The Mortgage Free Proposal

easterbunni

Hmm, seems one has to come up with an interesting thread title for in here, so I spent ages coming up with one, so I hope this one is titillating enough

If anyone's seeing 'proposal' and thinking wedding plans, I'm afraid that's already been and gone, so instead this is me trying to build up to The Mortgage Free Proposal to The Husband... :cool:

Mortgage Free is also probably a little misleading... more like pay off as much as possible before finding somewhere that's a bit bigger, more garden, parking space etc etc the usuals, so I wanted to document my plan.

So I guess you'd like to know a bit about us...?
Me 30s, him 40s, both working, his kids live with their mum, no kids between us, no debt, mortgage is just under £90K, house is worth ?£150k? and could do with some dollar spent on it before we tried to sell it, joint income of £57K, (sounds like a lot to me when I say it like that!) and an expensive Hobby.....

Hubby knows that I like 'to budget' but we went through it once and that was it. Me, I've been using YNAB for the past few months and recording everything.

So this is my plan of action:

1. Introduce Hubby to the wonders of YNAB
2. Get him to stop hoarding The Hobby money and budget it properly (and stop spending it all)
3. Switch accounts to Santander 123 to earn a few extra bob
4. Save up for the important things
5. Get the house looking presentable
6. See how much extra we could throw at the mortgage
7. Find a suitable new home

Step number one is already done. The response was:

"It's pointless and doesn't work!"



Further work to be done here I'm afraid, I shall keep you updated!

[Deleted User]

Interesting, I shall follow your progress. My husband has no interest in our finances. He's currently burying his head in the sand over looming redundancy. His answer is to be confident he won't go and just keep his fingers crossed. To be fair though, I think he is worried but trying not to worry me.

He's been happy to see the debt go down and savings in the bank but really has no idea of the big picture. He told me just to let him know when the mortgage was paid. I've resigned myself to this and don't really involve him in our financial affairs except to tell him to curb his spending.

What is the expensive hobby?

WishIwasstill25

I love YNAB it makes me think 6 times about spending anything.

I've subscribed to follow your progress, I can quite easily see you overtaking us quite rapidly as, although our joint income is similar to yours, it's my income that's responsible for the mortgage, hubby is self employed and Takes only the minimum out of the business, the rest he uses to purchase new equipment, his expenses are also really high, so the income to profit ratio is actually quite low.

egoode

I started using YNAB about 5 months ago and absolutely love it. I hope you manage to convince your husband to start using it.

I sometimes think it's hard being single and having to be responsible for everything but at least I don't have to convince someone else what a good idea it is to budget and try and pay the mortgage off earlier than the original term. Good luck with all your plans will definitely be easier with your hubby on board.

easterbunni

This week, I are been mostly getting him to do the budgeting. I changed it into 'planning the money' instead as it makes a bit more sense that way. Anyway, he did budget most of it to 'holiday'...

I got a bit upset after his initial negativity, so he did propose that he put the YNAB app on his phone, and he's managed to input one transaction He has also been checking it on his phone, and was surprised when I added the hobby (4 wheeled variety PB ) account to YNAB. Unfortunately, he hasn't bothered to categorise the spends he has made out of this account, so I have left them in a particular category that is now overspent, which I will encourage him to rectify...

Just over a week until a new month and payday, my favourite time in YNAB!!

Steps 1 & 2 still ongoing projects at the moment

easterbunni

Hi all
It would appear that it is February already, but I do have some updates.

easterbunni wrote: »

1. Introduce Hubby to the wonders of YNAB

DONE! And he seems to understand it now but is still a bit slack on entering transactions sometimes.

2. Get him to stop hoarding The Hobby money and budget it properly (and stop spending it all)

Done, done, and, well, still spending a bit too much...

3. Switch accounts to Santander 123 to earn a few extra bob

Done! The post came today and didn't contain my online access password But then two more envelopes were pushed through the door about half an hour later, probably by a neighbour, and Santander sorted. Have set up payments and standing orders and changed 90% of the direct debits today.

4. Save up for the important things

Actually have a few spare quids in important YNAB categories now :T

5. Get the house looking presentable

Nope...

6. See how much extra we could throw at the mortgage

Thinking that this probably isn't worth it at the moment - our mortgage rates are 2.5% and 2.79%...

7. Find a suitable new home

I have other ideas now...

Firegirl

You've done well!!!!