Tm's MFW ramblings

turtlemoose

I've been busy reading and posting on other MF diaries but forgot to update my own!

Got my new car today. Managed to get over £3.1k for the old one when the annoying car buying chain only offered me £2.5k on trade in so that was a *huge* bonus! That's our holiday spending money and new baby's pram sorted. Excellent!

Even further bonus - updated my insurance, expected to have to pay more due to swapping from a 6 year old car to a new one....nope! £29 refund! popped it straight in the OP pot am now at £860 for the year - just over halfway to my annual target.

Baby bump progressing nicely, just over the halfway mark. We are team yellow, so have bought a few neutral bits when I've seen premium brands at my local charity shop (4 for £1!!!!).

We have 3 month's expenses saved now, so if we both simultaneously lost our jobs, we'd be ok in the short term. I'm saving our mortgage OPs instead of paying them as I'm earning much more interest. Continuing in my usual money saving ways.

Oh, should mention the OH has done well lately. He's terrible with money, always has been. I deal with all household finances because...well...quite frankly the bills would go unpaid if left to him. He was furious when auto-enrolment came in because he did not want to pay in to his pension. When he started his current job just over a year ago, I nagged and nagged for him to do 4% because that's the max his employer will match. He did it just to shut me up, he was fed up of hearing about it. Anyway, I was telling him about my MF projections, and the variables/assumptions etc. MF by 40 (me that is, he'd be 49) is possible. Needs determination, but certainly could be done. He then asked me how much spare cash we'd have each month in the joint account. It would be over £1k a month (lots of assumptions being made of course!). I expected him to talk about all the things we could buy/do etc but he just looked thoughtful for a moment, then said "I think when we are MF we should put at least half of what is freed up in to pensions" . I nearly fell off the sofa, instead I just agreed and said "good idea!". Amazing how MSE can work by osmosis :rotfl:

SuperSecretSquirrel

That is excellent news TM

I had a similar moment at the weekend, OH casually mentioned that she was considering going back to full time hours so she can start putting a little more in her pension and medium term savings - I nearly fell off my chair too! :eek:

Not going to rush into anything as I think she would really suffer losing the extra time with LO, but I'm reviewing budgets to see what we can do to free up a little slack to go in the pension, it's an opportunity not to be missed! It might mean rejigging the mortgage payoff plan slightly, but I think it's worth it

turtlemoose

gosh I am really bad at remembering to post in my own diary

Mortgage OPs stand at £1499.04 YTD (target £1716.78). Well not actual OPs, they're in various savings earning more interest than the mortgage is costing.

Through current account tricks, I'm making around £37 a month in cashback and interest. That doesn't include cashback on purchases. That is added to the OP pot each month

My S&S Isa has turned itself around and currently showing a little profit (£1k invested, worth £1063 right now) which is nice as it has always been at a loss before. LC is making me 10+%, with £1200 ish in the pot.


After getting debt free, I deliberately took out a load more debt :D:D:D I am now stoozing as much as possible. All on interest free cards (of course) - current CC balance is £23977 and cash earning interest is £11.8k (that includes the OP pot of 1.5). Paying around £310 a month in minimum payments, but adding approx £600 to savings, pretty happy with that. This will obviously change over the next year with mat pay etc but we are on target to pay off all of the CCs by the interest free date, and will most likely earn more in interest than it cost in fees to borrow it. (and certainly a lot less in fees than it would have been in interest on a personal loan!)


We will become a family of 5 next month, how exciting/terrifying. Work have confirmed they'll adhere to my legal and contractual rights with no arguments this time around (they didn't last time!) so that's a relief....until I remember how low SMP is! I'll probably be on the forums a lot more then, got to have something to do to keep me awake during the 40 billion night feeds I'm about to do ! Had health visitor round the other day, she asked if I had everything we need for baby, did we need assistance in getting things etc. It's good they ask, for those in need of course, but I said "hmm we have the cot from last time, I've been picking up bits and pieces of clothing from the charity shop for the last few months, and I've got a tube of lanolin. I think we're ready" . What more could I need?! :D:D

Having a bit of a pain with my tenants. They're on full benefits, 2 school age kids, 2 under school age kids. The problem started when the husband got a job, housing benefit was stopped (obviously) but his job was only a temporary labouring gig. They paid rent directly to me while he was working, then when it ended they stopped paying and did a new HB claim but it took the council 18 weeks to process it :mad: i know this is true not just them saying it, because they've authorised me to speak to the Council directly about their claim. What a nightmare - I understand it is not their fault the council was/is so rubbish, but ultimately I can't pay 2 mortgages myself indefinitely. He's done bits and pieces of work and they're awaiting another HB claim. Unfortunately I've had to say I can't wait any longer, and have given a deadline to pay a certain proportion of the arrears before i will have to ask them to leave (or evict if they won't go). I feel sorry for them but I'm having to be firm as I can't afford to house my own family and someone else's too.

I'm really in 2 minds about that house, I don't know whether to keep or sell. It needs a new boiler before winter (know reliable gas man thankfully, will be approx £1600). But mostly maintenance wise it ticks over with very reasonable costs and the current tenants are looking after it well etc. i just feel at the moment it's a constant risk - I know my feelings are probably clouded by the rent arrears, but dunno, I never intended to be a landlord and wonder if I should stick at it or not.

gallygirl

Well my retirement income at present is solely from BTL's so I'm a bit biased . My advice would be to separate the thinking on the current house/arrears with the concept of BTL and ask yourself two questions:

1. Do you see BTL as something you want to continue doing indefinitely? If no, sell up. If yes, continue to 2.
2. What is wrong with this particular BTL? Is it always going to be costly to maintain or is the boiler pretty much a one-off? Why do you have HB tenants in? Is it a 'council house' or equivalent? If that is the case you are likely to always have problems with HB - regardless of how good the tenants are, if their circumstances change you can get into the situation you're in. Also, are you aware that if you have the rent paid directly to you and the tenant has been claiming incorrectly then you will be liable for the overpayment. If you do want to continue with BTL would you be better off selling the house and buying a different one - say a newish small property on private estate.

I wish I'd asked myself these questions a good few years ago, we'd have save a lot of headaches, repair bills and arrears! I know there are now additional costs when buying a BTL but it still may be worth it in the long run.

Congrats on forthcoming arrival :T.

turtlemoose

Hi Gally! Massively appreciate a comment from one so experienced!

BTL is something I fell in to, so I didn't set out to do it but I'm not totally opposed to it either. So I don't really know the answer to 1......I guess over the last few years I've thought of it as plan B .... worst case scenario if something terrible happened to hubby or me, I could sell it. If no worst case scenario it adds to the pension pot.

In answer to your questions...

What is wrong with this particular BTL? Crappy area, only ever going to be tenants who don't work. It's the kind of place where if your face doesn't fit, the neighbours will attack you/the property until you move out. Lived there 4 years myself, absolute hell. 14 broken windows, car windscreen smashed, paint thrown at me and the house, 3 burglaries, physically attacked in my front garden....and more. The current tenants are related to 5 other houses on the street so suffer no such behaviour.

Is it always going to be costly to maintain or is the boiler pretty much a one-off? no just a one-off, boiler is coming to end of life, has had a few parts, I trust my gas man.... generally the property does not cost very much beyond the usual insurance/cp12 type costs.

Why do you have HB tenants in? Is it a 'council house' or equivalent? If that is the case you are likely to always have problems with HB - regardless of how good the tenants are, if their circumstances change you can get into the situation you're in. The house is in a crappy area and that will not change, real absolutely stereotype 'benefits street'. I don't mind that so much.... the way I see it is if someone is getting full HB then I'm getting full rent, until these tenants actually got a job, it was a winner!

Also, are you aware that if you have the rent paid directly to you and the tenant has been claiming incorrectly then you will be liable for the overpayment. Yes I knew this one, they have their HB (when they get it) paid in to a local credit union. The credit union pays it to me minus a fee of 75p. From what I understand, my tenants manage all their bills like this.

If you do want to continue with BTL would you be better off selling the house and buying a different one - say a newish small property on private estate. I don't think I could afford the mortgage on that kind of thing. This property is currently worth £85k and is a 3 bed end terrace in good condition with front driveway and large rear garden. To give you an example, HERE is one for sale on the same road. People bought it, started doing it up, local people weren't happy, essentially, with the ethnicity of the new owners, so did the damage you see in the photos.

Also with the buying a different property....the mortgage would be higher, meaning rent would need to be higher to compensate for increased mortgage, tax liability etc. I'm not sure I would be comfortable charging a higher rent. Even when I've had tenants who've worked, I have charged the LHA rate for the property....because it was sufficient to keep it all ticking over, not costing me anything, paying my mortgage off, but also meant the tenants were paying a lower than average rent in a time where private renting can be incredibly expensive.


I feel like, had I never had the BTL, I wouldn't be looking to get one. But now that I've got one, I feel like it's something too good to get rid of? But equally I worry about it.....then swing back the other way mortgage is only £350 on it so not too bad to prop up if it limps along for a while.......arrgghhhh I'm too indecisive on this matter!

turtlemoose

Last day at work, 2 weeks hol then maternity leave. Simultaneously excited to get out of this drudgery, and terrified at the really hard work coming my way very soon! On the money front....will have more spare time for coupon/deal hunting, but less income too so meh.

turtlemoose

Baby tm arrived 18th Sept he was an unexpected whopper at 10lb 4oz!

Had a bit of a spendy September. Washing machine, which has been repaired previously and been limping along for some time, finally died. With a newborn imminent we needed a replacement asap....£360!! Then fitted the car seat we'd saved from my first son, only to find we couldn't fit it in the centre seat, and fit other son's car seat and a teenage stepson in the back....so £205 for new seat and isofix base. Then SS' birthday and at the last minute after we'd already spent £130 on gifts, OH decides he wants to buy him a laptop too so another £200 on top. Yikes. Then the obligatory takeaways for several days after new baby as OH can't cook!

Work have unexpectedly said they'll pay me 100% pay for the first 6 weeks instead of 90% - that's a nice little bonus. Only they wrote saying it then didn't actually pay it...quick email to payroll and they'll give me the missing bit next month.

SuperSecretSquirrel

Congratulations on your new arrival turtlemoose!

EatingTheElephant

Congratulations

turtlemoose

Wow a year and more since I updated this. Whoops.

I had a little read back and seems last time I said anything meaningful about figures, it was £ 23977 credit card 0% debt and £11800 in savings.

Well..... a year off work has battered that!

Now £18945 on credit cards and £1000 in savings.

I have had an absolutely awful year. My baby was the shining light throughout an enormous storm of crap. I'm not through it yet either, but it is what it is, all out of my control, so I'll just have to plod on and see what happens. It means that finances haven't really been my priority and there was probably a lot more money spent than was necessary/we couldn't really afford.

Back to it now though, I can't let it slide any more. Rough plans are:
2018 - OP mortgage £2.1k Pay CC £4k
2019 - OP mortgage £2.1k Pay CC £4k
2020 - OP mortgage £2.1k Pay CC £8k (if 30hrs free childcare still applies)
2021 - remortgage in March target less than 60% LTV (if price remains static projected is 52%), then OP £5k Pay CC 3.5k
2022 - OP mortgage £4k Save £3k Holiday £2k have no debt

That's where I'd like to be over the next 5 years. At that point we'd then have a mortgage balance of c. £55k (on a £135k ish property). Remaining term 15 years at that point but making MANY assumptions, we would perhaps be looking to reduce the term to 8 years - making it paid off 2030 which would make me 45 and OH 54 - not bad but I'd like to try and improve on that, and it's way off my (probably over-ambitious!!) plans when I first started this diary.


Next step - set up an intricately detailed budget plan for 2018 to make sure the payments as above happen. Yay, spreadsheets