A MF day begins at midnight

catriona79

midnight_child wrote: »

Monthly update time again. :j

Things seem to be progressing quite quickly at the moment, as have been doing quite a lot of extra hours. I received some small work expenses back that I had forgotten about, plus got a dividend from one of my shares, and added that to the pennies I had left come payday and have OP'd it using the magic button.

I am beginning to really enjoy having an "overpayment allowance"
MC

Hey MC,

Well done on your overpayments. The overtime you're bringing in works twice for you, lowering your daily interest rate!

I am nearly finished with the move from 2.49 onto 1.69% APR, and well chuffed with that. £40 squids in every month. Getting myself out of debt for now, but at a later date might look at increasing mortgage payments. Also, in the spring, I might look at a fix, I think it would be a sensible step!

midnight_child

Welcome crv1963 :wave:.

Catriona that is fantastic, and I am very jealous. I am hoping to fix mine again in Feb 2017, which is apparently the new date when the experts think BOE rate might increase.

Not so much to report recently, hence the lack of posting. Things are just plodding along with frugality. I have been having a bit of a purge of the kitchen cupboards to use up various tins/jars, and this has led to about 4 NSDs over the last week.

I have the day off today so am catching up on a few house jobs. Also got quite a bit more work lined up over the next couple of weekends that will keep me out of trouble.

Hoping to make another largish OP before the third week of December - Yes, it is still too early to use the C word!! :rotfl:

MC

catriona79

Well, I looked at Karl Jeacle's mortgage calculator and played around with scenarios. So tempting to overpay with my rental income, it would mean having a mortgage for another 7 years only!

Are you still thinking of renting out a room, or value your own space too much now?

And have you got much left to do in the house?

midnight_child

catriona79 wrote: »

Well, I looked at Karl Jeacle's mortgage calculator and played around with scenarios. So tempting to overpay with my rental income, it would mean having a mortgage for another 7 years only!

Are you still thinking of renting out a room, or value your own space too much now?

And have you got much left to do in the house?

I have no objections to renting a room (or maybe 2 rooms) and I actually had a friend come to look round a while back. The main issue is that the place still needs an awful lot of work, though with the amount of extra (paid) work I have been taking on over evenings and weekends, I never have any time to do the decorating required to bring it up to modern times.

I was actually thinking about this recently as I read the other day that I could now earn £7500 each year from lodgers before HMRC stick their beak in for a cut, so maybe I need to re-evaluate my priorities.
Perhaps paying for decorators to blitz the place would become cost neutral in a relatively short time.......???

MC

catriona79

midnight_child wrote: »

I have no objections to renting a room (or maybe 2 rooms) and I actually had a friend come to look round a while back. The main issue is that the place still needs an awful lot of work, though with the amount of extra (paid) work I have been taking on over evenings and weekends, I never have any time to do the decorating required to bring it up to modern times.

I was actually thinking about this recently as I read the other day that I could now earn £7500 each year from lodgers before HMRC stick their beak in for a cut, so maybe I need to re-evaluate my priorities.
Perhaps paying for decorators to blitz the place would become cost neutral in a relatively short time.......???

MC

If it was me, I reckon I would. Easiest money you'll ever have made, and you've got the vehicle for earning it already. Not sure what the rental prices are where you are, but I bring in another 45% of my salary for my paid work, by having 2 lodgers.
Current tax break is just under 4.5k, but you only pay tax (self assessment) at the end of the financial year on the amount above that sum. So far, I have not needed too, as I used to only rent one room out (and when I started out, prices were significantly lower than now!) but this year I might do, unless my lodger moves out (they are currently interviewing for jobs in another part of the country).
The tax break is a great incentive though, definitely.
Not sure what else needs doing in your house, if kitchen and bathroom, then including appliances it's probably about 8k, but you could get that back within a year. My thinking is, that while its still only me, no family, I may as well max it out and prepare for the next chapter in life.

Oh that calculator is an amazing tool. So motivational!

I reckon I will be debt free (or neutral) around April 2016, so we will see then what the plan is.
I have thought about selling up and moving to another area, which would be about 50k cheaper, and reducing my mortgage that way. But we will have to see. For now, got to keep making those payments! :money::money::money::D

midnight_child

Not sure I'd be able to command that much in rent but certainly food for thought.
I do still have both the kitchen and bathroom to do, which I had put off till the end. They are usable though are very dated, and will likely be a big expense. I would not want to get a lodger in then after a few months tell them I am ripping out the bathroom and that they cant shower for a couple of weeks :eek:.

Today I noticed that my annual interest payment was marginally over £2000, so I have made a small OP so that it crept under. I also got a letter to say that H$BC is lowering my ISA rate yet again, so will have to think where best to keep my emergency fund in future.

MC

midnight_child

Ok, I've given in and the heating is now back on.

Quite impressed the old girl turned back on again first time but there was a bit of a whirling noise for 5 mins :eek:
Hopefully it just needed to clear the cobwebs through and we will get at least one more winter - No idea of the exact age but that particular model was introduced in early 90's.

MC

shangaijimmy

We had ours serviced after it made some bizarre noises. Told it would ne lucky to last another winter, 3 years later it finally give up the ghost 10 days before Christmas!!

midnight_child

Hi SJ,

Yeah, never had mine serviced as I dont envisage it will last that much longer anyway, but hey, if it aint broke....

This is one reason for delaying decorating the bathroom, as that is where my hot water storage tank is currently housed, and I'd quite like it moving to the loft.

MC

catriona79

Hey MC,

Yes, to have lodgers you'd probably do well to do up the kitchen and bathroom and then advertise, and pay off the investment with that income. Financially it makes sense to do ASAP to take advantage of as much time of increased income as possible, but that's only if you really want to have lodgers and need to increase your income. But you're doing very well without it, so may not need to, and it is nice to have your own space, I sometimes really miss it!

I've been reading about passive investing on monevator. Really interested in getting an index tracker fund, and saving long term for retirement. Not trading, more just putting money away regularly and closing my eyes if they drop for a few years!
Probably would split my spare income each mont 50:50 to mortgage and shares/bonds; that's after I've built up a cash reserve / emergency fund.

Are you thinking of doing that, or mainly focusing on the mortgage? I notice you got some shares, are they single company or an index tracker/diversified?

This money saving is quite exciting, so many options!