The End May Actually Be in Sight...

Crumpets

Just caught up on your diary RT, massive congratulations, under very sad circumstances. What a fantastic man your FiL must have been :T:)

I appear to have missed some vital Easter chick chat, but thanks Muser for the tip on cutting the chicks feet off, I'd never thought of that before :rotfl:

RoaringTwenties

Crumpets wrote: »

Just caught up on your diary RT, massive congratulations, under very sad circumstances. What a fantastic man your FiL must have been :T:)

I appear to have missed some vital Easter chick chat, but thanks Muser for the tip on cutting the chicks feet off, I'd never thought of that before :rotfl:

Thanks Crumpets Hope all is well at Crumpet Cottage [STRIKE]just texted you[/STRIKE]

RoaringTwenties

Hello all, not much actual news from us for once Took DD's shoes back to Clarks as the jewels at the front had all come out, they ordered us another pair gratis & we collected them today. We also got two free cinema tickets by way of apology after I reported to the cinema chain that they'd shown a trailer for a 15 rated film - complete with swearing & dead bodies - immediately prior to the screening of Alvin & the Chipmunks Roadchip :eek:. To be fair they apologised profusely, I think they know they've messed up. To be fair also DS didn't even notice what was going on as he was too engrossed in his popcorn Hopefully they'll get a free showing of Zootropolis tomorrow :T

Well we've got £7061 left on the mortgage, it'll be £325 less on Tues when I pay a proportion of the rent from the BTL off it :T The rest of the rent will go into the slush fund for periods of unoccupancy, repairs etc. The broader plan come Oct when the mortgage is paid off goes something like this:

1) have a bit of a rest from thinking up the next financial plan, as that's all we seem to have done for years;
2) recognise that that's impossible, as clearly I'm thinking up the next financial plan & I haven't even finished the current one yet :rotfl:
3) save monies previously thrown at mortgage into two funds - one to finally finish doing our house up & another to save for a retirement home in the South West

We have the holiday home down there but it can't be occupied permanently & that's where we'd like to end up. If we can save a good deposit in the next 4 or so years we reckon we can take on another mortgage & get that paid off by the time DW is 55. The idea is that we'd rent our house here out & together with the BTL that would provide enough of an income for DW to retire at 55, which is 15 years from now. She should have a good superannuation but loses a chunk if she takes it before 60, & I suspect that age will get pushed back to 65. It's all for the future as I like to say But at least we have a ball park plan now :money:

Hope everyone is well in MSE-land x

RoaringTwenties

The rent has come in a day early so I've just paid another £325 off the mortgage :T

I still can't get my head round the fact it starts with a 6!

Goldiegirl

Wow - what a windfall from FIL's estate - and amazing what he achieved from virtually nothing.


I'm glad you will continue posting when you become mortgage free.


Being MF is a mile stone, but it's not the end of the journey - there's always something else to think about!

RoaringTwenties

Thanks Goldie, I'll definitely be hanging round, not least cos I think we're going to take on yet another mortgage

Yes FIL was quite amazing really. He grew up privileged high caste Indian but arrived here with nothing. It's been interesting chatting to MIL who is white British & ten years younger, she says they experienced virtually no prejudice about their relationship at any time in their fifty year marriage, which is lovely. They were very close - although even she had no idea just how well he'd played the stock markets :eek: :rotfl:

RoaringTwenties

Hello all,

Quite a busy time here but I've got a lot off my desk in the last week or so. Got a couple of bargains in the Next sale - jeans for me & a jumper for DS. Also got DS a coat from M&S for next winter half price

We have a new gardener, the old gardener went off to start a new business so his son has taken over. He looks like a younger version of his father & is charging us the same rate for the same job so nothing's changed really! They even come up with the same initials & surname on my internet banking

Been doing a bit of shopping for our first trip to our holiday home in less than two weeks I've bought 100% cotton bedding cheap in Asda, toiletries to leave there, felt tips & paper for the kids, hot water bottles in case it's a bit nippy, oh & headphones for them to quietly listen to their DVDs on the journey I've also got out some of the kids' clothes from last year that still fit them to leave there for this year too. I got the carpenter to make me a lockable storage cupboard so we can store our stuff securely. Plan is we'll take stuff down at the start of the season & bring it back at the end each year (other than things like hairdryer/loo rolls/buckets & spades that won't go off ) We've got three family trips planned this year - Easter, Spring Bank & Summer. Can't wait!

Following the meeting with the wealth management IFA I appointed for MIL I've had a lot of documentation to go through & plans to make. FIL had money in their sole & joint names all over the place, he invested in oil before it went to market, in China 20 years ago, in India & Shanghai, you name it, he was in there . The documents I've found have been a bit jaw-dropping - banks & funds I've never even heard of! I'm taking responsibility for it as MIL is very much at sea, as she keeps telling me, all she ever did finance-wise was put the money out for the milkman :rotfl: DW hates finances, I do all ours, & SIL is the same plus she's in Australia so not really near enough to be involved. It's hilarious really that FIL made a fortune & yet both his wife & daughters are the least materialistic people I've ever known! As my sweet SIL said in an Aussie accent when I told her about the £78k: "so I've gotta find something to do with another $100k have I?" :rotfl:

I don't mind sorting it, the plan is to set her estate up simply then it'll largely run itself. A substantial amount of money is going into a private bond in trust, but the IFA is not allowed to advise on the basics savings products for the money I want to keeping accessible to MIL, so I've been searching the market. Rates are awful as we know but I think I've got her a couple of accounts that are ok. She's also keen to bank locally & preferable with a chequebook/passbook etc which reduces the field (to 3 banks & a Building Society!) She still doesn't understand why I'm quite insistent that she doesn't continue to hold £300k with a single provider in a non-interest paying current account & keeps asking about this "banking guarantee thing" that I have tried to educate her about :eek:

MIL also has too much income so it looks like there will be a monthly payment for us going forward too, I think it'll be £400 pcm It'll be tax free & can proved to be surplus to HMRC so will be IHT-exempt too (I've learnt so much about all this stuff recently!) Also there will be an annual income for the grandchildren which will go into some sort of trust to be decided. DS & DD may have a pension plan set up for them at 3 & 8 years old! As soon as I get the IFA sorted on Tues I'll start looking at our financial position as obviously with the rental income plus MIL income things are changing for us again...

Anyway I'll stop there or this post will go on forever! Hope everyone's having a lovely Easter & avoiding the usual bank holiday rain

User1489

A £6k Mortgage is the stuff of dreams! I understand the circumstances, but also well done to you both for being SMART with the inheritance and SMART with all your other overpayments - well done.

Man V Mortgage

RoaringTwenties

Thanks Man! I really wish I'd started this diary before the first inheritance as people on here only 'know' me post-windfall, if I'd started it in 2003 it'd have been 11 years of posts that said "saved £1 on tinned tomatoes, Tilly Tidied it to the mortgage, only another £149,000 to go..."

We've stuck to the plan that any money inherited goes into investments, any money we want to have direct fun with is paid for with money we earn. MIL said the other day that we're all custodians of the inheritance for the next generation - her to us, us to our kids - & that's how we see it.

I'll try & seek out your diary if you have one?

RoaringTwenties

Another £400 off the mortgage this morning :T

Am now tying myself in knots trying to work out the interest for March to deduce the amount we'll owe on Fri given all the balance changes this month Somewhere around £5700 I guesstimate