Grinding it out to Mortgage Freedom

Pocket9s

getmore4less wrote: »

A couple of points on the SOA

Cars, £20pm is a bit low for the mileage being done.
it will cover the MOT and a service each year but I would budget for 1 tyre a year at least.

good point will up this to £35 to ensure covered

Allthough not on the standard SOA you need a replacement fund even if you can keep these 2 going for 10years thats £66pm to replace. (allthough you could delay this till later I would combine with the service and up that to £50pm
(cars should not use emergency funds they can be budgeted)

good point - my plan is to keep cars going until mortgage paid in 6/7 yrs. will then save up £20k or so to cover expenses like cars and replace when used. Obviously if car goes wrong before then it screws the plan a bit but hey I like to gamble!

Emergency fund is fine for the unexpected bills but bit a bit low for loss of income. 6 month expences(which are lower if you drop a commute and childcare) is a reasonable min target.
I would also allocate some top up money to keep it going untill you get the budget planning more things so it does not get used.

yeah this was more for unexpected bills. If I did lose my job I would get a years wage redundancy, also if not working could prob make over 1k from poker so should have a good buffer. Only risk here is if I am fired for gross misconduct etc but should be able to avoid this! Think I'm already being fairly risk averse ('nitting it up' in poker speak!) in paying the mortgage rather than investing the money with Vanguard etc as likely returns would outstrip mortgage interest, but paying mortgage gives security of owning the house. That said keen to pay off Asap in part to redirect the income to building investments to support retirement

Finally your SOA had over £1k free pm on paper, this has not happened so you need to look at what was missing from the budget, Xmas overhang put in this years Xmas spending in so no overhang next year, stag event maybe entertainment/holiday needs a bit more.

will add Xmas spend to next SOA

Cash flow will vary month to month but the trick with SOA is to make them as close to reality as possible and err on the high side for the variable spends in the plan so you are more likley to go under budget and have a bit spare than under budget and have to find the cash from some other planned item.

Why not go for 2 regular savers that's £600pm then have the poker money as a top up as and when which brings the average upto £900pm

i did think of this but other saver would be in wife's name and she might be tempted to spend some of it on the kids/house stuff on maturity rather than paying off the mortgage! So her £300 just comes off mortgage each month

Then allocate the rest(without the poker £300 which will be variable) to your living plan.

Thanks for the advice will make the slight changes above and see how it goes over next few months. If consistently under might need to reevaluate in depth

Pocket9s

Budget took another hit today - wife loves birdwatching so we got a bird feeder in the garden - certainly seeing a lot more wildlife in the garden, took a trip out this morning to buy rat traps to clear the rat infestation in the shed :eek:

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Good luck with all your plans.

Best wishes, Tilly

Pocket9s

Another update - will try and update at start of each month from now on.

This month went a bit better in terms of budgeting, plus the poker gods were kind so managed to save £600 from wages plus £600 from poker. In addition another £300 into reg saver towards the lump sum repayment at year end.

Next month we have a wedding to go to plus it's my bday so will be some additional spends there, but hopefully nothing too excessive. Also no rats caught as yet, but not seen any today so hopefully they have moved on now food has been removed



Head down and grind on!

In summary:
Wages saved: £600
Poker profit: £600
Reg Saver: £300

Totals
Reg Saver: £600
Mortgage remaining: £117,127

Rats caught: 0

Pocket9s

***March Update***

Quite a busy month this month with a friends wedding in London , plus 2 trips away for a work conference and up to Blackpool for my birthday.

Managed to play a couple of live poker tournaments on the trips away, placed 1st in one for £300 and 4th in the other for £200. Total net profit £300 after buyin/travel/accommodation/booze etc. As this was "bonus" money have decided not to spend on O/P but kept in cash to use for spending on treats/days out etc etc.

Online had a good month, had a couple of small tournament wins plus a decent cash grind. Total profit including rakeback was £1400.

Pub poker league on Mondays has been less good with no final tables yet, so looks like I won't make the league final this time unless there's a big turnaround this month!

Saving a steady amount from wages between us now, total of £700 this month.

**Summary for March**

Poker Profit: £1400
Wages Saved: £700
Regular Saver: £300
Total overpayment: £2100
Total in Regular Saver: £900

Mortgage Outstanding: £114,105

Pocket9s

Steady month again, no major expenses so saved a decent amount from wages, and poker showed an above average profit again with a tournament final table boosting the total for the month.

Expecting a downturn in poker profit in coming months as poker is fairly seasonal and recreational player numbers drop off in the summer with lighter evenings, holidays etc. hopefully can still hit the £300 target most months.

Pub poker league is a fail this season but new season starts this week so will try again!

Off for a punt on the election now, my money is on Labour minority government! Another update next month

***April Summary***

Poker Profit: £1025
Wages Saved: £915
Regular Saver: £300

April Overpayment: £1940
Regular Saver Total: £1200

Mortgage Outstanding: £111,799

Luckyinlife

Amazing OP

I do love a bit of poker myself :]

Pocket9s

Luckyinlife wrote: »

Amazing OP

I do love a bit of poker myself :]

Thanks - looks like you're making decent progress with the overpayments yourself!

Do you play poker online or live?

Luckyinlife

I used to go to live events but they only do them twice a week near me now on days i cant make it so i have flutter online these days now and agine

Thanks for the kind words :]

Pocket9s

Luckyinlife wrote: »

I used to go to live events but they only do them twice a week near me now on days i cant make it so i have flutter online these days now and agine

Thanks for the kind words :]

What part of the country you in? If you've got a casino nearby would recommend trying a tourney there if you like an occasional game the standard is usually pretty low for the small buyin games so you might even win a bit of £££