Hurdler's Race to be Mortgage-Free

Hurdler

Grrrr had written a whole piece and then the PC ate it.

OK - so... over the shock of passing my shorthand and called the NCTJ this morning to find out when they would be updating my student record, as I can't apply (and pay for, sheeesh) an updated certificate with the shorthand pass on there until they actually update the student record online. Seeing as they had me taking an exam that I didn't do, they are not the most organised!!!

I took a look in my MFW folder, and I see that I started with a house with Monthly Reduction bricks before switching to a house with a Money value instead when I found I could hurl uber-money at it.
Those days have long gone, and I decided I would just modify my starting house from last year (with just one row deleted... simples!)
I have decided that when I have HALF a month's money put by, I will throw it at the top of the house (you will see what I mean) and will gradually bring the end date in.
(Hmm - you would think that someone who makes a living with words could explain that better!)

Vernon the Virtual Mortgage Pig is already primed to make a bit of a payment, and I will probably sort that out once I have gotten round to doing my finances this week.

So - here starteth the Hurdler's 2nd year of the race to be mortgage free, and a word of thanks to everyone who has been so so supportive since I joined at the start of the redundancy/retraining cycle and has stood by me until yesterday - when FINALLY it all was over. You are all :A

I should tell you that I am trying to blag a free advanced tech training course in payment for being their training diary blogger - will be very money saving if I can pull that off (to the tune of about £560 ...)

Enough wafflage...

House



Vernon



If I can't squeak the money in Vernon up to £420 by the end of the month, then I will pay in £210 (which is a little over half of a monthly payment) and will just hash out the brick at the top of the house until I can mark it as a full brick.

Off we go...

Edited to Add... sigh... that is an AWFUL lot of uncoloured bricks... wahhhhhhhhhh!

gallygirl

Hurdler wrote: »

I know I seem to be perpetually apologising ... but perhaps with this news you will indulge me a bit of time to sort out my Excel house...

[STRIKE]Thank f*** for that[/STRIKE][Excellent Hurdler, well done :T:T:T:T

Hurdler

gallygirl wrote: »

[STRIKE]Thank f*** for that[/STRIKE][Excellent Hurdler, well done :T:T:T:T

I do believe after the initial shock, those stricken words were my exact utterances!
And today I deleted every single damn speed development passage from iTunes with a sense of increasing glee!

Now - what the hell am I gonna do with this here house?

gallygirl

Hurdler wrote: »

Edited to Add... sigh... that is an AWFUL lot of uncoloured bricks... wahhhhhhhhhh!

Never mind, it would be boring if it was easy .

Hurdler

gallygirl wrote: »

Never mind, it would be boring if it was easy .

Hmmm... I was looking for the SOA sites .... I must do a new one to reflect my articulate, yet church-mouse status...

I can't remember the one I looked at many eons ago... but now I am 100% freelance, I think it's probably a good ready reckoner....

Hurdler

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 800
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 500
Total monthly income.................... 1300

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 419
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 120
Electricity............................. 35
Gas..................................... 46
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 37.31
Telephone (land line)................... 13.25
Mobile phone............................ 36
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 64.6
Internet Services....................... 13.25
Groceries etc. ......................... 75
Clothing................................ 25
Petrol/diesel........................... 50
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 67
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 50
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 10.45
Contents insurance...................... 10.45
Life assurance ......................... 36.74
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 25
Haircuts................................ 40
Entertainment........................... 100
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1296.17


Assets
Cash.................................... 40000
House value (Gross)..................... 370000
Shares and bonds........................ 10000
Car(s).................................. 16000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 436000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 93456....(419)......0.97
Total secured & HP debts...... 93456.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Total unsecured debts..........0.........0.........-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,300
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,296.17
Available for debt repayments........... 3.83
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount left after debt repayments....... 3.83

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 436,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -93,456
Total Unsecured debt.................... -0
Net Assets.............................. 342,544

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.stoozing.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

Well on a very basic month - I just about break even, and it doesn't help that I just got a note this morning from my client saying NO articles for this month and postpone my invoice - so there's some of my savings going this month then... sigh.

Although he has some forthcoming ideas... so... we'll see.

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice

Hi, So pleased for you that you passed!

I really like the house and coloured bricks... I might have to 'borrow' that idea.

Your gas and elec seem quite high, any reason? We pay for both gas and elec monthly what you pay just for gas (and there's two of us!). The satellite and cable TV also seems a big cost in your budget.

Hurdler

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice wrote: »

Hi, So pleased for you that you passed!

I really like the house and coloured bricks... I might have to 'borrow' that idea.

Your gas and elec seem quite high, any reason? We pay for both gas and elec monthly what you pay just for gas (and there's two of us!). The satellite and cable TV also seems a big cost in your budget.

Gas and Electric jumped when I quit my job and now work at home so I am not really surprised that there was a bit of a leap as all the various PCs and laptops are off and running from early in the day to late at night.

Sky is seen as a luxury - and will stay as my passion is sports writing, so part of that is access to sports coverage.
But I called them when I became freelance and they actually dropped the rate for me by quite a long way (it's actually about £10 more than that in real life) until January 2013, after which I hope I will be earning a lot more...

I have piggy bank accounts for:
Weekly Cash Allowance of £70 per week
Treat Account - whatever is left from the £70 is thrown into that for ... well.. treats!
Buffer Fund: there is a buffer of £500 - there was a standing order for £100 and I just end up transferring it back if the buffer is full.
I have a Car expenses account for things like insurance, tax and services.

I always wrestle with whether I should put aside £75 for groceries in one of the rare Tesco Clubcard Plus accounts - they don't do them anymore, but I get double points on groceries and also have money always put aside to do the fortnightly shop.

I have noticed a MAHUSIVE increase to treat account funds (which should tide me over this month while I work out where the next writing roles will be coming from) with not drinking like a fish in the pub next to journo school....

This constant chopping and changing of ideas and requirements from my client is beginning to wear thin now... and things have gone from 8 articles a month and reviews to half that, and we're waiting for the next round of reviews to take off, and now this month, possibly nothing.
So... I am going to dip into my redundancy fund and start training up to the next level of my IT skills, and get a CV ready for more "traditional" contracting if things dry up and I can't land any sporty stuff.

That being said - one of the managing editors of the Sports Agency attached to journo school sent me a congratulatory tweet on passing shorthand, and I chatted to the owner when I came in for remedial classes the other day, so this weekend (now I am officially certified) I am going to apply to them for freelance work, and also will probably apply to the BBC Trainee scheme.

I have sold off a lot of the shares I inherited (incorporated in the Cash Assets) but they were from my late father, so gradually will build up a Stocks and Shares ISA portfolio.

There's also £15K in ISAs... so I have a bit of a buffer so the redundancy money will be handy to help train up for a few things...

So not panicking just yet... oh to get that foot in the sporting door......

unhappy_shopper

Hi Hurdler,

Your life insurance looks a bit on the higher side, IMHO.

Life assurance ......................... 36.74

May be it is worthwhile getting a new quote and switching.

US

Hurdler

unhappy_shopper wrote: »

Hi Hurdler,

Your life insurance looks a bit on the higher side, IMHO.

Life assurance ......................... 36.74

May be it is worthwhile getting a new quote and switching.

US

Actually given my medical history and coverage on this plan, it's worth holding on to. I did actually sit down with a financial planner and asked him to look at things like pension etc and we stripped out a lot of payments to a very under performing AVC. Duh I didn't add my pension payments

Maybe the reason I haven't realised the full "just break even" effect is that I transferred a huge chunk of money to the current account as income got lower to act as a buffer.

I think tomorrow I will put this down properly including the flow from piggy banks which is actually covering quite a lot on its own - but not really sure how to do it within the SOA structure