Countdown to Freedom

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

A new diary as we enter the last two months of 2011. I have been lurking for almost a year and have found so many of you inspirational, particularly Billy, Michelle, Radish, and Museum Worker.

A bit of background I am married to a great man, two kids who are growing up too quickly, two cats and a dog! Never a dull moment in our household as you can imagine.

I had my LB moment 12 months ago and started to work on my husband to bring him round as I thought we both needed to be on board to tackle this project. I have just asked him when he had his LB moment and he said 'when you told me I had' however he swiftly followed this up with 'when I realised we would never reduce the mortgage whilst battling with 'the large Spanish bank'!

To set the stage for where we are and where we are aiming for:
Current mortgage £312000 :eek: and I wince as I type the number, with the outstanding mortgage due to finish in 10 years. Aim is to clear the mortgage in 6 years. We are fortunate that we are both employed on good salaries however in this day and age who knows how long that will last.
Onwards and upwards, my next post will be to build a picture of how I/we have put into practice all the things learnt from you great people.

Thanks for reading and I hope some day I can inspire others the way some of you have inspired me/us.

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Trying to figure out how to add to my new diary......... Apologies you'll have to bear with me as I am learning the ropes.

During the last six months we have:

Prepared between 3-4 weeks worth of menus at a time to enable us to use freezer contents and food stores up wisely
Started doing surveys and using cash back sites
Opened new bank account to get the introductory cash welcome
Opened regular savings account
Topped up one cash ISA
Opened up a cash back credit card
Huge fan of the grabbit thread and really benefited from this
Reviewed our financials to make sure we know where our money goes

Next thing to do: start a spending diary

sweetdaisy

Good luck in your quest to repay the mortgage in 6 years. Look forward to reading how you get on .

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

I was quite anxious about posting on here as the mortgage is so high, however what really matters is the disposable income. We all face the same problems of how to stretch the portion of our money which is available. I have experienced the same problems as some of you and when mentioning my dream of clearing the mortgage sooner to friends, pretty much without exception people thought it was unnecessary. Why bother and make life so difficult? This was one of the questions I was asked.

Hence starting a diary among people who understand the desire to be rid of the mill stone.

I have set up the following to enable me to really understand how much I can afford to throw at the mortgage:

Saving accounts which get topped up after payday:
Car maintenance
Holidays
Christmas
Children's birthdays
Annual bills, ie TV license, bldg/content insurance
Subscriptions
Food
Credit card


We do need to build up a savings buffer so that's going to be the next area of focus, along with the spending diary.

Thanks for the inspiration

newgirly

Hi tilly , welcome

Yours is a scarily high mortgage, but the principles are the same and the bigger the mortgage to start with the more interest saved when you overpay.

There are so many helpful tips here which will help along the way, I find reading other's diaries gives me a boost sometimes when I'm not feeling i'm doing so well.

You are right in saying its what you do with the money you have , i'm sure most of us know high earners who "are broke", its how careful you are with what you have thats important, whether its a little or a lot.

Good luck on your mf diary and don't listen to anyone who says its not worth it, they won't be saying that when you are mf!

originalmiscellany

Wow - this should be a good thread to watch, esp. if you're able to keep on hammering down your mortgage - I know you know these stats, but you will need to overpay 4.33k a month to get mortgage free in your time frame (assuming only interest paid off per month).
Many people here are really encouraging of others in their pursuit to loosen the shackles of mortgages, and I myself have been helped and supported by many people here since becoming a more regular poster than when I first started.

Looking forward to seeing you make positive progression.

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Thanks for posting. Yep i agree with your analysis, i came to the conclusion it would be around that number.

However, on a practical front, we tend not to eat out as we love cooking, we don't smoke, nor pop to the pub so our entertainment tends to be saving for a holiday and doing things with the kids.

I forgot to mention in my initial post that our current mortgage is 5.39% with the 'spanish' bank and the 5 year fix ends in March 2012. We have opened a FD account in readiness for an offset mortgage at that point. So I/we have 4 months of salary to save hard and then it's a different type of saving.

My DH and I wonder why it has taken us from 2004 to now, to decide to follow this path but I didn't feel I could tackle this on my own and it's only over the last few months that we have both reached the same conclusion.

So now it's time - feels a mountain to climb and I/we have given ourselves a tough challenge but there will come a day when we look back on this, breath deeply and say "we've done it" - :dance:

dimbo61

Good decision on the offset mortgage ( is it a tracker?) and the more you can build up in the offset pot the better.
Its always reassuring to have 3/6 months of income ( upto 16K ) in the offset to start then overpay as much as you can afford.
There is a world of difference between having £16K of debts on credit cards/store cards/loans and £16k sat in the bank (just in case)
I have had an offset mortgage for the last 7 years and I think its the best way to clear the mortgage early.
Buying a car thats 6/12 months old is also a big saving compared to new

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Thanks for your post D. We currently have around £8k in savings but agree that £16k or even possibly up to £20k would be a real help. I am wondering if my mind is a bit flawed: In my head I am looking for two buckets, both of which could be off set against the mortgage but one would be 'available' money if push comes to shove, but the other bucket, the mortgage offset, needs to be untouchable. I know it would be available if in dire straits but mentally I want to forget it's available.

Fortunately both me and my DH aren't really into cars, both cars are at least 6 years old with one having just pinged over the 100k mile point. This is likely to mean we have to find cash for that but the intent is to run them until they collapse.

We both feel nervous and relieved that we have posted as this is going to help focus the brain but having had such negative comments from friends about over paying it's made us determined to keep quiet to the outside world as many people just don't understand

On a practical front the Christmas shopping is now complete and I am going to do the wrapping next Saturday whilst the kids are out. I have built up a great hamper thanks to glitches, £land and HB for Mom and am looking forward to packing that up for her, and most other gifts have been purchased on line and am now waiting expectantly for them to be confirmed on Quido and TCB.

Having a think regarding how we track our spending as we are not consistent. I feel that NSDs may be a big help so I will have a look at that challenge and see how I can use that for added focus.

On another positive point I don't buy magazines, I always pop to the library and pick them up from there, so I get to support the local library and find cooking inspiration at the same time.

Off now to finish the dinner for tomorrow night - Monday's are completely insane here so I like to know I only have to heat up the dinner not cook it from scratch.

Thanks to all for reading and hopefully it will get more interesting once I/we get the mortgage moved and in the meantime 'keep saving'!! In my head I could hear Brucie on a Saturday night, so I hope DH doesn't read this post otherwise I will never hear the last of it.

Onwards and upwards......

Aless

Just to chip is with support for the large mortgage. Three and a half years ago our mortgage was more than yours, about £333k (I think) and now it is about £200k less. We also have a fix of very slightly less than yours so have not really benefited from interest rate cuts. So it can be done but 6 years is pretty optimistic!

Paying it down can start to feel a bit endless because progress seems like a drop in the ocean but every little does count. My advice is not to focus on monthly payments as you will start to feel like you are not going anywhere but to take stock after 6 months or a year and look at the progress. That way you can really appreciate the payments you have made.

adwat

Hi Tilly

That's a stonker of a mortgage! I look forward to seeing you make progress over the coming months, good luck and welcome to the MFW's.