morning All,

Somewhat annoyingly, this is the second time I've posted the following diatribe. The first attempt, in a fairly bog standard hotel room in Oxfordshire, went astray as I was on the iPad, going great guns when, as a nice finish, I was looking to wish Froggy G and his better half (so much the better for not being French - my grudge presently being the stupid sounds some idiot keeps making at the tennis - all the French are now tarred) all the luck in the world with their current goings on. I decided to investigate, on that basis, the term for a female frog so opened up a new browser window. Annoyingly, the entire text in the original MSE window disappeared. More annoyingly, I found out shortly thereafter that the female term for frog is bloody frog so the whole venture was futile from the outset. Best laid plans and all that...

So, to continue from whence we last met....

My lad at work, following his supernatural occurences and such, made the story that much more interesting with some bizarre revelations of a personal nature which led me to the conclusion that there was more than just the overly suggestive element that I had assumed. The upshot of the situation was that he threatened suicide on the Wednesday at which point I alerted the various health professionals I know and the local polis'. He was picked up that night and is now getting the help that he needs which is good in a way. We've agreed to part company in the meantime to allow him to get himself together at which point he can look to come back to work. Hopefully, with a bit of intesive therapy and some big boy pills, he'll be sorted in short order.

Speaking of work, I was down in sunny that England last week sorting a few bits and pieces out. I'm pretty confident that we now have a steer on what needs to be done and I'm very confident that everyone involved knows what will befall them if they fail to do their individual parts. There's a softer side to the job that is easier but the strategic manager in me creeps out every now and again to be that wee bit more directive. All is appropriately on track and, by the end of this week, I should be caught up on the various bits and pieces that I need to be caught up on. I'm pleased that, with a bit of prodding, a decent strategy and a couple of brilliant new entrants, we're really cracking on. In that there may, at some point, be an MBO which I may like to be a part of, getting the business on track and running the way it should is the major priority for the coming year.

As for family, things have gotten back on track to some extent with my brothers in that they're still disagreeing but at least talking about their disagreements now somewhat civilly. I've taken a step back from that to try and deal with the mother who is understandably upset that I've taken a hard line with her about my little brother. He hasn't worked now for over 3 years (despite me gift wrapping him an £18k job at the end of 2010) and is begging, borrowing and stealing from her every month. I've said to her that me paying £3,000 for her to go to Vegas and Hawaii next year for her 50th birthday isn't on as long as she continues to mollycoddle him. At 27, he needs to grow up and get a life of his own (however pitiful and schemey that life might be). The worry is that I'll be ten years down the line and he'll still be mooching off her as she retires. He's already cost her around £12,000 between the motorbike he left outside to be stolen, the car that he nearly totalled and the idiotic I.T. course that he never cracked a book on. If I can't stop it, I'm certainly not going to enable the behaviour.

On the money side, Martin's fancy dan calculator was exactly right. I'm somehow getting £140 a month more these days as a result of the tax changes. I'm not sure how it works but I'm not going to complain. It means that the SOA is looking that bit healthier - I need to re-post the SOA as it shows, if nothing else, that I'm now, with no mortgage and acquired debt, on the wrong MSE board!! We've calculated the debts owing to us at £14,078 (Moyra's mum and dad), £500 (my sister), £400 (my auntie), £250 (my cousin) and £30 (my eldest brother although we'll likely just let this one go as £30 for him can sadly mean the difference between eating and not in a week). Hopefully it doesn't come to me getting a man round to shoot kneecaps! As planned, we've just abour got enough money to pay off our credit card this month which means we'll be perfectly positioned to sort our spending money for Vegas, bring the acquired debt down to £5,500 (just shy of the £5,000 target) and push on for being debt-free in October to keep on-schedule.

As for the big house, we're seriously struggling now. The idea of buying land with planning permission is completely out. Buying even a ramshackle property to level and use the land is less and less of an option as people are now very much aware of the value of their land (we saw a 2-bed bungalow with 3 acres (no permissions) going for offers over £700,000 last week). How some of the people in the south of that England can buy houses at that price is astonishing. There must be special mortgages for that kind of purchase - either that or everyone buying is on a 6-figure salary. We're now firmly entrenched in the buying farmland and fighting the good fight for permission to re-zone and build. I've to set up a meeting with Falkirk Council to go through their procedures to see where we start and how we plan the whole thing. The bonus here is that we can now effectively pick where we would like to live, scout out the site, pick our own views and then look to build the big house on the hill overlooking the world as we know it.

As for the current squalour, the garden is fast becoming the next project that needs looking at. I had a quote of £1,000 to do the front garden which seemed a bit extreme so I'll need to shop about a wee bit with that. Unfortunately, the major cost is unavoidable as topping the trees at the front (effectively lopping off the top 10-12 feet) requires a cherry picker which on it's own costs £200p/d. Me and my trusty saw are going to have a good crack at the garden this weekend to get it in some sort of reasonable order before work commences.

Hope everything is all well and good in MSE land. As I missed the chance last week, particular special wishes to Froggy G and Mrs Froggy G on their current endeavours...

Cheers,

Billy

wynnvegas

So, here we go with the current state of play. I should start by saying it's not at all where we intended being at this point but circumstances dictated that this is indeed where we are so we're making the best of it:

SOA Markers

Number of Adults in Household: 2 (age 29/29)
Number of Kids in Household: 0
Number of Cars in Household: 2 (1 company car '59) '54 plate

Aims

Bathroom / Boiler Project - £7,442 / £7,442 - Complete April 2011
Spare Room Project - £875 / £875 - Complete May 2011
Vegas 2011 Flights - £3,013 / £3,013 - Complete January 2011
Vegas 2011 Hotel Room - £100 / £1,200 - July 2011
Vegas 2011 Spending Money - £0 / £3,000 - July 2011
Floor and Doors project - £0 / £2,000 - November 2011
Moyra's New Car - £0 / £10,000 - March 2012
Kitchen Project - £0 / £10,000 - July 2012
Vegas & Hawaii 2012 - £0 / £7,000 - July 2012
Land - £0 / c.£40,000 - TBC
Big House - £155,000 / £450,000 - October 2015

Income Details (monthly)

Salary - £2,155
Salary 2 - £1,850
Loan Repayments - £250

Additions

Consultancy - £500 p/d - not guaranteed but more regular now
Marking Fees - £600 annually

Total - £4,250 per month

Loans Outstanding

Loan 1 - £14,078.26
Loan 2 - £500
Loan 3 - £400
Loan 4 - £250
Loan 5 - £30

Total - £15,158.26

Expenditure (monthly unless stated otherwise)

Mortgage - £0
Rent - £0
Management Charge - £0
Council Tax - £152 (10 months out of 12)
Electricity and Gas - £78
Oil and Water - £0
Sky / Phone / Broadband - £65 (currently £32.50 until July 2011)
Groceries - £200
Fuel - £250 (not inclusive of business related fuel which is reclaimed through expenses)
Clothing - £20 (plus annual big mall shopping with Vegas winnings)
Snooker / Darts - £30
Online Shopping - £40 (plus one big "birthdays" shop per year)
Road Tax - £90 (annually)
Car Insurance - £160 (annually w/ cashback)
Car Maintenance - £300 (annual cost - 2 checks per year)
Breakdown Cover £7 (annual cost w/ cashback)
Building and Contents Insurance - £128 (annual cost)
Life Insurance - £28.65
Gym - £63
Haircuts - £15
EIS Membership - £11.25
CIPD Membership - £130 (annually)

Total - £1,008.07 per month

Secured Debts

Mortgage: £0
Secured Debt: £0
HP Agreement: £0

Unsecured Debts

Tesco CC: £4,581 - 0% until December 2011
Play CC: £6,000 - 0% until January 2012
Student Loans: £22,000

Total: £32,581

Assets

Cash: £5
Savings: £0
Bank: £4,270
House Value: £155,000
Shares / Bonds / Isa / Investments: £0
Car: £1,500
Other Assets: £40,000
Pension (Me) - £26,000
Pension (Moyra) - £23,000 although final salary

Monthly Summary

Total Guaranteed Income: £4,250
Total Expenditure: £1,008.07
Available for Debt Repayments: £3,241.93

Personal Balance Sheet

Assets: £200,770
Secured Debts: £0
Unsecured Debts: £32,581
Net Assets: £168,188

I've been marvelling at Earthgirl's plans and she has inspired me to work a wee bit harder as bumbling along as we are, whilst fine, isn't necessarily going to get us where we want to be at any great pace. If I can pick up one or two consultancy gigs a month, it will go a long way to getting the big house sorted that much quicker. We're far too selfish to consider giving up staples in our life like the gym and like the sky subscription so those would be dealbreakers. We've found what we think is the ideal balance for us although suggestions are always appreciated.

Cheers,

Billy