2012 mfw

lighthousescotland

Thank you Spiggle too!

Southernman

I see so many people throwing money towards their mortgage but does anyone fit anything into a savings pot too??

I've had to reduce my yearly target by a few hundred as i'm not sure i'm going to manage it

Too many holidays planned !

LavenderBees

Southernman wrote: »

I see so many people throwing money towards their mortgage but does anyone fit anything into a savings pot too??

I've had to reduce my yearly target by a few hundred as i'm not sure i'm going to manage it

Too many holidays planned !

I probably won't hit my yearly target either as I miscalculated it by £3500 (:eek:) but I'm leaving it as it is as, without doubt, it is forcing me to squeeze every penny until they squeak to get as close as possible to it

All my money for OPs has been put in a savings pot as I can't actually op until Nov. However, that is all earmarked for ops for mortgage, so effectively, I have no backup/emergency savings, although I could access my op money if I really needed to...but am obviously determined not to.

This month, however, I have just managed to save enough to pay off the whole of my mortgage i.e. my savings just (and for the first time ever) equal the amount of capital outstanding on my mortgage :T. It's a lovely feeling to have achieved phase 1 of my plan :A

Phase 2 is now launched - What this means, is that from May payday onwards, everything I save is going into a new savings pot (same savings accounts though) and this money is earmarked for building up a year's emergency fund for [STRIKE]if[/STRIKE] when my job disappears from under me.

If I still have my job, when I've achieved Phase 2, I'll then go into Phase 3 mode, which is saving up for a wee car to replace my company car [STRIKE]if[/STRIKE] when my job disappears.

If I still have my job, when I've achieved Phase 3, I'll then launch phase 4 - which is saving up for home improvements. I have everything crossed that my rickety old wooden porch and windows don't collapse during phase 2 or 3 or I have a HUGE dilemma :A. Having said that, my priority has always been to ensure I keep my wee roof over my head, the porch is expendable......

I doubt I'll reach Phase 5...which is ...saving up for a wander round India...but never say never....

Sorry, just realised this is a long post, but it's been useful for me to spell out my short, medium & long term aims. I never thought I'd achieve Phase 1, so I'm chuffed to bits to be launching Phase 2 today.

Have a lovely Wednesday...we're on the downward slope to Friday now

LB xx

gallygirl

You really do need to start thinking longer term LB, you can't just have these short term goals :rotfl:.

The trouble with long posts is that some things get passed over, so just in case anyone missed it:

LavenderBees wrote: »

This month, however, I have just managed to save enough to pay off the whole of my mortgage i.e. my savings just (and for the first time ever) equal the amount of capital outstanding on my mortgage :T. It's a lovely feeling to have achieved phase 1 of my plan :A

:j:j:j How exciting for you :j:j:j, well done :T. Let phase 2 commence, phase 5 is looming closer .

lighthousescotland

Hi LB, I absolutely relate to your post. I too have all my fingers and toes crossed that windows don't fall in whilst I am concentrating on OPs. Phase two for me is replacing windows and carpets - the draw back of living in a rickety old property. Sometimes am glad neighbours on either side are propping it up!

Malski

Another £451 OP, mortgage now down to £18,825.12

Spiggle

Morning All,

Can't say 'good' morning as the weather is truly appalling!

Southernman I make smallish OPs by standing order to the mortgages each month. In addition, I put £600 (2 x £300) into reg savers every month which are unofficially (i.e. my own version) offset against the mortgages every month. The original plan was that I would pay off the lump sum at maturity of the regular saver every year. BUT the ISA rate I could get for fixing for 18 months in March persuaded me that it would be foolish to pay it off the second mortgage (interest 1.49%) when I could get just over 4% in the ISA. :think: This has sort of messed with my own snowball effect which I haven't yet fully worked through but we are still on target to be MF in August 2015 I believe. The amount we now have in savings accounts would clear the second mortgage and a proportion of the first. I've just opened another couple of savings accounts for me and him to put any further excess funds again as offset but as it's easy access can also act as emergency funds should we need it. Oh, I've adjusted your target as per your googledoc request.

Congratulations LavenderBees! :T How fantastic to achieve your first target, absolutely brilliant. :dance: I love your medium to long term planning. As I said above we only have a plan to 2015 but I have been flexible about it. I was originally adamant that savings would be paid directly off the mortgage at the year end. It took the settlement statements which put the amount of interest paid into pounds and pence rather than % to make me realise I was being rather foolish! :doh: I do have to find some time though to re-snowball the figures to allow for the changes. :think:

A great highlight there gallygirl! I hope your and LB's windows hold up lighthousescotland.

A great OP Malski which is all updated for you. Your outstanding figure is nicely reducing month on month. :cool:

Right I must get on, see you all tonight.

All the best,
Spigs

LavenderBees

Aw, thanks for your congrats, Everyone.

It means a lot to me to have access to such lovely likeminded people... I actually have very few people in my life who really appreciate the importance of this achievement to me, so thank you for recognising it :T

curlygirl1971

Southernman wrote: »

I see so many people throwing money towards their mortgage but does anyone fit anything into a savings pot too??
QUOTE]

Depends what you call savings.

I have a savings account that contains a pot of money that pays for annual and one off expenses such as Insurances, Car Repairs, Holidays, new used car, Christmas blah blah blah. Its instant access and I make sure it earns as much as it can. I pay into it each month as if it's a Bill.

But longer term savings - no not really. I have them but I don't add to them. I OP or I save. As much as I love seeing that savings balance going up I have a really good pot of savings - probably more than I need for a rainy day but the thoughts of delving into them more than I have brings me out in hives.

I can't justify adding to my existing savings rather than OP'ing. My savings earn anywhere between 2.8 - 3.75%. My Mortgage costs me 3.99%.


Well done LB - Lots of hard work for you to get to that point methinks!

Spiggle

Good morning,

A couple of updates from the googledoc this morning.

Your regular OP is listed lawbee, great steady progress.

Also waughc, your brilliant May OP is now on the spreadsheet.

On the conversation we were having yesterday, I didn't think about piggy bank savings when replying to Southernman. I also pay a series of amounts every month as if they were bills into savings 'jars' to cover annual (e.g. car service) and/or regular expenditure not covered in other accounts (e.g. birthdays). Thanks for the reminder curlygirl!

See you tonight,
Spigs