Lois_E begins a long MFW journey

gratefulforhelp_2

I did passport photos in a booth in PO, including a 3 year old. Booths are much improved since my youth! They tell you on screen if pic is acceptable or not.

Lois_E

Took my kids into town today. We cycled - total 6 miles round trip. This is a good thing because
a) It didn't cost anything in petrol
b) I would like to be a bit fitter than my current sedentary self
c) It might help with the problem of all DD's clothes getting too tight round the waist
d) They might sleep better tonight

SJ1

I do love tiring them out. We went on a massive hike around a local national trust property. They slept like babies and they loved it, although we did have to come up with a 'finding' game at one point.

SJ

misscousinitt

Hoping that the passport photos will be ok - definately go for high street shoot if they arn't - I found them very good.

Peonie

Lois_E wrote: »

=INDEX(D:D,MATCH(0,J:J,-1)+1,1)

INDEX(range,rownumber,columnnumber) gives the value in the relevant row and column of the range. D:D is a range with only one column, so if we put =INDEX(D:D,rownumber,1) then we get the value in the relevant row of column D.

To work out the row number we use MATCH, which gives the position of a value in a range. MATCH(0,J:J,-1) means look for 0 in column J, and the -1 bit means that the values in J are in decreasing order. This gives the position of the smallest number in J that's bigger than 0. We don't want that, we want the first number that's negative, which is the next row down. So we take the MATCH answer and add one to it to get the next row. That means that the row number we want to put in our INDEX function is MATCH(0,J:J,-1)+1.

I'm not sure what you mean by your two versions giving different end dates. When you generate your two sets of values with dates, are they identical? Which columns have you got them in? Where are you putting the date matching formulae, and what exactly do they say?

Hope that helps.

Thank you for the explanation and for trying to help.

I found the problem. When I started my MS journey I was still in my old house which we moved into in 2003, which is not that long ago, so I went back to the beginning and added in all of the old data, and made a pretty chart showing the progress we made.

If I had inserted D:D and J:J the formula would identify these current months of our mortgage free existence rather than the end of the mortgage for our next house. Therefore after D:D and J:J I included a range of 103:410, starting and finishing over the period of the next mortgage. And that's where the problem occurred. For the overpayment calculation I started the one of the ranges at 104 rather 103 by mistake. :doh: Therefore skewing the mortgage free date.

So much for checking the formula!

You probably would have been happy with 'Thanks I've found the problem', but I felt the need to explain.

Peonie.

Lois_E

Thanks - I'm happy I could help, and interested in what you found had gone wrong. If you don't want those smilies to appear where you don't want them, D:D for example, instead of D : D without the spaces, then select "disable smilies" at the bottom of your post - but then of course you won't get any smilies elsewhere in your post either.

I have nothing much to report. My spreadsheet was up to date last night, and today I've only spent a couple of quid, which I will type into the spreadsheet later when I'm using the laptop that's got the file on it - can't do it from this computer.

Vixstar

All this talk of spreadsheet formulas/li/lae :think: has made me want to create another one with mortgage info in it rather than just spending diary stuff ready for when I can OP. What kind of info do you put in yours?

Lois_E

Mine has date, in/out (ie interest and payments), and balance.

Then I have another bit further over with actual balance monthly (on 6th, which is my mortgage interest/payment day), and what the balance would have been with no OPs, projected to MF date, and displayed on a graph.

I need to add some more sophisticated things to calculate total interest payable over the life of the mortgage, interest saved by each OP, and stuff like that. I'm quite new to this MFW thing, though, and I've had a couple of busy weeks at work, so my spreadsheet is still a work in progress.

Vixstar

Think I'll work on the stuff in the first paragraph and then add the more detailed stuff later. I'm only just starting out too so have plenty of time to tinker with a spreadsheet!

Lois_E

Spending diary up to date. Only a few more days and I'll have been doing it a whole month.

Very very tired - have spent a lot of this weekend asleep - good thing sleep is free.