MFW: Next step towards total freedom!

vixx_123

@caeler have you calculated how much interest you've saved? 

It must be a relief though. I'm also the sole person on my mortgage and it's a big responsibility! I get anxious about losing my job etc and not being able to afford the £1300 payments! 

Legs21

Congratulations 🥳🎉😀

Ami-Rose

Yay! Congratulations @caeler! I wouldn't expect you to drop MSE ways, haha. It's just common sense not to overpay on something when you could get it cheaper, definitely approve the book purchase! 😊

Money_spending_mummy

Congratulations! Amazing to have paid off your mortgage!!

bellevie

Congratulations 👏 👏 👏 👏 what an amazing achievement,  well done!!!! 

caeler

Thanks all.  The mortgage account now reads that I owe £58.61! Hopefully that will all get sorted out when the account closure process starts, it took about 10 days to get my confirmation letter last time so now I have to be patient.  I had a mini celebration last night with a favourite dinner and a glass of fizz.  But I also had a nightmare last night which consisted of something breaking that I needed to repair (unclear what it was!) but because I've just depleted all my savings I had no emergency fund to deal with it!   I'll keep my figures crossed that things remain stable for the next few months so that doesn't become reality.  

@vixx_123 I think I've saved roughly £60K in interest based on what I originally borrowed but some of that will have been saved due to getting a better rate too.

eat_that_frog

How long do you think it'll take to build up your emergency fund? I'd be interested to know how many 'months' of outgoings you plan for it to cover, mine covers around 8-9 months and I've always wondered if I'm being too conservative or not conservative enough. 

That's a great interest saving!

Chiglepig

eat_that_frog said:

How long do you think it'll take to build up your emergency fund? I'd be interested to know how many 'months' of outgoings you plan for it to cover, mine covers around 8-9 months and I've always wondered if I'm being too conservative or not conservative enough. 

That's a great interest saving!

Of course caeler's EF no longer needs to account for mortgage payments!

The general wisdom is 3-6 months as a starting point - I personally found three months too little for comfort, but it would depend on how confident you can be that if the issues was job loss, you could get back into equivalent employment. But the EF would be to cover essentials not usual expenditure, so three months wages might cover six months essentials. I keep our mortgage EF separate to everyday outgoings EF because overpayments are available as an OP resevoir on our mortgage.

Then you might have a separate EF for large unforseen expenses like a boiler breaking, or the roof needing work not covered by insurance.

Sorry to butt in, @caeler!

caeler

Hi @eat_that_frog I'm planning to accumulate 6 months worth of just bills for my emergency fund which will then be offset by other pots I'm planning set at various levels which include car costs & maintenance, holidays (ha!), annual bills (I play a few annually rather than monthly) and a general fund for anything else I want or need or have to repair! By the end of the year I'll have filled these pots to approx. 8 months take home pay which for me, is a healthy enough level of savings and then I'll focus on retirement and pensions.

caeler

Hi @chiglepig you are right my emergency fund for bills looks a bit odd now there is no mortgage payment!  My monthly bills (utility, water, ctax, phone, TV) is £310!