The Call of Cornwall

jodles16

Hey Danny, cant help with advice I am afraid but amazingly well done on your progress!! Cant wait to see you reach the dream of Cornwall!!

Jodles

Danny5

Thanks for the advice/kind words/encouragement guys!

Decided I'm going to leave the mortgage as it is until the end of January, and see how much I can overpay between now and then.
Work at the moment seems reasonably busy (can really drop off sometimes straight after Christmas), so my wages should allow me decent overpayments. If it looks like I can pay the rest by the end of March time, I might aswell leave the balance where it is, as by the time I've paid the transfer fee for a 0% credit card, I will be worse off than just paying the extra interest on the mortgage.

Spent most of this week after work going through my SOA, as I'm determined not to let my focus slip now I've almost managed MFdom! I've still got 4-5 years of hard saving to make sure I can buy a nice house in a decent area, preferably without a mortgage. There are a few areas in Cornwall I have visited that are way too similar to where I live now! So I'm determined to be able to afford somewhere a bit nicer and as near to the beach as possible.

I'll post my SOA in my next post, just got to put the finishing touches to it!

Will also post my New Year aims! Started following quite a few financial bloggers on Twitter and they're giving me all sorts of ideas!:rotfl:

Danny5

OUTGOINGS

Mortgage Payment £671.73 pm £155.02 pw
Life Insurance £10.13 pm £2.34 pw
ASU Insurance £30.63 pm £7.07 pw
Energy £80 pm £18.46 pw
Home Insurance £9.85 pm £2.27 pw
Internet/Digital TV £43 pm £9.92 pw
0% Credit Card £26.83 pm £6.19 pw
Mobile £14 pm £3.23 pw
Contact Lenses £24.90 pm £5.75 pw
Council Tax £115 pm £22.12 pw
Water £26.02 pm £4 pw
TV licence £12.12 pm £2.80 pw
Child Maintenance £150 pm £34.62 pw
Charity 1 £3 pm £0.70 pw
Charity 2 £6 pm £1.39 pw

Total £275.88 pw

SAVINGS

Child Trust Fund £20pm £4.62 pw
ISA £25 pw
Social Lending £50 pm £11.54 pw
Investment £20 pm £4.62 pw
Hols/Christmas £50 pw

Total £95.78 pw


OTHER

Spending Money £45 pw

TOTAL OUTGOINGS £416.66 pw


INCOME

Basic Wage £400 pw
OH Payment £250 pm £57.69 pw


INCOME £457.69 - OUTGOINGS £416.66 = £41.03 pw

£40 weekly surplus to be automatically transferred out (£30 to an investment account/ £10 to a 'buffer' account for any unbudgeted spends) :money:

Danny5

So far this year I've:

• Moved Home Insurance on renewal and saved £2.50 per month
• Changed energy provider (fixed until end of 2017) and saved around £140 odd per year
• Redone SOA and worked it out weekly to squeeze every last penny out of my wages
• Started smallish contributions to buy shares in rental properties.
• Started daily spends diary. Last year I didn't stay within my £45 pw spending budget, which is ridiculous bearing in mind my partner pays for food and my van fuel is paid by the company. That's going to change this year. The money not spent will be put towards some sort of investment or the best savings account I can find...

As I said, I've been following and reading up on a lot of financial bloggers on twitter and I've got plenty of ideas off them. The first thing I'm looking into is signing up to TopCashback (been meaning to do it for ages, but after reading just how much money people are getting back off it, I'm going to finally sign up and sort it). Also, going to get back to Matched betting. I did it a few years ago and made a couple of grand, but people are making 10 grand plus every year! Plenty more stuff to look into aswell, will try and post anything else I catch onto

I have asked mortgage company for redemption statement too, so that should be landing on my doormat next week, and this morning I got my annual mortgage statement, which puts my outstanding balance on 31/1/16 at £15,134.05. Between then and now I've paid £6000 OPs plus my monthly payment so I put my remaining balance around £8500.

Danny5

Received my Settlement Figure this morning from the mortgage company, and I'm a little bit disappointed at it! Pretty sure there's about £1000 too much on it!

Here's the figures as I see them (please tell me if I've missed something!)

Annual Statement Balance (dated 31/12/16) £15,134.05

Account Balance Before Settlement charges (16/1/17) £9462.32

Between 31/12/16 & 16/1/17 I've paid
£6000 overpayment, plus £671 monthly payment = £6671
Daily rate of interest £1.21 x 16 = £19.36

£15,134.05 + £19.36 = 15,153.41
- £6671
Remaining balance should be £8,482.41
Difference between my figure and mortgage company = £979.91!!

Have I missed something? I'm going to ring them first thing Monday (when they re open) anyway as it's really annoying me!:mad:

Anyway, on another note, I've today restarted Matched Betting and so far I'm about £20 up. I'm hoping to make about £1000 a month on it. I've been reading loads of money blogs and they're all at it, and all making between £500 and £2000 a month.

Not decided what I'm going to do with the matched betting profits yet. Some sort of different investment maybe.. If anyone has any good ideas as to how I could grow the money best? (trying to avoid savings accounts as they just don't pay enough, and with inflation rising, its more important than ever to find somewhere good to put your money)

On my Resolution to stay within my £45 a week allowance, I've had a bad week, however I'm still within the budget for the year!

Started week with £108.08
Spent £85.10
End of Week £22.98

In my defence, I had to pay my sons £25 beavers subs and had a curry night with the lads from work (around £50), which happens once or twice a year if that!

Hope everyone is having a good start to 2017!

cajef

Don't wish to upset your dream but have you looked at house prices down here in Cornwall recently, they have gone up by one of the highest increases in the country in the past couple of years.

Danny5

Cheers Cajef, I've been tracking them for a few years, and have a look around whenever I go down. I guess its the curse of the second home owners..
I don't doubt its going to be difficult, but If I don't push myself I'll end up being stuck where I am for the rest of my life, and I really don't want that!

I appreciate your comment though, I understand it's incredibly frustrating for the Cornish, having all these people from 'up country' buying houses and pushing up the local prices. But the house I buy will be a home, not a holiday house, and I fully intend to embrace the Cornish way of life, not be one of those that move down and complain about everything and try to change it.

Danny5

Its been a couple of months since I last posted, and its been all go!

I had a discussion with the mortgage company about the miscalculated redemption statement in January, and it turned out I was right, they had not added one of my overpayments. Which was a relief!

The matched betting went out the window, although not before I made a couple of hundred pounds. Between work, kids and general family life, I couldn't find enough time to make a justifiable amount of extra money. With my full time job wages staying strong, I'm not overly concerned about it.

The £45 a week spending money was going really well until mid Feb, when between my OHs birthday, Sisters birthday, OHs sisters birthday and various other occasions, it fell away. I know I keep saying it, but I REALLY need to get my head around this. More than any other reason, that if things take a turn for the worse and I find myself out of work or something like that, I need to be capable of sticking to what is not that small a weekly budget! I frustrate myself no end with this.

As for the end game, being mortgage free before I'm 30 in August... I'm going to smash it by the start of April!
Ask for my redemption statement last week for 3rd of April, so hopefully that will arrive next week. I'm thinking it will be around £3100, of which £700 will be covered by my normal repayment. I think I already have the rest in my account with another Friday still to go in March. Starting to get very excited now! :T

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

atypicalblonde

Wow! Just read your diary all the way through, fantastic stuff! I'll bet you're a giddy kipper now! Marvellous achievement x

freshcotton

Well done Dan. You stuck to it and you're almost mortgage free at such a young age.

Is the plan still to move to Cornwall? We're heading to the coast once our mortgage is gone, although looking at the north east. But to be mortgage free by 30 is just unreal