Hope is not an Effective Financial Strategy

hiddenshadow

shangaijimmy wrote: »

I've always wrestled with the pension v mortgage dilemma so decided I'd throw some attention at pension. I'm certain we won't miss the £50 especially now all our maternity leave money has been paid back, and from now any wage increases (very minimal) I'll split.

You're not alone - we've also wrestled with this, as a result I'm not contributing as much to my pension as I'd like, but DH just applied his entire raise/bonus to pension, so I think we even out. It's all a balancing act.

shangaijimmy

We always plan to add the house to the pension pot by downsizing, so that will add some income. Our overall plan then is to accelerate our retirement planning once mortgage is gone. With my job working on funding cycles the mortgage is the thing that makes us vulnerable. I'm hoping we'll be down to about £45k when the current funding cycle is up so the pressure will be significantly reduced by then. If life doesn't interfere then with our current level of mortgage attention we'll be MF by the time i am 45 and Mrs SJ 42.

Mrs SJ has a very good works pension, but mine less so and therefore in a private scheme. I currently contribute 15% of my take home salary to pension, which i think is about 11.5% of gross salary (i think).

shangaijimmy

Well Mrs SJ payday is here so our account is looking very healthy indeed. I TT'd 49p into the pot ready for Sunday's weekly TT OP, and I've done a quick round up of accounts and payments this morning and my total June OP's are £763.48. :j

I'm looking forward to posting our mortgage account financials later tonight.

CathT

Great OP's for the month!

shangaijimmy

Thanks Cath i have to confess that i'm rather chuffed!

shangaijimmy

Well its Friday night and what better way to party than with MFW accounts...

Fantastic comeback month, and i'm really pleased to be back on here. After a few months absence i'm re-motivated. We're approaching a quarter of the way through this journey in terms of the months and i'm really happy to report that in terms of mortgage balance we are 22% of the way there. So allowing for compound effects i'd say we are slightly ahead.

Highlights

• Total OP's - £763.48
• Closing Balance - £106,378.24
• Daily Interest - £4.78
• Net Reduction - £1,240.07 (goal is £1,000)

Cumulative Diary Achievements

• Cumulative OP's - £16,177.02
• Ave OP's - £577.75
• Cumulative Net Reduction - £29,621.76
• Ave Net Reduction - £1,057.92
• LTV - 48.13%

EatingTheElephant

Amazing figures, as always!
Have you calculated when you will be in 5 figures yet? It looks sooooo close.

shangaijimmy

Thanks ETE. We'll hit 3 figures at the end of January, but i've made a deal with myself that however short i am (should be about £300-500) on New Years Eve i'll make that OP out of my Matched betting pot! I even confirmed this with Mrs SJ :eek:

shangaijimmy

Very quick update for the morning before i head out to work.

2 piles opf washing done and now pegged on the line, dishwasher emptied, refilled and on! 61p TT'd and 4 of our 91 re-listed ebay items have got bids on (lists ending tomorrow evening).

Busy_Mee1

Great figures SJ and great to see you back