My MF Dream... be free of the shackles by 40... 117 months to go

MyMFDream

Welcome to my new diary which I hope will keep me on track to acheiving my dream of being mortgage free by 40. I have 117 months to clear 110k.

I aim to save and make as much money as possible during this time without comprimising my families standerd of living.

To be honest we could clear an awful lot by having no holidays, selling a car and just generally cutting all spends right back to the bone but I am hoping for some balance so we can basically be overpaying without 'doing without'. Well thats the theory anyway :eek:

Our mortgage is currently fixed at 5.99 until November 2012 with 10% overpayments allowed until that time. As I can't beat this rate with tax free savings I am overpaying mortgage directly. I am also investing a small amount (£50) each month in shares which may go up or down obviously but i'm hoping that in the medium term we will have a decent return.. I am looking at investing a small amount in Zopa for a similar reason..

I already use cashback sites for insurances and comparison engines for the same. I am always open to suggestions about where to save money or how to make money so if anyone has ideas fire them on over.

lincoln-potter

Hi and welcome to MFW.

You should post an SOA when you get chance so people can have a look and make suggestions.
There are always saving sto be made, mostly its just a case of how far back you are willing to trim.

regards
LP

wynnvegas

Hi MFW,

Best of luck to you. I'd second the shout for an SOA. The best thing in my experience was having a monthly target (deduced from the SOA which should include all the things you won't or don't want to give up). Having a "spare" amount per month and factoring that into the existing mortgage with a best estimate at the applicable interest rate will give you a relatively firm mortgage free date. At that point, you can decide whether a fancy holiday or another couple of months toward mortgage freedom is most important to you. We kept with one decent holiday a year throughout our mortgage term and I'm glad we did now as we've got the freedom to go away every month now should we choose to do so.

Cheers,

Billy

yukkibear

Welcome to the boards and good luck with your challenges.

MyMFDream

A statrement of account is a scary prospect i'm afriad.. we are very much a household of if money availible spend it rather than a heavilly budgeted household. This is one of the reasons for this diary, to give me structure and aims or limits.

Currently if i do a budget with what i think we should be spending, allowing for savings for big ticket items like new car and the one off bills like christmas, insurances etc we end up looking like we have around a £700 surplus but in reality we only overpay 100-150 a month so 500+ is disappearing into the big wide beyond.

lincoln-potter

MyMFDream wrote: »

A statrement of account is a scary prospect i'm afriad.. we are very much a household of if money availible spend it rather than a heavilly budgeted household. This is one of the reasons for this diary, to give me structure and aims or limits.

Currently if i do a budget with what i think we should be spending, allowing for savings for big ticket items like new car and the one off bills like christmas, insurances etc we end up looking like we have around a £700 surplus but in reality we only overpay 100-150 a month so 500+ is disappearing into the big wide beyond.

It is a scary thing to look at where you "waste" the extra money, but without an SOA you will never really know where your money goes.

Iris_Blue

Hi and welcome,:)

Where is the £500 going to ? You need to do a spending diary and be honest with yourselves. Do you account for absolutely everything?

I know where every penny is going to because I keep a check. I'm very strict with myself as I'm a all or nothing kind of girl , it would be very easy for me to think oh what the heck and just spend. I wish I was a saver and not a spender.

I'm also interested in zopa but it scares me a little. I would like to put some in next month or so, a very small amount. I think I'll wait for you to invest then I will watch and follow

MyMFDream

Oh I know 'where' it goes for the most part I just find it very annoying.. Mostly its overspending on clothes and food, I have not quite worked out if that is because I have set the amounts too low or if I just overspend willy nilly. Spending diary is pretty much essential i think..

elantan

i do think an soa can be very beneficial ... but i also know that it isnt for everyone ... i do my soa myself and sort it out from there ... i know how great this place can be but i also know how good i can be with money ... there is nothing on my soa that can be altered ( but then i have been doing this for a while now lol) ...

good luck on your journey

MyMFDream

I think spending diary for April will be the way to go.. Everything goes on a cashback card so March bill should be intesting and then Aprils bill i can compare to spending diary

SeriouslySeekingtoSave

I've not done a SOA either. My spending varies from month to month as does my monthly paypacket and I'm just keeping a monthly spending diary for now. At the end of the year I'll go through everything and do a yearly total. Should make for some interesting reading for me. In fact just keeping the diary has made me very focused - as I'm committing myself to posting it I'd rather not have a huge budget blowout due to some crazy shopping or something like that