Ready, Set, Go - April 2013 Iquit MFW Diary

iquit

Well my op plans are facing a little bit of a challenge in the next few months. I am leaving my job in a month and as yet do not have another. My problem is I may be out of work for a good few months, at the best my earliest chance would be October/November time. I have some savings aka emergency fund but not sure if I should use that for op or wait until I'm back in employment to continue with op. Any advice would be appreciated. Whilst out of work I will stay with family - babysit/ childmind to 'pay' for roof over my head. I have tenant in the flat and thankfully his rent covers the interest payments with a little extra. I don't want to use the extra rental income for op in case tenant decides to move out.

iquit

I've had to make a very very difficult decision - stopping my OP's with immediate effect. As much as I'd like to continue I have to be realistic. My current job has come to an end, as yet I don't have another job to go to, I am looking. My tenant moves out at the end of the month and I don't have another lined up. So as you can see my only sensible and financially astute option is to stop the OP's until I'm gainfully employed again and have a tenant.

iquit

It seems my op days are at an end. Very disheartening but I must be realistic. Still not found a job and flat is without a tenant. Using savings to pay mortgage at the moment. Not sure what to do, job hunt turning out to be harder than I thought it would be!

iquit

Hello,

Just a quick update on my situation. I was out of employment for 9 months :eek: a very worrisome time for me with my financial history. I used up all my savings. I'm grateful to have had the savings to fall back on. Thankfully I able to stay with family and that's where I still am at the moment. I finally got a tenant after dropping the rent. After a lot of interviews I am now the holder of two jobs totalling 45 hours a week. I plan to restart my over payments next month. Things were rocky for a minute there but I'm back on my feet. Hope everyone on here has had an ok time in my eight month absence. I need to do some serious reading and catching up.

iquit

Well as they say, "the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry". I was unable to restart my over payments as planned - life! But roll on to 2016. I plan on making £1000/mth OP, which I've been saving and will pay as a lump at the end of the year. I'm hoping to make extra with overtime pay if I can. Any suggestions to help get me back on track would be appreciated. I will be in touch with my mortgage provider later today as they haven't sent me my annual statement so I'm unsure of the exact outstanding balance. Hopefully everyone else is managing to make a dent in their mortgages. I have lots of reading and catching up to do.

iquit

Mortgage balance £94, 968.46 (down by £3, 130.00 from when I started this thread 3 years ago)
2016 planned op £12, 000.00 (£6, 000.00 saved so far)
If I stick to £1, 000.00 monthly op will pay it all off in just under 7 years.

Quick question for those with more experience. I have money saved as emergency fund, should I consider putting some of it towards my op and further reduce my balance?

User1489

Emergency fund is very personal mate.

I have £2,600 aside - others have more, others have less - it can cover my laptop exploding, a leak in the flat or my bike being nicked. Or it can cover 3 months of the mortgage if I lost my job tomorrow.

What would you consider an emergency? How much would that cost you?

If worst came to worst, how easy is it for you to get short term credit? Or to re-borrow some mortgage?

Hope that helps

MvM

iquit

rasputin_thorpedo wrote: »

Emergency fund is very personal mate.

I have £2,600 aside - others have more, others have less - it can cover my laptop exploding, a leak in the flat or my bike being nicked. Or it can cover 3 months of the mortgage if I lost my job tomorrow.

What would you consider an emergency? How much would that cost you?

If worst came to worst, how easy is it for you to get short term credit? Or to re-borrow some mortgage?

Hope that helps

MvM

Thank you for giving me some pointers to consider. It's always helpful to get a different point of view when considering any decision.

iquit

Thank you all for the motivation on the forum through the threads of many who are on the MFW journey. In 2016 I was able to pay £24000.00 (capital repayment) on my BTL.

My circumstances at the moment BTL interest only mortgage - outstanding balance £70,969.00. There are no penalties or limits on repayments. My rental income allows for £500/mth capital repayments. I'm hoping to also use overtime pay towards capital repayments, but it isn't a guaranteed income. My second focus is saving to buy a home MF, savings to date £47, 000.00. I aim to save £5,500.00/mth into this pot in 2017.

Any suggestions or advice is very welcome. Hoping to keep my thread updated as a personal record and motivation.

iquit

Got my mortgage balance today £70,904.98. As I'm not a fan of uneven numbers I've gone ahead and made a capital repayment of £904.98. My revised target for the year is £7,000.00. If I can just stay focused and motivated I'm sure I can do it.