Aspirations of Financial Freedom!

Happydays,_gone_away?

How's everybody doing out there?

End of July and things are still on target and I feel pretty good.

I have moved jobs, got a small raise and the spare room is rented out getting me a nice monthly extra.

6 months emergency fund is stowed away in TSB x2 and a cash ISA.

I'm paying 10% salary into the pension, £300 per month into First Direct, £100 into a stocks shares ISA .

I have a little left over to keep throwing at the mortgage which drops below £54,000 next payment . This puts me below the 70% mark now on the purchase price of my share :T

Judging from the advertised prices of my neighbours the flat has also gone up over 10% since I completed, so I was lucky in my timing,

I have 28 months left till the rate changes and I want to keep knocking it down. New aim is to be taking another £500 - £1k off the principal mortgage amount for the end of the year, one day at a time.

Keep going guys!

getting-sorted-sarah

:wave: Hi Happydays! You seem to be making big strides, even if they feel like small steps at first - keep it up! I am part purchasing too (complete next week :beer:) and very keen to pay off as quickly as I can. It will be small amounts but I can't wait to get started!
S x

Happydays,_gone_away?

6 more weeks down the road

I'm still squeezing in the savings and staying on the path to freedom. 15 years feels like a long road to walk alone but day by day and step by step I know it will get easier.

Feeling the squeeze a little bit now as some unforeseen service charges have arrived so the social budget has been pushed down to £20 a week, so more nights in with good books for me lol.

Sad news with the Amazon CC going bye bye so I have shifted to a new Nationwide card and plan to use the tiny 0.5% cash reward to add to the mortgage payments (works out about £1.50 per month) but with Christmas coming and 15 months interest free I can plan a stooze and save a wee bit more

Now off to the shops for groceries and home made chilli is on the menu.... YUM!

Happydays,_gone_away?

Necro post update!


Lots to say since the end of 2014.


Another job change and 2 salary bumps later my finances look a lot healthier and my goals far more achievable.
Also with a family in a development it seems like a good idea to take stock and refocus.


My original Mortgage was paid down to £48,300 at the start of December, missing my target by £3,300.
However my savings rose to £18,000 with was £7,000 more than the original aim. Net result I am up £3,700 on my original targets set.


This month I remortaged and took out a 2nd product to buy out the rest of the flat.


I now have the following debts to tackle and the minimum payments are on a
33 year mortgage
£80,000 2nd mortgage - 5 yr fix at 2.27% (£288.06 pm)
£48,300 1st mortgage - 5 year fix at 2.09% (£170.37 pm)


£8,700 student loan - 1.25% until Sept 17 (£87 pm) Will take 9 years to repay


In addition to these debts I am funding my pension at £100 pm, in addition to a work pension. (currently £20k in total across the pensions)
My S&S ISA gets a further £300 per month. (currently £6k in total). This account is earmarked to pay off all the debts in the future.


My cash is currently sitting in the following accounts (I have exhausted all the incentives from current accounts)
Existing
Lloyds Club (2%)
Nationwide Flex Direct (1%)
Santander 123 Lite (0%) moving bills here
New accounts
M & S Bank
Tesco Bank (3%)


I am planning on using the Nationwide, M&S and Lloyds regular savers this year to drip feed the £11,600 thats in the current accounts.


This means I have a surplus of around £3k sitting there doing nothing.


Do I look at debt snowballs, P2P, regular investing, or pension contributions to help move the needle in the future?
Should I restructure how I use this surplus cash flow of £400pm?


Looking forward to your ideas and inspirations