Lulabelle's MFW Diary

lulabelle1

Ahh, nearly the weekend, hurrah!

Mortgage has now dipped just below the 80k mark - nice to see the o/s balance starting with a 7.... Did make a few OP's to help this along, but no more planned for the rest of the year.

The focus has definitely shifted to SIPP/S&S ISA instead. I'm going to automate this as much as possible as I really don't want to see the fluctuations - I like the idea of just leaving it alone to do "it's thing"!

Currently Sipp, S&S ISA and JISA's are all with C.S but I've completed the transfers so that the ISA/JISA's can go across to Vanguard. I was mainly invested in LS80 anyway, so have sold the other funds and the whole lot will go across and be invested in to LS80 going forwards.

I'll have a think about the SIPP once Vanguard are offering one. Is it possible to have more than one SIPP? I'm wondering whether to leave the existing one where it is and start a new one - best do some research and weigh up and pro's and con's.

Emergency fund - important yes, but how cautious should we be with the amount sitting in cash?

Bathroom on hold - just don't want to spend the money. It can wait

CathT

We've just made that transfer from CS too. I definitely need to review our pension investments, dh has a personal one and a NEST one but We definitely need to increase our contributions.

lulabelle1

@Cath - did you do a review of your pension/investments etc? Difficult to know what to prioritise isn't it?

After much dilemmas and various budgeting models, I seem to have everything fairly organised (famous last words).

Plan

Emergency fund - settled on 6 months expenses, this is now aside with a different bank, so can just sit there and hopefully never be used.

Reg Savers - 2 of them, with Nationwide, we'll contribute monthly and this will be used to fund Holidays. Any remaining each year will either roll over or be used as Mortgage OP.

Remaining "Spare" Funds

50% in to SIPP's - all set up to transfer and invest automatically so that I don't need to keep looking at the CSD platform.

25% in to S&S ISA's - set up as above but with Vanguard

25% OP Mortgage. Despite knowing that this is probably a poor investment choice and that we'd most likely do better investing it in to the ISA/SIPP, I just can't not OP. After spending so many years aiming to OP and reduce the mortgage it's just part of my make up now and it just needs to be gone for when the 10 year fix runs out. That's it. Just because

Buy to Let - Still plan to continue with this, but no plans in the foreseeable to purchase any further properties. We'll keep it with just the one. No immediate plans to OP the mortgage on this, but will review as we make progress with OP'ing the mortgage on our own property.

Our spends are much more under control than they ever were. They have reduced dramatically over the last 12 months. This has primarily been driven by my focus (obsession?) on being much more minimal. We really question everything before anything new comes in to the house. To be fair to the family, I was the worse culprit in regards to clothes, tat and other pointless crap that we didn't need. Whilst being frugal helps to a point, I would say that the main driver is by being so much more aware of fast fashion, pollution, landfill etc etc. I find it hard not to be preachy and wish it was something that I'd given thought/consideration to much sooner, but better late than never!

We continue to "de-clutter" - but it's really just a few things at a time from the loft (as everywhere else in the house is looking great!). We sell a few bits and pieces and also donate stuff to charity. I love getting a pile of stuff down and making it disappear! It's therapeutic and helps to consolidate the fact that we really don't need to buy any more "stuff!".

Where as once upon a time I would watch reviews on you tube to research my next designer bag purchase, I now watch videos on minimalism - funny how things change
(Needless to say, such purchases have now been sold and funds used for SIPP/S&S ISA/Mortgage)

moneycurious

Lula!! Sounds like you have been busy gone are the bags (??!) Well gone girlie looks like you have been busy!!!! Xx

lulabelle1

moneycurious wrote: »

Lula!! Sounds like you have been busy gone are the bags (??!) Well gone girlie looks like you have been busy!!!! Xx

Much delayed response.... Yes - bags are pretty much gone! I have a couple which were special gifts but that's it - everything else has been sold and money invested. :j

lulabelle1

Belated Happy New Year!

It's that time of year when I start to feel a little fed up - Jan & Feb are not good months for me. On the bright side, having the pooch makes things better as it means we're out and about getting fresh air and exercise at least once a day! But, I do crave some sunshine and warmer days.

I've spent a fair bit of my spare time reading/listening/watching Financial Independence blogs/podcasts/videos and am pleased to be feeling fairly focused at the moment.

I've put together various spreadsheets/forecasts and am feeling optimistic about future retirement plans. That said, we've still got a lot to do if we want to have our freedom sooner than later! When I say freedom, I mean having more choice. I've no plans to retire anytime soon as I enjoy what I do, but you just never know whats around the corner, so I guess what I'm doing is investing in my (our!) peace of mind.

Achievements:
Gathered Info on DH's DB pensions, filed and updated on spreadsheet

Forecast growth/values of existing SIPP funds

Planned future allocation of Income; SIPP/S&SISA's etc & subsequent growth/fund values etc. Set up DDM's & auto purchase of funds accordingly

Mortgage is now down to £72k, I always seem to say this, but definitely not planning any more OP's for a while as want to invest instead.

Overall, all things being equal, I'm aiming for a 50% Savings rate for the next year. It's going to mean being careful - but that ties in with my other current focus which is being as minimum and mindful as possible, so I figure the goals go hand in hand.

Other than that:
The car is still here. I'm struggling to take the plunge in regards to becoming a one car family. It's definitely the right thing to do though, so I'm going to need to put my big girl pants on and go for it.

The braces are off which is a huge relief, both financially and for my sanity. I'm happy with the results but Id only encourage anyone to get braces if they are truly unhappy with their teeth. If it's for the sakes of minor cosmetic reasons, I wouldn't recommend - it's very expensive, all consuming and it personally made me rather miserable. I have an appointment with my current dentist/ortho after our holiday to see how things are but after that I plan on switching back to a NHS dentist (assuming I can find one) as it's just stupidly expensive and really doesn't fit in to my future plans!!

lulabelle1

Aaarggghhhh, found myself googling last night. Currently in my JL basket are a vest top, sweater & jacket..... could easily add a few more things. Resisting proceed to purchase. Best laid plans and all that.

CathT

Leave them in your basket long enough and you might get sent a discount code!

lulabelle1

Ha, just looking at the last post I did on the 12th Feb about definitely OP'ing anything else off the mortgage......

Well, o/s mortgage is now down to 61k, so a fair drop since my last update.

Clearly I changed my mind!

We've decided enough's enough and we just want to be mortgage free, regardless of whether it makes more financial sense to have the money invested in Sipps/Isa's etc.

So, the date I've set is August 2020!

We can't pay anything else this year until August, we've set the money aside and will make the max OP that we can in August.

I've reduced the mortgage term to 6 years and a couple of months - basically to tie it in with when the 10 year fix is due to end - just so that I can increase the monthly payments that we make, although, because we've OP'd so much, it doesn't make a huge difference to the monthly DDM.

After we've made the max OP this Aug, we'll then set aside our OP's in a savings account for the next 12 months and then make another max OP in Aug 2020. This will leave us with a balance of around 10k. We'll either leave the balance, apply all OP's to reduce the monthly payment and just leave the mortgage to run for the rest of the term, with a month payment of around £100 or so a month. Or, we'll pay off the o/s balance of around 10k from other savings and just suffer a repayment penalty which will be 5% of the final 10k... we'll see where our head is at when Aug 20 arrives.

We'll continue with our SIPP contributions in the meantime, but S&S ISA contributions will dry up until next August.

We then need to decide what to do about the B2L mortgage. I've increased the payments from 390 to 600 as of April. Once our house is paid off, we may or may not chuck everything we can at trying to pay off the B2L. Not sure yet.

Who knows, might have changed our minds again by the time we do another update!!

CathT

Wow that's not very far away at all. It sounds like a good plan and we all have to do what works for us and what we feel comfortable with. I'm also with the mindset of chucking everything at the mortgage but do have 'increasing dh pension standing order' on our to-do list.

Leaving £100 a month to run on the mortgage is nothing really, some people spend that on a meal out!