Sweetdaisy's aim to be mortgage-free

sweetdaisy

southerndave wrote: »

Just caught up with your doings Daisy and what can I say but WOW! Superb news on the mortgage and getting under £60k, I am pleased for you. We need to catch up now!

Also great news on the car and I am mighty impressed with the stuff you got thrown in for free! Only word of caution is regarding breakdown cover, which I never know is worth it or not. You do get what you pay for and the big players like the RAC and the AA have major resources to get to you and the car. Small firms and chains and insurers often only use local networks, i.e. they call the local guy with a Transit recovery truck and hope for the best. We don't have breakdown cover now, but when we did I always went for one of the major players, not the cheap alternatives. Who'd you rather see on a rainy, windswept night - AA man with the right gear and decent lorry or tatty transit with bloke in greasy jeans upset cause he's missing the football?

Sorry to hear about you ankle and glad you're on the mend. Inspirational stuff with the savings, well done!

Thanks Dave .

Re: car breakdown - I decided to stay with AA as I have been with them for years and they have always been reliable, so better the devil you know and all that . . .

Re: mortgage/savings - Anyone reading my diary will be able to see that I am forever changing my mind about whether I will plough all spare money into Savings or make mortgage overpayments .

I am trying to keep a £1,000 'float' in my Savings account to pay for: childcare costs, car maintenance, insurances, family activities, household items etc. Any extra money is then put into the Emergency Fund which will be used towards paying off the mortgage.

The one thing that has changed is that I am starting to, dare I say it, become less obsessed about being MF and am spending a little more money on treats for my family and myself. Nothing extravagant, but just little treats every now and then i.e. going out for meals, days out, updating home furnishings etc as 'all work and no play' makes me miserable :rotfl:.

southerndave

Thats not far off how I felt in January and why I 'dropped out' for a bit. I wish I hadn't but I am tempering my all or nothing attitude but its taken 40 odd years so far and I am not there yet! Definitely need to balance between getting rid of the mortgage and living a little, especially while the kids are young. You can always buy stuff and pay off debt, but you cannot buy time and especially time with your kids before they grow up and leave. This is one reason why we have day's out and have ensured we have had a holiday EVERY year whether we can afford it or not, as I never wanted to look back or have my son look back and say we never went anywhere or did anything because we couldn't afford it.

Keep up the momentum though, you have done an AMAZING job so far!

sweetdaisy

southerndave wrote: »

Definitely need to balance between getting rid of the mortgage and living a little, especially while the kids are young. You can always buy stuff and pay off debt, but you cannot buy time and especially time with your kids before they grow up and leave. This is one reason why we have day's out and have ensured we have had a holiday EVERY year whether we can afford it or not, as I never wanted to look back or have my son look back and say we never went anywhere or did anything because we couldn't afford it.

Very true. I have done a lot of thinking over the past few weeks which has allowed me to put things into perspective.

I am steam rolling ahead with my plans and am going to be starting part-time college in September and looking to change direction in regards to my job. This may mean that my MFW plans will be put on hold temporarily, but this is necessary to have a better worklife balance and feel happier .

southerndave

Good, I hope it works our for you. I forgot to ask, being a nosey sod, what made you close your S&S ISA and move to a cash one? Aren't the S&S ones better over the long term with such low interest rates on cash?

sweetdaisy

southerndave wrote: »

Good, I hope it works our for you. I forgot to ask, being a nosey sod, what made you close your S&S ISA and move to a cash one?

I closed my S&S ISA as I was unhappy with the admin/management charges being applied and noticed that it wasn't earning as much as it used to. Also to be honest, I don't really know why I took it out in the first place as I don't know enough about Stocks and Shares .

I am a little risk-averse when it comes to Savings for the children and this money will be used towards helping the children to go to college, getting on the property ladder, helping towards any Weddings (if they get married that is) etc. There are a lot of 'ifs' in there but when the children are at an age for these types of things, I want to be able to help them out - but don't want to have to re-mortgage/take out a loan to do this.

southerndave wrote: »

Aren't the S&S ones better over the long term with such low interest rates on cash?

I may have made a mistake closing the S&S ISA, but there is no way to predict what return I'd get by the time that DS1 is 18 years old. As this is a long-term savings plan I would rather the money be in a Cash ISA, so that I at least know that it is safer there and I am not going to end up losing money on it.

gallygirl

sweetdaisy wrote: »

I may have made a mistake closing the S&S ISA, but there is no way to predict what return I'd get by the time that DS1 is 18 years old. As this is a long-term savings plan I would rather the money be in a Cash ISA, so that I at least know that it is safer there and I am not going to end up losing money on it.

Hate to confuse you even more SD but by having it in a cash ISA that's quite likely to happen. You'll need to ensure you move it around regularly to make sure you get the best rate - and accept you'll probably have to open 2 every year - one to fund with new money and one which accepts transfers, it's hard to find a good rate on one which allows both. If you don't and the rate you get is just 0.5% less than inflation then an initial 1k would lose around £75 in value over 15 years. Over a long term funds will do much better.

If I was you I'd look at a low cost index tracker of some kind, and only move into cash the few years before it's needed.

So, that's helped clarify things :rotfl:.

sweetdaisy

Thanks for the info gallygirl . I was thinking, down the line when we have over £10,000 in the account, about maybe putting it into a fixed rate bond so that it would earn more interest than the ISA. However, I need to do more research on this first.

sweetdaisy

Monthly interest of £173 has been applied to the mortgage, which brings the balance to £59,238.

Received an Interest statement from Natwest informing us that through offsetting we saved £79.39 this quarter, a total saving of £3,029 since we started offsetting.

Celebrated DS1's birthday this week and had a little tea party at home _party_, attended a party for his school friend and have another party to go to next Saturday.

I have just finished reading Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’. This is the first time that I have read it and it’s nothing like I expected it to be - quite emotional in places and was an enjoyable read. I only have another 28 books to read on my list . I must stop adding books to my 'reading list' as I am not getting through them quick enough.

gallygirl

sweetdaisy wrote: »

I have just finished reading Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’. This is the first time that I have read it and it’s nothing like I expected it to be - quite emotional in places and was an enjoyable read. I only have another 28 books to read on my list . I must stop adding books to my 'reading list' as I am not getting through them quick enough.

Oh dear, I think I wept buckets when I read it :rotfl:.

sweetdaisy

I couldn't resist and made an overpayment of £250 which brings the mortgage balance down to £58,988. Even without any further overpayments the mortgage balance will be in the £55,000’s by the end of the year.

On the 1st I transferred more money into my new Cash ISA. I have no where near the yearly allowance of £15,000 in there but I am aiming to save £25,000 by 2026.

This week DH had to replace the front tyres on his car and needed to have them balanced costing £150, but hopefully they should last for quite a few months.

I’ve had two meetings this week with local Recruitment Agencies and my CV has been ‘put out to market’. So it’s a waiting game now to see if anything comes up.

I am pleased to say that apart from stocking fillers, I have bought all Christmas presents :xmassmile for the boys. I like being organised and was well within budget.