Onwards to freedom!

SuperSecretSquirrel

Thanks Yorkielass I was actually a little disappointed with our grocery spending, quite a bit more than I thought it would be. No point joining a grocery challenge though, OH wouldn't put up with it! Looking at the bigger picture, we can afford to spend a little extra here and there as in general we're both very cheap dates, so why worry! I love the idea of having the mortgage paid off and having such a big percentage available for saving and investing in the future. Some might see it as sad, but I can get really excited about this kind of thing. FREEDOM, it's a pretty important aspect of life

In mortgage related news, yesterday's monthly payment has dropped our balance to £62,926 - that's another 1k threshold crossed and another block coloured in on the spreadsheet house When undertaking a long term challenge celebrating the small victories along the way is important, so here goes... :j

:rotfl:

Yorkielass

Yes I've tried the grocery challenge, keeping track of cash spent etc but it hasn't really worked for us. I'm savvy with offers etc though and we both know that if we had to cut down at any point this would be one of the first areas to address, I'm with you on the why worry attitude on it too.

Well done on going over another 1k - I completely agree about the small victories.

edinburgher

Reading through your diary, I'm very impressed with your pace! :T

Your OPs are fantastic and you seem to be very organised with your finances (I spy a kindred spirit)

What I would say is that you still have a few other options for optimising things:

• Considering your income, your pension contributions are tiny. I pay about £100/mth more and you earn £10k more than me
• Premium Bonds are pants, sell them and put the money to some use
• Don't you use Nationwide Flex or Clydesdale Bank for savings? 4.89%/4% gross, you and you OH can open 3? of each between you, stashing away £16.5k if needed

SuperSecretSquirrel

Thanks for visiting edinburgher

My pension contributions feel low. I think you and I earn a similar wage from paid employment, but this year my self employed stuff seems to be taking off. I'm not taking this for granted, could die down just as quickly, in the meantime it gives me great scope to OP the mortgage After tax relief and employer contributions, what's paid into my pension each month is nearly 12% of my net monthly wage. Looking at it another way though, the amount I salary sacrifice for my pension is just 3% of my gross monthly wage. I need to get on top of this properly. First job is to find out if I can squeeze out any more employer contributions by increasing my payments, if yes that's a no brainer. After that, I'm going to look into things properly regards flexibility of the pension. I feel more in control investing in ISAs that I can draw down when I'm ready, not when the government says I'm allowed to. I have no intention of working til I'm old and feeble, that needs to be factored in to my planning. It's definitely on my 'to sort' list though, thanks for the kick up the bum

PBs are pants. I'm not moving my 1k out in a hurry though

I opened a nationwide flexaccount a couple of weeks ago, shifted 2.5k there from vantage. Thanks for the heads up on clydesdale, will sort that this week It's a losing battle trying to get OH to open these accounts. Very frustrating but I know not to push too hard. We're on the same page regards most things, but anything that involves 'effort' is a mental block. I'll see if I can gently persuade, I sense a spreadsheet that combines the increased interest with OPs that illustrates the amount saved both in terms of money and mortgage term coming on...

edinburgher

It's a losing battle trying to get OH to open these accounts. Very frustrating but I know not to push too hard. We're on the same page regards most things, but anything that involves 'effort' is a mental block. I'll see if I can gently persuade, I sense a spreadsheet that combines the increased interest with OPs that illustrates the amount saved both in terms of money and mortgage term coming on...

That's an idea, if spreadsheets work? Some people can't/won't visualise alternative outcomes based on spreadsheets and numbers and it can be exhausting trying to encourage them!

Mrs E has no fundamental interest in any of the specifics of our MFW journey, but she is in agreement about our direction of travel, she will do minimal effort stuff (i.e. I apply for her new current account, she reviews the T&Cs and then clicks 'apply' )

On the other hand, I have free rein to be as big a nerd as I like when it comes to our budgets and that can be fun.

When it comes to pensions, I've no intention of paying in any more than the amount required for the employer match, unless it dropped my tax band. I don't think that's going to be an issue for quite some time yet :rotfl:

SuperSecretSquirrel

Enjoying MSE Martin's TV show at the moment focusing on mortgages, wonder if MFW will get a mention... OH's ears pricked up when I said my aim of a 60k balance by the time baby arrives would see us at around 50% LTV

Can't wait til next week, I've got a £499.99 OP ready and waiting to be paid in Feels a bit 'sad' admitting that I enjoy OPing so much that I look forward to making my payments I bet I'm in good company on here though Shifted some extra earnings into savings today too, that's another block on the 'offset' savings side of the 'spreadsheet house' coloured in!

Hope you're all doing well, January is nearly at an end! :cool:

Calfuray

SuperSecretSquirrel wrote: »

Enjoying MSE Martin's TV show at the moment focusing on mortgages, wonder if MFW will get a mention... OH's ears pricked up when I said my aim of a 60k balance by the time baby arrives would see us at around 50% LTV

Awww, I'm missing it 'cause it's only on ITV. Any good? Might try and see it on catch-up.

SuperSecretSquirrel wrote: »

Can't wait til next week, I've got a £499.99 OP ready and waiting to be paid in Feels a bit 'sad' admitting that I enjoy OPing so much that I look forward to making my payments I bet I'm in good company on here though Shifted some extra earnings into savings today too, that's another block on the 'offset' savings side of the 'spreadsheet house' coloured in!

Hope you're all doing well, January is nearly at an end! :cool:

£499.99! Jealous I don't think it's sad at all, I love the 1st of the month for all the payments going out But, yeah, maybe don't mention it outside this board!

SuperSecretSquirrel

It would be a good watch for anyone about to take out their first mortgage or thinking about remortgaging, sadly all it did for me in the end was make me kick myself even harder for still having over 6 years left on a 5%+ fix with high ERCs! We're not risk takers in general, so at the time figured what was a historically low 10 year fix would be perfect, the idea being that by the end of year 10 we'd have a piddly mortgage and high rates at that time wouldn't be an insurmountable problem. Of course in hindsight we should have gone for a shorter term lower rate fix, especially now that we're overpaying at a much higher rate than we ever anticipated. Had we taken a 5 year fix at 4%, we'd be paying less interest, and at the end of the fixed term possibly be in a mortgage neutral position, meaning at the end of the fixed rate we could settle the mortgage in full without any charges. Even better, we could have gone for a 2 year fix at around 3% and by now would be sat on a nice low SVR with no limits on OPs. The cautious approach ended up being a gamble that we lost, kinda ironic really :rotfl: Anyway, cloud, silverlining, etc, if we weren't paying much interest we'd probably not have been inspired to OP so much, in the long run I think the cautious decision could end up saving us money

I don't mention any of this stuff to anyone in real life OH has been stung in the past by 'friends' that knew too much, we basically say nothing now, which is why having this forum is so great for me as I get excited about this stuff and sometimes it's nice to talk to more than just OH about it I might occasionally drop in a 'might be an idea to put some of your payrise towards the mortgage' when chatting with friends, but don't even offer up that we might be doing it ourselves. Super. Secret. Squirrel. I chose that as my financial superhero alterego name for a reason

A big thanks to edinburgher by the way, I've just applied for a Clydesdale 4% on up to 3k account. Perfect timing as I am now just £70 short of maxing out all my interest paying accounts! Shame not all the money is mine though, come next January my self assessment tax bill will be a biggie. Still, better to earn interest on it in the meantime I've pretty much accepted the fact that I'll be paying 40% tax on my savings interest this year, but instead of going into a strop about it all I'll just concentrate on getting the best rates possible. I'm also considering upping my S&S ISA monthly savings to make the most of the tax free wrapper. I'm used to maxing out the cash ISA but am just investing £100pm in S&S, maybe I can increase that a fair bit and save less in taxable cash accounts. The most tax efficient option would be to increase my pension contributions. Apparently the employer contributions are already maxed, but anything I pay in would attract tax relief at 40% so upping my contributions would be worthwhile. My problem with this though is that currently you can draw down your pension from age 55, which is fine, but it seems there's nothing to say the goalposts can't be moved in the future, and I'm not happy with that - I'd rather have the money available so I can decide myself what is best for me, not be at the mercy of the politicians of the future. I'll keep mulling it over. I also need to arrange an appointment with the pension company when they next visit, I was a wimp and opted for a cautious pension fund, I feel like upping the risk a bit! I doubt I've ever used those last eight words in that order before :rotfl:

Calfuray

SuperSecretSquirrel wrote: »

It would be a good watch for anyone about to take out their first mortgage or thinking about remortgaging, sadly all it did for me in the end was make me kick myself even harder for still having over 6 years left on a 5%+ fix with high ERCs! We're not risk takers in general, so at the time figured what was a historically low 10 year fix would be perfect, the idea being that by the end of year 10 we'd have a piddly mortgage and high rates at that time wouldn't be an insurmountable problem. Of course in hindsight we should have gone for a shorter term lower rate fix, especially now that we're overpaying at a much higher rate than we ever anticipated. Had we taken a 5 year fix at 4%, we'd be paying less interest, and at the end of the fixed term possibly be in a mortgage neutral position, meaning at the end of the fixed rate we could settle the mortgage in full without any charges. Even better, we could have gone for a 2 year fix at around 3% and by now would be sat on a nice low SVR with no limits on OPs. The cautious approach ended up being a gamble that we lost, kinda ironic really :rotfl: Anyway, cloud, silverlining, etc, if we weren't paying much interest we'd probably not have been inspired to OP so much, in the long run I think the cautious decision could end up saving us money

I'm glad you're not too down about it in the end. It'd be interesting to work out what your actual interest rate works out at taking in all the OPs... Hm.

SuperSecretSquirrel wrote: »

I don't mention any of this stuff to anyone in real life OH has been stung in the past by 'friends' that knew too much, we basically say nothing now, which is why having this forum is so great for me as I get excited about this stuff and sometimes it's nice to talk to more than just OH about it I might occasionally drop in a 'might be an idea to put some of your payrise towards the mortgage' when chatting with friends, but don't even offer up that we might be doing it ourselves. Super. Secret. Squirrel. I chose that as my financial superhero alterego name for a reason

Ah, I see, now the name makes sense! I've not been stung by people (thank goodness), but anyone I've mentioned it to looks at me like I'm crazy, especially combined with my age. Glad we have this place

SuperSecretSquirrel wrote: »

A big thanks to edinburgher by the way, I've just applied for a Clydesdale 4% on up to 3k account. Perfect timing as I am now just £70 short of maxing out all my interest paying accounts! Shame not all the money is mine though, come next January my self assessment tax bill will be a biggie. Still, better to earn interest on it in the meantime I've pretty much accepted the fact that I'll be paying 40% tax on my savings interest this year, but instead of going into a strop about it all I'll just concentrate on getting the best rates possible. I'm also considering upping my S&S ISA monthly savings to make the most of the tax free wrapper. I'm used to maxing out the cash ISA but am just investing £100pm in S&S, maybe I can increase that a fair bit and save less in taxable cash accounts. The most tax efficient option would be to increase my pension contributions. Apparently the employer contributions are already maxed, but anything I pay in would attract tax relief at 40% so upping my contributions would be worthwhile. My problem with this though is that currently you can draw down your pension from age 55, which is fine, but it seems there's nothing to say the goalposts can't be moved in the future, and I'm not happy with that - I'd rather have the money available so I can decide myself what is best for me, not be at the mercy of the politicians of the future. I'll keep mulling it over. I also need to arrange an appointment with the pension company when they next visit, I was a wimp and opted for a cautious pension fund, I feel like upping the risk a bit! I doubt I've ever used those last eight words in that order before :rotfl:

Ah, pensions! Obviously I don't have one yet, but worried about OH. He's about to turn 28, doesn't have one in place, and his workplace is a bit iffy. There used to be one in place but something happened to the older guy's money and it's all hush hush, nobody knows what is going on. So goodness knows what will happen when they have to auto-enroll. Since they are a small business, it probably won't be until 2019, but by that time he'll be 33. Hm. And like you say, the restrictions about when you can drawdown and annuities etc is a worry.

SuperSecretSquirrel

£499.99 OP'd this morning, hopefully the eight day interval between the previous OP and this one will mean no mistakes made by mortgage company...

Also a nice surprise from OH this morning, a £200 contribution towards some nursery furniture I'd bought. I was happy to pay for the furniture so asked if it would be ok to OP the full £200, the answer was a resounding yes This is now in a "queue" :rotfl: OP's of £500 or more reduce our monthly payment amount, and that would mean less room to OP before being hit by ERC's, so I need to keep the OP's to £499.99 max and space them out a bit so they're not mistaken for a single large OP (has happened before).

So, that's £499.99 OP'd today, a further £499.99 planned for next week, and now an extra £200 planned for the week after that. The mini-target of getting below 60k by the time baby arrives is in sight! We're expecting OP's to slow down a lot at that point, so trying to get as good a start on 2014 OP's as possible!

In non-mortgage news, I've done some juggling around on my spreadsheet, and it seems I can increase my S&S monthly investment to £200 (by reducing cash savings). I'm aiming to sort the DD's etc to get this up and running by the time next month's installment goes out.