I have a dream...to be a MFW

ajmoney

Some quick calculations yesterday show we will definitely be mortgage neutral in 5 years. Now I just need to work out what other savings we need for our holidays. I explained it all to Mr AJM and I think he gets it. He is over the moon with the idea of choosing how he works by 60.

Now to work hard with my savings. Firstly I want to try and max out my RS account each month for the rest of the year. Hopefully there will be good interest paying accounts when this matures at the end of th year. I have started a change pot in my room and am regularly going to add to it from my wallet, every little helps.

We are off to the horse racing on Friday, £40 worth of entrance fees and we paid £3.50 :money:

It is our 5 year wedding anniversary on Saturday. We are thinking of going out for lunch and a couple of drinks, but not sure where to go yet.

I have just pressed something on my kindle keyboard that has turned it into Spanish, does anyone know how to change it?

ajmoney

Panic over.

I have set myself a challenge for the rest of July. I have £45 in my wallet and I am going to try and only use that for my own spending. If I eat all my meals at work it will cost me £26.91 until the 17th when I go home for leave. I will bring lunch over for some of next week but this should still be doable. I have money set aside if I need more clothes for my holiday.

I have just maxed my RS account for the month and have about £186 left in my account which if not needed will be ready for next months RS contribution.

I can do this...

ajmoney

I have had a sociable couple of days but still have £34 in my wallet so I think my challenge to live off the money in my wallet is still achievable. My savings jar is doing well already.

9 days until my summer leave and 2 weeks until we go on holiday I can't wait. Looking forward to some quality time with Mr AJM, it is definitely needed. I can't believe we have been married 5 years in 2 days time.

I know I am doing the best moneywise based on our lifestyle but I want to do more. I guess it is quite tough as I thrive off planning and Mr AJM likes to live in the moment. I need to work on my savings instead, especially as that interest is better but it is not as satisfying watching those build up as it is seeing the mortgage reduce.

ajmoney

Today is such a happy and exciting day for 2 reasons. We have been married 5 years today so we are off out for lunch in a little while and maybe a couple of drinks. It also marks the 5 year countdown to being mortgage neutral although I think we may be able to achieve it earlier than that. Once we have substantial savings over and above the total of the mortgage we will decide whether to pay it off or not.

Mortgage neutral and mortgage free has become even more important to me over the last couple of days but I have also realised how crucial our lifestyle is too so I need to stay on the current plan. We both work very hard, long hours and live seperately for half the week at the moment so our holidays etc are very important to us for down time. I hadn't seen how much teaching and the stresses that come with it take their toll on Mr AJM. The last 2 days have been lovely and warming and I don't believe it is because it is our anniversary weekend, I think it is more likely that a week into the summer holidays he has managed to shake off the dark cloud that is the stress of work. I am going to bring this up in conversation over lunch today.

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend.

ajmoney

Oh my god oh my god oh my god.

I have just added the total of Mr AJM's S&S ISA into the rough savings total (still don't know what he has in his standard ISA and RS) and we have the amount required to be mortgage neutral in 5 years time in our savings now :j I have a sneaky suspicion if I include his other accounts we would have enough to be mortgage neutral in 2020 too. I can't believe the feeling of butterflies I have in my stomach, it is like getting married all over again. I believe we are purely on a savings mission now to see what level we can reduce this to for 09/07/2021 so we can possibly be mortgage free with savings behind us too.

muddywhitechicken

Enjoy - it's a lovely feeling knowing that you have enough savings to pay off the mortgage when/if you want/need to

and happy anniversary too!

MWCx

ajmoney

Thanks MWC.

Mr AJM May be a tiny bit excited too. We are currently on target to be mortgage neutral by July 2021, £7k to save and we will have brought it forward to July 2020.

This seems the best way to track this. We aren't likely to do any serious paying off until 2021 anyway but once we become MN we will know that the rest is towards our future and not the bank.

ajmoney

Beware, I have been doing calculations!

They are based on the mortgage interest rate we are about to go onto and no interest on our savings. If we were to save £950 a month between us for the next 2 and a half years we would hit mortgage neutral in Feb 2019. This is 2 and a half years before my contract ends and more importantly is when I will be 40! I am currently saving at least £500 a month in my RS and S&S ISA and often it is £750, not sure what Mr AJM is saving at the mo. If we were able to achieve this it would be amazing. I believe we are currently due to reach MN in Jan 2021 based on our current savings total.

Exciting times

ajmoney

I'm really not enjoying it here at the moment, 30 hours and counting until I go home. I have loads of things I could do at work to try and get ahead but I feel it would stress me out if I didn't finish things. It is also raining too much for me to want to walk between blocks. I will give it until 4 and then do something.

ajmoney

We have just booked a trip away for Christmas. We are going back to Berlin for 5 nights, flights and hotel for both of us cost £443 :money:

We still have £500 in our holiday savings account and have everything paid for our summer cruise (we leave on Thursday). Time to start saving for whatever takes our fancy at Easter