Starting the mortgage free path

bownyboy

So some targets for the year which I'll review in January 2015:

1. Overpay mortgage by £6,000
2. Mortgage balance to be reduced down to £95,176
3. Remortgage when fix ends in June 2014 to a rate equal (or preferably lower than current 3.99%)
4. Daily interest to be £10.66
5. Save £12k in Stocks & Shares ISA
6. Have total savings & investments of £20,000 (up from £8k)

These are all direct debits, so not much else to do for the moment, except keep an eye out for remortgaging in next month or two and figure out if taking tracker, another fix and length of term...

bownyboy

First wavering of the year... I have a nearly 3 year old iPad 2 which I use everyday. I'm getting seriously tempted to upgrade to iPad Air and then give the iPad 2 to the OH.

I currently have wifi+3g 64GB and would want the same but an Air. Options with Three are £349 + £25 per month for 24 months. Or purchase outright at John Lewis £659 with 3 year guarantee and then choose £7.50 pay as you go SIM with Three.

I guess the question is do I really need it? No, not really. The iPad 2 is perfectly fine (if a tad slow now with iOS7).

Went through 2 purchase processes and then stopped at the last minute.

Need a cold shower now. Must. Resist. Think of the savings and investment targets for the year.

bownyboy

In preparation for applying for a remortgage on March 30th, I took out a free equifax 30 day trail to view my credit report. I'm rated as 528 / excellent, which is a relief, until I saw I had a single late payment on a credit card in 2011 (settled and closed the following month).

I've no idea why this was as I always use direct debits. The account was closed over 2.5 years ago.

Just hope this doesn't adversely affect my applications....

bownyboy

Morning all,

Payday today so time for monthly update:

• January 2014 - £106,929 / £358 / £11.96
• February 2014 - £105,967 / £355 / £11.85

Savings & investments now at £9,450 so effective mortgage of £96,517

Next I'm going to calculate the date at which I estimate my savings and investments will equal my outstanding mortgage balance.

edinburgher

Hi there BB - if it's not teaching you to suck eggs - I find the fv function in Excel very good for that :beer:

cb4fwh

bownyboy wrote: »

In preparation for applying for a remortgage on March 30th

Just scanned over your thread - you've come a long way in 3 years!

I'm also with A&L - having got off the phone to them yesterday, you are able to switch to a new tracker product 4 months prior, and a new fixed product 3 months prior to your current product ending.

If your product ends 30/06/2014, that means you would be able to switch to a new tracker product on the 01/03/2014.

You mentioned 30/03/2014, although I didn't know whether this was because you have now decided to go with a fixed product?

Anyway, thought that I would mention it as you may save a few bob!

gallygirl

bownyboy wrote: »

Next I'm going to calculate the date at which I estimate my savings and investments will equal my outstanding mortgage balance.

edinburgher wrote: »

Hi there BB - if it's not teaching you to suck eggs - I find the fv function in Excel very good for that :beer:

Hi there BB - I too don't want to teach you to suck eggs but I find the 'send your spreadsheet to a fellow MSE'r and get them to do it for you' function is also very good at this . Except Lois has gone disappearo .

My (well, Lois's ) formula is =INDEX(D: D,MATCH(0,J:J,-1)+1,1) where D is the date column and J is my projected balance. Oh, the hours of fun I've had trying to get it to change :rotfl:.

Edit - had to remove the space between the : and D or it turns it into !!!!

edinburgher

That would work as well, but he still needs a formula to predict his balance!

FloppyDisk

Hi BB, just popping in to say hello! I've just set up my S&S ISA too, but just the minimum payments as a bit of fun on the side as opposed to a serious option for mortgage pay off like you. Very interested to see how it goes! All the best, Floppy

bownyboy

edinburgher wrote: »

Hi there BB - if it's not teaching you to suck eggs - I find the fv function in Excel very good for that :beer:

Hi edinburgher, my excel knowledge is limited to the excellent overpayment template that I got from this site somewhere (locoblade?) which I use to show effect of overpayments. I then added another column showing my monthly savings & investments.

The aim is August 2018 to be mortgage neutral, 4.5 years to go!