In my dreams I have a plan

London18

[FONT=&quot] So time to stop lurking and start a diary to get some focus on the MFW task ahead.

Current mortgage £231K (originally £257K., 6.5 years ago)
Currently on SVR at 3.99% but awaiting news on transferring to a new product (no fees) at 2.49% for 2 years which if all goes OK will start 1 September. Leaving the term 'as is' at 18 years & planning to overpay instead.

This burst of enthusiasm has been brought on by the need to remortgage onto a fixed rate before the rates climb. Plus pensions auto enrolment last year brought home the fact that I'd be working until 68 years old before I paid the mortgage off! Now I like my job but I want some other options once I hit my 60's thanks. That’s when it dawned on me I needed to do something a bit more proactive.

About me:
Single (mortgage is post-divorce so lost some ground there money wise), no kids, good job and decent salary [knocks wood]. Have no close family here in the UK so need to save for planned trips 'down-under' every few years and keep a good cash reserve for emergency trips as well, just in case. I would go more often but 25+ hours of flying one way and the cost is a bit of a barrier to short trips and there is only so much annual leave entitlement. So less frequent but longer trips work out better, if a bit sad because a lot changes in 2-3 years when you aren't there to see it.
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Once on the new interest rate, I can overpay about £400 per month and sometimes more if I work at it. So the goal is get mortgage under £200K in 2 years AND mortgage free in 12 years! OK, that might get revised if it turns out a bit too ambitious but it's a start.

Being all on my own with the responsibility for a humungous mortgage is also part of the incentive to do this. So if there are other singletons out there lurking please say hi and tell me how you cope.
First plans:
- Spend less on clothes, shoes and handbags
- Avoid TK Maxx (as above]
- Spend less on work lunches, taking lunch from home when possible
- Spend a bit less on weekly food overall (for a single person this is a bit OTT at the moment) So less Waitrose, more Aldi.
- Keep better track of the small 'frittering away' cash purchases that add up

So that's it - the plan in my dreams (the title is from an Abba lyric :dance:)
Looking forward to getting to know some of you on this thread!

juststuff123

Good luck to you:T!


I'm another single MFW, so I'm looking forward to seeing how you get on. Just think at the end you'll be able to look back and say that you have made this massive achievement and did all by yourself!

London18

Thanks Just Stuff. Good to know there are others out there going it alone - good luck with your plans too. Yes the sense of achievement at the end will be great!

What I find hard some days is the decision making. Like shall I fix the mortgage for 2 years and see what rates are like in 2 years or 3/4 yrs (but at a higher interest rate now) How much savings to keep aside and in what sort of account,? Should I sell up and move to make my work commute easier but, oh, the house prices in those areas are stupid so I'd need to increase the mortgage to do that, so shall I just put up with the daily slog? Yup, lots to think about and too much time on hands perhaps! I can get into real analysis paralysis - hence why I stayed on SVR for a too long as no decision made.

Still, reading other people's diaries I know I am very lucky in a lot of ways with no other debt other than the mortgage, a well-paid secure job and a fair bit of discretionery spending available. So staying grateful and counting my collection of loose change instead (really, am currently counting all my 5p pieces from the jar and am up to £9 so far).

midnight_child

Good luck London18.

I think there are a few of us single MFWs on here. I agree that being responsible for the mortgage alone is daunting, though I sometimes think we have it easier than some of the happily married on here. We dont have to convince an OH who is dead against the idea of overpaying the mortgage. No kids to feed, clothe, fund through uni, and generally act as a magnet for any available cash.

When I took out my mortgage the bank tried to get me to buy their life assurance, saying that "I wouldn't need to worry what would happen to the mortgage if the unfortunate happened". I politely informed them that as I had no dependents I was rather unconcerned what happens to the mortgage if I were to snuff it!!

Will follow your progress.
MC

giblet1979

Loads of luck on your journey - I look forward to reading more.

Subscribed x

juststuff123

Hmm yes I know what you mean, sometimes a sounding board or a second opinion would be really nice. I suppose that's what this forum is for. I quite often run things past my Dad just to check I'm not being a complete fool.


I'm actually holding back on re-mortgaging, though I have given it plenty of thought, I decided to stay as I am for the time being and take my chances when the rates rise, my current SVR is 2.5% I would have to move to a higher interest rate if I fixed or pay fees that would be ridiculously high!


Re. Savings, a lot of the conventional wisdom says you should hold enough in savings for 3 to 6 months of expenses or salary should the worst happen, but I'd say hold however much you need to feel safe. For me that is 1yrs worth of expenses, I'm still working towards that, I should get there soon.:)


For accounts to store your savings, it depends how much you have. ISAs are probably good if you have a lot of money and need someplace to stash it, but many current accounts have some good options, S*ntender 123 is a good one - 3% interest up to £20k.


T$B do a 5% account up to 2k and Nationwide 5% up to 2.5K for 1 year, there are terms with these, you have to put a certain amount of money into these accounts every month, however that extra money doesn't have to stay there, you can set up a standing order to send the money to these accounts from your main account and then set up another standing order to send it straight back to your main account on the same day.


Midnight child is right though, we don't have a lot of the expenses that many of the people on this forum do, and we are able to remain in complete control of our own situation, we know that we won't be de-railed by other people's needs and wants. I read some of the stories on here where people are keeping there mortgage free journey a secret from their partners, or struggle along as the only one making the effort and I feel bad for them, it must be a very difficult situation to be in.

jodles16

I am looking forward to following your journey!

Jodles :j

BookWorm

Hi London18

I'm also flying solo on the mortgage front and I agree that sometimes it would be nice to have someone to talk the decisions over with. However, I also take pride in the fact that everything I have done - has been both by and for myself :T

Best of luck with your journey

BW

London18

So first test of the good intentions today. Went to the local Sunday farmers market and spent £14 on eggs, veges/salad, fruit and some meat. For me that's not bad. And that will see me through a few days of dinners, lunches and snacks. I admit it's not the cheapest place to buy stuff but it's not usually any more expensive than the supermakets I usually shop in and the taste and freshness is hard to beat. So had sirloin steak and veg for dinner and steak & salad tomorrow night (I buy a large (200+g) piece and cut it in half).

Now got to stop as have an very early start for work tomorrow. It's a bit of a grind at the moment, hoping will calm down soon. So much for summer holidays slowing things down - no such luck!

London18

Got back from a night away for work (so a free dinner, breakfast and lunch paid for by work) to find my new mortgage offer in the post.

Now somehow the broker got himself confused; all along he'd said I'd have to move onto repayment to get my nice new shiny interest rate at 60% LTV . And I was fine with that. But no, it's been offered as interest only as per the current mortgage (am just changing product not lender). So I can just contine to overpay, just paying loads less interest and more capital. I am rather pleased, especially since the indexed value of the flat has shot up meaning I can get under 60% LTV without cleaning out the savings- apparently there is some silver lining to stupid London house price increases.

So all set to bite the bank's hand off tomorrow. And currently playing with lots of spreasheets working out how much the overpayment can be for the next 2 years to get balance below £200K by October 2016. I do love a nice spreadsheet!

London18

Well that was all a bit stuff up. Lender issued the wrong mortgage illustration!!!! Broker was so slow in contacting me (not sure he had even noticed frankly) and then didn't get back to me even after I emailed saying what's the story. So I got all keen to then find out today that actually, no, you can't have interest only it is repayment, sorry about that.


Chucked my toys out of pram a bit with the broker about not getting in touch as he has not exactly been brilliant from the start. So anyway the formal application is now in and hopefully next week I'll have confirmation that I can move to the new rate from 1 September.


Will then start a new OP for £400 per month and see how I sustain that. According to my sexy new budget spreadsheet it's entirely do-able so long as I restrain the spending on unnecessary stuff. Mmm, yes.


Mind you right now there is no time for spending, I am only ever at work. I realised yesterday afternoon I had already worked well over my contracted weekly hours, so technically today was all unpaid overtime. I can just see my boss's face if I pointed that out! Yay for the weekend. Even if I do have to log on for a few hours at some stage, at least I can do it in peace and with a glass of wine to hand!