Quest To Pay Off My 150K Mortgage in 3 Yrs!

happy1982

Shanks Pony is nice lol!

black_taxi_2

isnt it relative--depending on wage or combined wage

still a good acomplishment if u can do it thou

DD2_2

New Update, New Username!!

I've been away from MSE for what seems like months and I've come back to find that my username no longer works. Oh well, it's a bit of a faff but I'll not let it get me down.

Since I last updated my blog, I have pretty much closed down my business and moved all the money into my offset. I also succumbed and bought a new car - a Toyota Celica instead of a Z4 but it was a close run thing.

Between the last update and now, I have paid £20k into my offset, so our mortgage now stands at £83,270.34. I am hoping that between now and the end of the MFi3 challenge that I will have paid that down to a nice round £80k.

I also paid some money from the company into our pension plans, mine now stands at £90k and my wife's is £10k. So with 9 months left of the MFi3 challenge I have reduced my mortgage by £67,000 and increased our joint pension pots to £100k, something I would never have dreamed possible a couple of years ago.

I have a bit of tax to pay (and annoyingly, still one invoice to be paid), but once this is sorted I'm hoping to still have the the balance of the £20k in the offset account.

TallGirl

That's a great achievement you can be proud of yourself. If it hadn't been for you I would still have had a mortgage of £30K but now thanks to overpaying and a bit of help from the family I shall be MF at Christmas.

Hope you enjoy that Celica we had one about 7 years ago and loved it. Really nice cars and very sound.

DD2_2

The Celica is a compromise, a really nice 'toy' for me but one that has relatively good fuel consumption and hasn't cost a fortune either.

The MFi3 works both ways, I may have started it but without the other member's mutual support and encouragement I probably would have moved onto a new scheme after a few months. I didn't choose the 'Dithering Dad' name lightly

I forgot to add in my summing up, that we have also had the gardens landscaped, a new office fitted and had other bits of work done of the house during the MFi3 period. This has enhanced the value and more importantly our enjoyment of our home immensely.

We have 9 months to go and I'm aiming for a relatively easy £3k overpayment for these last few months. If my tax bill isn't too bad there might be a small possibility of me reducing the mortgage down to £75k, which would be a great milestone because it'd mean I had paid off half of the £150k mortgage in 3 years - not quite the result I was hoping for at the start of the quest, but given that my wife had to give up working, and we decided to pay more into our pensions, not a bad result.

Anyway, 9 more months to go!!! Onward and upward!!

DD2_2

Yay! My last invoice has been paid by my customer and I have also paid my last company bill (accountant). My offset now has £26k in it, so my mortgage now stands at £78,247.10. I have paid my income tax bill (and I'm expecting a rebate on this once they receive my self-assessment) and I have about 9 months before my Corporation Tax bill is due. By happy coincidence, this is pretty much when the MFi3 challenge ends.

My aims over the remaining 9 months will be to get together the remaining £6k that I need to cover my £12k CT bill (without touching my £20k offset savings) and about £3k to get our side garden landscaped (this is now looking shabby next to the rear garden that was landscaped a year or so ago).

By the end of MFi3, Mrs Dither & I will hopefully have settled all our outstanding tax bills and have a mortgage at £80k, savings of £20k and joint pensions of over £100k. Not bad for 3 years of strict(ish) financial management

Catanddogs

You have done really well. These diarys are a soooo inspirational.

twinklie

Wow...I'm so impressed and very inspired! I long to be in your position! Although our mortgage is very small - but we want gardens...landscaped or no!

StuartGMC

DD2 wrote: »

By the end of MFi3, Mrs Dither & I will hopefully have settled all our outstanding tax bills and have a mortgage at £80k, savings of £20k and joint pensions of over £100k. Not bad for 3 years of strict(ish) financial management

DD
Well done, you have made excellent progress and it is all giving great foundations to go forward. The offset should be really good for you tax-wise and of course no ERC etc. This is definitely a year to invest and I am feeling frustrated that I can't just pull the offset funds and put them into the market, but we only risk other monies in that so I just have to clear mortgage PDQ. I assume your pension is in funds and you've gained a lot these past six months, are you similarly back in funds/equities for some personal investments?

Best wishes with a very rapid acceleration to the MFD.

DD2_2

StuartGMC wrote: »

DD
Well done, you have made excellent progress and it is all giving great foundations to go forward. The offset should be really good for you tax-wise and of course no ERC etc. This is definitely a year to invest and I am feeling frustrated that I can't just pull the offset funds and put them into the market, but we only risk other monies in that so I just have to clear mortgage PDQ. I assume your pension is in funds and you've gained a lot these past six months, are you similarly back in funds/equities for some personal investments?

Best wishes with a very rapid acceleration to the MFD.

Hi Stuart,

I don't have any investments other than my pension (apart from £100 pm we put in a Friendly Society child fund thingy). I decided that I'd concentrate on my mortgage and my pension and once these were 'tamed', I'd move onto S&S ISAs and perhaps a BTL or two (I aim to have a really diverse retirement portfolio).

It's a perfect time to invest in funds though, but unfortunately apart from paying £300pm into my wife's pension I'm going to have to concentrate on saving up for my tax bill.