CMs 10 year mfw plan... starting tomorrow!

cardiffmatch

Dear all,

Another Monday comes and lo, yet another mfw diary gets off the ground; this one tells the tale of me (CM), Mr CM and our quest to pay off the mortgage on our lovely new house that we hope to complete the purchase of and move into tomorrow!

A few background details. I've passed through the debt free wannabe stage via this website and then discovered mfw sometime in the course of last year. At that point I was aiming to pay off as much mortgage as possible on my current flat. Mr CM and I have outgrown our little pad though and so are buying our first house together :j

We kept an eye on the property market for months before finding our new place quite by accident. It's a 5 yr old, three bedroom townhouse, spread over four floors on an estate just 300m from my flat... we went to see it as a 'comparison' - "what else could we get at this price?" The rest is history!

It's in great condition with no real work needed except new carpet in the hall and the living room (although I already know I hate the kitchen...). What's more, being modern in style, our existing furniture will not look out of place.

So - the mortgage! £205,000 in two chunks - both on a 25yr term. The bulk (about £140k) is at 3.75% with the remainder at 4.09%. I will tighten up on figures when I know them... we are porting my existing mortgage and so only have approximations at this stage. Both are offset products and allow unlimited overpayments too. I would like to clear it in ten years, but am aware this will be a tall order.

On the finances, we have no debt except my student loan. My income is about to drop considerably as I have taken a new, v exciting job nearer home. The flip side to that is I won't have to rent somewhere for Monday to Friday (the current set up) from September. So more specifics on this when it is all clearer! Mr CM earns a good wage which will remain the same.

I'm expecting bills will go up with the increased space to heat / light etc, however we will lose the gym membership (there is a gym on site) and the service charge is hugely lower on the house). More details on all outgoings when these are clearer!

And finally... I've set up to overpay £100 from the first payment. That will have to increase, but its a good habit from day one.

So here goes! The removal men arrive in 90 mins - I've gotta go bulk buy tea, milk, coffee and biscuits. Any moving tips? My only possessions when I moved in here were clothes, a coffee table and a mattress!!!

cardiffmatch

Saved for updates

cardiffmatch

Saved for a proper SoA when we know the details!

megela

Hope the move goes well and you're soon settled in your new home.

kirstypark

good luck with the move tomorrow and with the overpayments.

hattifattener

How exciting - congrats on the new home! Looking forward to following your progress.

originalmiscellany

Lots of fun things happening - New jobs, houses etc! It's grim when you see your daily interest is almost £22 - have you worked out how much you need to overpay to get it down to say £21.50? Looking forward to seeing you making inroads into your debts asap.

KolaKube

Hello <waves>

We're starting today too

Good luck and hope to see you along the way! xx

fothers365

Happy moving and good luck!:)

cardiffmatch

Well we're in!:jThank you all ever so much for your wellwishes with the move.

The move happened and we finally got the keys to the house at 4:45pm the day after my last post. There were times that day I genuinely thought it wouldn't happen... But let's put all the stress of moving day behind us. The sun is shining and I'm headed back up the M4 from London to Cardiff tonight to return to my lovely house for the first time in a week. Can't wait!

I'm a little closer to an SoA but that is still a work in progress.

I've decided for now that any overpayments in addition to our regular monthly £100 will be offset rather than overpaid outright as we can always take money back if things gets difficult in the first couple of years. To that end, the first two OPs have been made - we had £500 cashback on the mortgage on completion and a further £300 from the vendor, all of which has gone into the pot. I'm going to hunt around for ways to round it up to £1000 by the end of the first month.

On the less MSE side, we have bought two lovely new armchairs for the living room and three side tables. In my defence, however, the chairs were under half price in the John Lewis sale (less than they were marked at, even) and the tables were a steal at £59 for the three in House of Fraser...

I'm aiming for a conversation about overpayments with Mr CM this weekend; he was aware that I was overpaying on the last place and very definitely sees the benefit but hasn't actually committed to the cause yet. I will keep everyone posted!

Originalmiscellany - I like your thinking. I will mostly be doing that in the next half hour having done so many times with the mortgage on my old place. Can't believe I hadn't thought to do it until now!


CM

cardiffmatch

Well that was a nice little maths challenge.

To get the daily mortgage down to £21.50 (a nice short term challenge, I think) we need to pay £3008 off the portion of the mortgage with the higher interest rate. That assumes we will pay nothing off the other (larger) portion of the mortgage which is clearly a false assumption. But we're not going to worry about that! £3008 seems a perfectly good overpayment target for the first six months of the mortgage, especially as £800 has already gone towards it. Then we can recalculate and head for a new target instead.

KolaKube - how did your move go? I hope it wasn't too stressful and that your new place is super. I've seen your name around the place so I'm going to tootle off and look for inspiration from other diaries now...