Mortgage free 20/20/20

wynnvegas

Hi Kingster,

Congratulations. I like the mini targets. Surely a chufty badge is the highest award available though!? Calculating the decreasing daily rates of interest, landmark weeks / months to go until mortgage freedom is a brilliant idea.

Cheers,

Billy

katsu

Sepa74 wrote: »

Hi Kingfisher... I'm no expert on SOAs (where's Katsu?? She always has some great comments)

Somehow I missed your SOA earlier, but now your updated thread caught my eye and I was just mulling over your SOA when I got down the page and I saw this :j Thanks for the boost Sepa, now I guess I had better not disappoint

kingster2069 wrote: »

Thanks for the comments, I am Stoozing, here's my SoA's as suggested

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned....................

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2500
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1250
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 3750

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 1229
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 165
Electricity............................. 45 are you running lots of stuff for the kids? Make sure you have checked your tariff recently and considered whether dual fuel or single suppliers is cheapest when looking at switching. Fit energy saving bulbs and turn everything off as much as possible.
Gas..................................... 25 as above except: foil behind radiators, line curtains, block draughts, draw curtains at dusk, extra blankets on the bed for winter, check thermostat, have heating on less now weather is warm etc.
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 25
Telephone (land line)................... 25
Mobile phone............................ 70 look at some of the deals you can get via switching sites
TV Licence.............................. 0 another no TV fan or did you forget this?
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0 great
Internet Services....................... 29.99 check the switching info just to ensure you can't get this cheaper
Groceries etc. ......................... 285 the old style forum is the place for tips, you can probably get this down a bit depending on the age of your children
Clothing................................ 25
Petrol/diesel........................... 185 making any non-essential journeys? Consider walking or cycling if 3 miles or less, ensure you are claiming all business miles you can (if any relate to your internet business).
Road tax................................ 20
Car Insurance........................... 67 use comparison and cashback sites every renewal time. This seems very high for 1 car so check all the details - would you pay a higher excess, do you really need swish courtesy car cover, would basic do, do you really use all your miles etc?
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 10 Some very cheap tips for breakdown cover in Martin's article, on the motoring tab
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 568 Use childcare vouchers if you can
Other child related expenses............ 80 what is this?
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 8
Contents insurance...................... 7 B&C look good - remember to use cashback and comparison sites.
Life assurance ......................... 30
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 10
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 400 :eek: Depending on what this is it could be a place you could save relatively easily?
Holiday................................. 150
Emergency fund.......................... 10 this is very low.
Total monthly expenses.................. 3478.99


Assets
Cash.................................... 5000 If you are stoozing why do you only have £5k cash not £10k? You might want to look at ensuring you could repay the cards if interest started being charged, so I'd try and get the cash in your off-set up a bit.
House value (Gross)..................... 245000
Shares and bonds........................ 5000
Car(s).................................. 6500
Other assets............................ 2000
Total Assets............................ 263500


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 182000...(1229).....3.69
Total secured & HP debts...... 182000....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Credit Cards...................10500.....120.......3
Total unsecured debts..........10500.....120.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,750
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 3,478.99
Available for debt repayments........... 271.01
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 120
Amount left after debt repayments....... 151.01

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 263,500
Total HP & Secured debt................. -182,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -10,500
Net Assets.............................. 71,000

Hiya,

I've put in a range of suggestions above, you probably would not do them all but see what jumps out as worth a look. For me the entertainment and holiday together looks like an area you could make savings if you wanted to, but the joys of MFW is that the changes really are up to you.

Hope it gives you food for thought.

kingster2069

Thanks wynnvegas really good to hear from you. Congratulations on paying off your mortgage :beer:.
I've been thinking of doing a three year challenge but it seems such a long time, yet I'm guessing my MF journey will take a minimum of 10 years :eek:

kingster2069

Thanks Katsu for spending so much time giving me your advise. So our Electric bill is a little higher than it could be. Partly because we buy renewable electricity which costs us a little more. We do have energy saving light bulbs everywhere. I also run my business from home so have a few more electrical appliances on, this is also why I pay a little more for my broadband as I download lots and most broadband suppliers have restrictive limits.
You'll be glad to know I have just switch one of my phone contracts to £15 per month. In June I can switch the other contract which should have nearly £500 per year, but no nice new phones .
Yes you are right we don't have a TV at the moment, mainly because we never get anything done if we have a TV.:rotfl:
We have two cars at the moment and pay about £400 each to insure then for the year. I only use my car during the week when I have to drop our little one to nursery the other side of town. The rest of the week I'm on foot. My OH does like to drive a little more and has a 70 mile trip twice a week to work.
Child care is much higher than we expected and that's for only 3.5 days a week. I use child care vouchers, do you know if my OH could also pay with the same method. Not sure if both parents could use the child care voucher system.
The £80 for other child related items is things like nappies, toys, clothes, new car seats, pushchairs etc seems the list is never ending
Entertainment side of things both OH and I have £200 pocket money each month. Although I always think I've use what's left at the end of the month to OP. I never seem to have anything left :rotfl:.
I am balance transferring, but we started 2009 with £20K on our cards, so I have just been paying down the balances and transferring when the offer period expires.
You'll be please to know I've started using topcashback site and have already got £50+ :j
Really appreciate the time people take to help other out in the forums.

summerday

Hi Kingster,

I'm pretty certain that both parents can register for childcare vouchers to get double the benefit, as long as your OH's workplace offers them of course.

Good luck with your MF journey!

Sepa74

Hi Kingster, I often work from home as well, so I purchased a dimple oil-less electric radiator (it's lighter than the oil ones and more energy efficient - or so they say!) which means I can just heat my office.

About the mobile, I can't recommend enough threatening to leave your current provider - they'll then put you through to the retentions department. I have had amazing deals when I've been put through to the retentions department - the deals they have offered me when I've done this beat anything available through any comparison site on the internet, shiny new phone included!

Good luck!

kingster2069

Sepa74 wrote: »

About the mobile, I can't recommend enough threatening to leave your current provider - they'll then put you through to the retentions department. I have had amazing deals when I've been put through to the retentions department - the deals they have offered me when I've done this beat anything available through any comparison site on the internet, shiny new phone included!

Good luck!

I'm looking for the cheapest possible contact with min 100 minutes talk time, 100 text and some internet. Currently on a monthly rolling contract offering 100 minutes, 500 text and 500MB of internet for £13.50 from O2. Do you have a better deal?

kingster2069

Summerday I will get my wife to ask HR about the child care vouchers, then increase our OP by the difference in tax saved.

Many thanks for the advice

Sepa74

Hi Kingster,

You need to go through to the retentions department to see what they'll offer you - the retentions deals are never advertised.

What you describe is pretty good - especially as it's a rolling monthly contract. Do you want a new phone? I got a deal similar to yours, but with a 24 month contract and paid £20 for my lovely new android phone.

Good luck!

kingster2069

Hi Sepa74, thanks for the tip, I think we are going to keep our old phones and save a little money for a while. I looked at a contract 24 months which got the same package but with a phone. Not sure I want to tie into a 2 year contract with job security not being as great as it was a couple of years ago.
Some bad news this weekend, our 8 year old washing machine which I have been fixing for a few years now finally gave up the ghost. So at the weekend OH brought us a new one! Managed to use topcashback to get a few more pound off after saving almost £100 compared to Comet's store price. Hopefully this washer will last another 8 years.
We got married 8 years ago and brought most of our major electrical items. Just hope they don't all start packing up!!