Mortgage free by 48

pathtofreedom

So it is going to be an expensive month in the end. Car needed some work doing so that was over £600 with the service and mot as well. Got someone to come tidy up the garden this week, and another person to quote for new carpet for the house.

I've finally managed to get some holiday agreed so trying to book a caravan by the sea for a week with the dog to escape. It is in term time but still not that cheap, I could go abroad for cheaper but I don't want to just stick dog in kennels for a week as I think she could do with a holiday too.

Depending when I can get the carpet done then next step will be putting the house on the market, and doing some expoloring for areas to move to. I'm looking for places that are about an hour or less to london to commute to, to give me more options for changing jobs too. Problem with that is though the closer you get the more the prices go up, so it will be a balancing act depending on how much I can get for this place for a deposit I think.

My early repayment charge ends in July so will have to decide around then if it is worth remortgaging then, or just hanging on to sell this place then get a new mortgage somewhere else instead to save on fees.

Will find out soon how much my wages work out to this month with some overtime so I can put that towards saving for moving costs too.

pathtofreedom

Well I have been slack updating the diary, but have been good keeping up the op. I am up to £2916.60 for the year. I have just changed deal again, so it is still an offset but 5 year fixed at 3.39%. I didn't have to go through mmr again as it was with the same provider, but they actually over calculated the value of the house so put me in a 65% ltv deal. To get a better rate I didn't want to correct them but I know in reality I'm not quite there yet.

The exciting part I am looking foward to though is I should get below 100k this year, which is a big boost. I don't know how much I have paid out since I bought in 2007, but as it was 160k plus being on a 6.5% deal for a good few years of that knowing I've paid over 60k and must be much much more with interest in 8 years is incredible really.

The pension is going up slowly too, and I stuck a little extra in the ss nisa on Monday to take advantage of the FTSE drop etc which should help pay off in the long term.

I had been gearing up to move as well, but as nothing is still selling around here, I am back to over paying as that will basically increase the deposit I have for the next place then if i have to sell at an even bigger loss. So maybe next year I'll look at that again if the market picks up. I've been watching too many nightmare neighbour programmes as well, and as my place now is detached I don't think I want to risk moving into a semi really.

Anyway just thought I'd say hello, and keep up the good work everyone. Let's see if I can break the 100k mark in the next 2-3 months.

pathtofreedom

A big over payment this month of £853.11 as I've realised I had enough to get below the 100k mark, and stay there now. Feels so much better getting past that point and as if there is light at the end of the tunnel.

I don't know how much interest I've paid over the years, but the original mortgage was £160 so I have probably paid nearly 100k to get to this point now.

I'm still wanting to move though, which might mean a bigger mortgage again, but I'm going to do what I can to stay below 100k if I can.

pathtofreedom

Nearly at the end of the year. It will be interesting to see once I get to 2016 how much the offset has also helped bring the payment down for next year.

For the mfw 2015 challenge I have managed a total of £4229.71of OP, which doesn't include savings towards moving house next year which are also in the offset. This has brought me down to about £98k which is a big boost mentally.

I've signed up for mfw 2016 and MFiT-T4 but it all depends on where I move to how much extra mortgage I'm going to need which will push my total to repay up again. Either way though I'm still very much wanting to pay it off asap to get mortgage free while I'm still well enough to work full time.

Once I get the year end statement I'll do a more detailed breakdown of figures for the year just so I can see how I've done. I owe a lot of this to ynab though, since I installed that I finally feel in control of my money for the first time.

pathtofreedom

Getting closer to the end of the year always makes you reflect on what has past. This diary started with such promise but 2015 has knocked me in so many ways that it hasn't gone anywhere near planned.

Yesterday I broke the not buying it pledge and got a new laptop in the sales. Went to pick it up today and got stuck in traffic for hours but it will be worth it hopefully. I had started using an old one and installed centos and wine so I could still use ynab on it, but after an update it stopped wine working and in the end a new laptop seemed the best really. The one I have now I got in 2011 and I use every day so it has had a good run really. So I'm looking at this as an investment in a way, even though it was cheap, but it is a good spec.

So tonight will be spent downloading bits of software, and trying to get used to windows 10, and find all the hidden data leaking settings to disable them. If anyone has any good tips or handy software they find useful let me know.

gallygirl

pathtofreedom wrote: »

but after an update it stopped wine working and in the end a new laptop seemed the best really.

All a bit technical for me, but if it stopped wine working then obviously it needs replacing :eek::eek::eek:.

pathtofreedom

Unfortunately no drinkable wine was consumed wine is some software that lets you run windows programs in linux, or it does when it is working. I could have fixed it, so it was a bit lazy not to really, but being able to use ynab easily is what has kept me on track this year. So there is logic in the madness.

kev2009

hiya - what laptop did you get pathtofreedom? I'm considering buying one myself but can't decide on one atm...

pathtofreedom

I'll message it to you as I'm not sure if I can post the link in here. It is a good spec though with 8gig of ram, not the newest processor but I don't do gaming so should be fine. The keyboard is a bit bouncy, as some people mention in the reviews, but that doesn't bother me. I like lenovo's and have had them for years, as well as ibm's for work which is the same brand but the business version.

pathtofreedom

Today is always fun for my mortgage journey. Chelsea Building Society do some updates on the 1st of Jan each year, which means when you login to your internet banking it shows the balance as zero for a day. The first year it happened I was very confused, but now it is a good thing, it lets me think one day it really will be zero. They also are working out the new minimum payment / term with all op's and offset money.

For me having a lower payment, rather than a shorter term is more important. As I have an offset if I get the savings to the point I pay no interest, then it won't cost me anything for it to run longer. Yet having a smaller payment each year gives me hope, so if I can't work full time I won't have to sell up as I can't afford it. Where if just the term shortened, I'd still have the same size payment, and possibly no way to remortgage at that point to extend the term again if I couldn't work.

So last year was terrible personally, for a lot of different reasons but I'm hopeful for 2016.

Money wise it wasn't too bad really, I kept up with the OP's which has got me down to the £97k range :T, getting out of the £100's seems there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I am desperate to move this year though, so that will no doubt go up again though, but I've got there once, I will again.

The nisa and pension haven't done too brilliantly this year. I haven't lost any money but haven't gained as much as I'd hoped either. I need to read the monevator blog some more to get a better spread of investments really. Not to sell any of what I have, as one day they should go up again, but just to try and find a sector that is gaining more than I have right now to re-balance things.

So last years goals pretty much all still stand so this is the year they will happen.

1. move to a bungalow, then change job.
2. lose 52lbs
3. walk 2.5k steps a day minimum - it might not sound a lot but it is to me
4. complete a course on coursera or edx - possibly web/graphic design rather than tech
5. get a social hobby to make some friends, maybe art classes or ukulele group - on hold until I move.
6. stop the takeaways and cook more, have more freezer meals ready so no excuses . This is to help both op's and lose weight.