FlashBarry's £97k in 3 years MFW mission!

beachie

FlashBarry wrote: »

Beachie – As we have now dropped off our 2 year fixed rate,I think we are only on about 1.5-2.5%. Ireally like the idea of committing the money into the mortgage rather than intoa savings account. I don’t want to betempted to dip into it. (Bad day at work = "what car could I get for the £XXXXX I have in that savings account?")

Maybe, but I think you are throwing away alot of money! A regular saver would work as you would lose your interest if you touch it. It would be worth working out the difference - can anyone work it out?

coldcazzie

FlashBarry wrote: »

Coldcazzie – Hmmm, your spread sheet sounds more complexthan I imagined. I was thinking: ColumnA, month number, Column B, mortgage amount, Column C, mortgage target = nicegraph. Yours sounds far more useful!

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

ohhhhhhh you have noooooooo idea!! I have:
- an overview of all our accounts and our total monetary worth
- statement of affairs which has both monthly and annual expenses
- 1 sheet per account (so that's 2 current accounts, 2 credit cards, a cash ISA, a regular saver and 5 instant access eSavers)
- the mortgage
in my money spreadsheet.

I've also another spreadsheet I use every day which has all the spending categories in different columns (food, pets, toiletries, cleaning, home, tools/DIY, petrol, leisure etc etc), with conditional formatting to turn the total cells red or green depending on over or under budget :rotfl:

I'm not the worst either - some of them have graphs and pivot tables and all sorts in their spreadsheets!

By the way, I like to type my replies into Word and pastethem into MSE but I have noticed it keeps removing spaces between words. Any ideas why?

Not sure... when Curlygirl copies hers in it leaves the spaces in but puts loads of !! random ! explanation mark!s in her text!!. :rotfl:

coldcazzie

beachie wrote: »

Maybe, but I think you are throwing away alot of money! A regular saver would work as you would lose your interest if you touch it. It would be worth working out the difference - can anyone work it out?

this one?

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/savings-vs-mortgage-calculator

beachie

coldcazzie wrote: »

this one?

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/savings-vs-mortgage-calculator

Thanks. I saw that one but it still didn't show the actual difference in pounds and I can't work it out.

coldcazzie

there won't be a regular saver that will take £2k a month though will there? even a cash ISA would fill up pretty quickly....

best instant access accounts are at about 3, 3.1% interest at the moment, and that's gross, so once you've taken 20% tax off it wouldn't be much different would it?

*ponders*

beachie

coldcazzie wrote: »

there won't be a regular saver that will take £2k a month though will there? even a cash ISA would fill up pretty quickly....

best instant access accounts are at about 3, 3.1% interest at the moment, and that's gross, so once you've taken 20% tax off it wouldn't be much different would it?

*ponders*

Maybe so, however either way it would still make sense to fill up an ISA and possibly a regular saver (some pay 6%) at the same time or before paying off the mortgage.

This will save a bit of money and will keep an emergency fund incase of an emergency.

FlashBarry

Also - my mortgage is an offset mortgage. I was planning on selling the car and putting about £10,000 into the offset account as my emergency fund while maintaining the £2k OPs.

With regards to putting my money into a seperate savings account. What happens if the interest rate goes up? Say it jumps to 5% (you never know) Then when I try and transfer my £10,000 in, do I pay off less mortgage as the interest bill will be higher?

Hmmm, I dont really understand mortgages

rich246

What a brilliant idea to pay off your mortgage early, and good luck to you. I have been regularly paying lump sums off our mortgage, but not on the scale you are considering. Generally around £500 over-payments per month if finances permit.

As an emergency fund and due to the poor rates offered by banks and building societies we've been paying our money into Premium Bonds.

Though we earn little or no interest by buying Premium Bonds, we might actually win a bigger prize than any feeble interest rate offered by most banks and building societies, and the investment is far safer than paying money into any of the high street banks who may need to be bailed out by the Bank of England some time soon.

If all else fails you can always cash the bonds in and pay off a bit more of your mortgage.

I did actually win twice last month, £25 big ones, unfortunately I told the wife - who promptly reinvested 'our' money in a nice pair of shoes :eek:

pixelwife

Love the ambition FlashBarry. I have a rather sizeable total mortgage debt so it's great to read all the diaries on here for tips and ideas and motivation on the tougher days. I really hope you reach your goal.

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Hi Flashberry, I think the advice given by Caz and Beachie is excellent. I also have an offset but also filled the ISAs first, plus have a regular saver. I find I need to OP rather than just save. I need to see the balance come down, but really it is about maximising your cash, in order to OP.

Good luck on your journey. I can recommend Financial Bliss' thread and spreadsheet so you may want to search through the MFW forum.

Tilly