A MF day begins at midnight

midnight_child

Hi Smiffy,
Had a sneaky peak at your diary before, and I am quite impressed!

For me its been mostly increasing equity and the improvements to the house have been much slower as a result. When I took out the mortgage I had to push myself to get just a 10% deposit, and took out a mortgage on my own for well over 3.5x my salary :eek:

While I had a secure job (and thankfully still do) this debt really scared me and was a kick up the backside I needed to save money and get the mortgage down to a more manageable sum, before the inevitable rate hikes start. My dad has various tales about the 22% interest rate when he took out his mortgage back in the 70's, and I didnt want any possibility (however remote) of in 5-10 years time spending every penny servicing the debt.

I figured that having a top of the range kitchen would be really nice, but its not that useful if your house gets repossessed.

MC

StevieGee

midnight_child wrote: »

Hi Smiffy,
Had a sneaky peak at your diary before, and I am quite impressed!

For me its been mostly increasing equity and the improvements to the house have been much slower as a result. When I took out the mortgage I had to push myself to get just a 10% deposit, and took out a mortgage on my own for well over 3.5x my salary :eek:

While I had a secure job (and thankfully still do) this debt really scared me and was a kick up the backside I needed to save money and get the mortgage down to a more manageable sum, before the inevitable rate hikes start. My dad has various tales about the 22% interest rate when he took out his mortgage back in the 70's, and I didnt want any possibility (however remote) of in 5-10 years time spending every penny servicing the debt.

I figured that having a top of the range kitchen would be really nice, but its not that useful if your house gets repossessed.

MC

I like this.

Keep up the good work.

midnight_child

StevieGee wrote: »

I like this.

Keep up the good work.

Hi StevieGee,

Its good to know that at least a few people dont think I'm completely mental.

MC

midnight_child

This months numbers are in having made an OP of £500.
I have a couple of mini achievements to report.

1 - The debt has crossed below 3x may salary for the first time. Mainly thanks to a recent pay rise, but its a breakthrough none the less.

2 - I have now made 20 monthly payments and saved a further 30 (i.e. it will finish 30 months early). This means I have effectively made 50 monthly payments to the mortgage, which puts me exactly 1/6th of the way through. I had to re-check this as I thought it couldn't be right, but it is
Just 250 months left to pay for.

The other big(ish) achievement is that I now have my spreadsheet calculating to the exact penny the amount of interest I pay each month. I had a few snags before meaning they were always a quid or so out, but I solved this a while back. Just wanted to confirm it wasnt a fluke.

Have eyed up some more mini-goals over the coming months, but I will keep as a surprise and share them as they are realised.

All the best
MC

Marcello

Hi Midnight,

They are great milestones and you are certainly deep into the detail.

You must be an excel genius to be calculating the interest to the penny, the legend locoblades spreadsheet calculates interest monthly.

midnight_child

Wow that's a grand compliment indeed!!
Well I do know my way round excel as I use it quite a bit for work, but im certainly no computer programmer. Mine is nothing like as comprehensive as locoblades one, which is quite astounding.

I just have the monthly interest figure (and then use this to get the next months outstanding balance), but I display the answer to 2 decimal places I have it to the penny. I agree its a little bit pedantic, but on the plus side I will know immediately if H$BC ever makes a mistake on my account

Happy to share my workings, if there's aspects of it that help others with their own sheets. However, it wont take into account offsetting, ERCs and various other things that have been incorporated into the locoblade one.

MC

midnight_child

MFWing has been a struggle for the last few weeks, and I have dipped into the overdraft for the first time for ages :mad:. Just had to shuffle some bits around to rectify this, and will be living on the CC for the next two weeks till payday, then pay off in full when I get the statement.

Main reason has been a week long trip away with work. Many costs were incurred, but I will be able to claim most of it back evenutally.

The going away with work has also meant that no DIY could be done, so this still needs doing. Hopefully will have better news next time.

MC

Dobbibill

Hey Midnight child,

Hope the trip away was enjoyable as well as costly

There will be ups and downs along the way but keep chipping away with both OP and DIY.......Rome wasn't built in a day as they say!!!! :think:

DB

giblet1979

Hey MC,

Sounds like there have been a lot of ups and downs, but keep focused as this is a temporary blip, and that 1/6 progress is just amazing!

Gib x

midnight_child

Thanks for the support. Was in a really foul mood yesterday, which was possible due to sleep deprivation.
I slept right through my alarm and was late for work as a result, but I actually feel loads better.

:D:D:D

MC