Hope is not an Effective Financial Strategy

shangaijimmy

Oh one more very exciting thing to report. Mrs SJ has had some back issues over the last 10yrs (a few surgeries included) and for the last 6 yrs has regularly used an osteopath as part of her maintenance program. These costs have risen to £45 a session of which she has 8 per year (£360). She has recently joined a benevelont fund through work at £1 a week and for this she gets £500 worth of treatments refunded of which osteopath is included. So we received a nice cheque today for £132 as refund for the last 3 treatments :j

shangaijimmy

I threatened to list my targets. So whilst i have some longer term plans I don't like looking too far ahead. Therefore i'm only revealing my targets for the first 2 years of this diary (4 months into it):

• Balance at start of diary and remortgage - £136,000
• Sept 2015 - Balance below £130k
• Nov 2015 - Below £7 daily interest
• Dec 2015 - End of Calendar Year Balance below £126,500
• Feb 2015 - End of Yr 1 Balance £124,500 (£11.5k reduction)
• June 2016 - First month less than £200 interest
• July 2016 - Balance below £120k
• Sept 2016 - Daily Interest below £6.50
• Dec 2016 - End of Calendar Year Balance below £115,100
• Feb 2016 - End of Yr 2 Balance £113,000 (£23k reduction since diary began)
• March 2017 - Balance below £112,500 & 50% LTV

I'll post these targets in the first post also and cross off as and when with the actual achievements!

Its really exciting looking at them listed like this...

ourcornercottage

I like these targets, I might copy them but add 3-6 months on!!!

shangaijimmy

The plan is to remortgage again at the end of these targets once our fix ends, then i'll plot the next tracks when i know what our mortgage rate is. I'm toying between a a tracker or a longer term (3-5yr) fix, but depends on what the Bank of England do in the next 18 months. But again i shouldn't look too far ahead as we have baby number 3 in the New Year and that'll throw up its own set of challenges!

shangaijimmy

I have one more target actually:

• Keep on first 2 pages of forum!!

debtfreeoneday

Good targets, I'm still trying to get to grips with my mortgage figures.. have no idea how to calculate when the daily interest will change, but I'm still logging on each day and logging the actual amount and working out the daily interest.

shangaijimmy

I just use my spreadsheet to calculate the daily interest and it takes it as a monthly average rather than being specific, and i move onto the next month on the 1st. Its accurate enough for me!! If you have a peek at my schedule for 2 yr fix on first post it should make some sense!!

lippy1923

Hiya. I have been MIA for a while with all my wedding planning but had a good read and catch up of your diary. Well done, still going strong

It's strange how our mortgage stories are so similar. Same goals, my fixed deal comes to an end in 2017 as well and almost similar balances lol I wonder if our houses are worth about the same!

I know I said I would wait until after my wedding and start OPing again in September but reading a few of the articles about interest rates possibly increasing in the new year made me make a £500 OP today.

Plan to kill the mortgage is under 10 years is still going ahead. Can't wait until September now so from now on will be OPing £500 per month. Will help me colour in some bricks quicker

velocity_girl

Good targets shanghaijimmy - I like especially how you have targets v frequently, that's the kind of thing that helps me keep on track!

shangaijimmy

Lippy - good to see you again. Great to hear of your temptation back to a sizeable OP, despite the money drain that weddings can be! We are extremely similar, and our house value is 225k!! What's your generally monthly OP plan? We aim for £460 per month which give us a monthly balance reduction of approx £925.

Velocity - The frequent thing is really motivating isn't it. Especially when you get to out a cross through the list. We have several things on our fridge, and a part of my psychology effect on Mrs SJ is to let her cross things off or colour bricks in! It then generates questions!! I also think a variety of the type of target helps as it helps me to take focus off the balance for a bit and look at different colums of the spreadsheet (LTV, daily interest, monthly interest).

Which reminds me i need to do some forecasts on percentage of mortgage balance...