Hope is not an Effective Financial Strategy

lippy1923

Glad the scan went well

Keep up the good work. I'm looking forward to August OP as well

NewGirl

NG - Just replied to your PM. I'm not too sure on spending app's buts i suspect there are loads out there. We're now very disciplined with our spends, so i allocate certain amounts and we're trained to not go over (in the main!). The only derailers to plans are those pesky kids...! On those standard and OP amounts if you could keep that rate up i'd guess that you'd be halving the term and knocking 1 month off the term with every monthly OP. We're standard payment of £687, with an average OP of £465 and at the minute that knocks a month off the term each time. I therefore know that if we keep this up our 20yr term will become 10yr.

Thanks for your reply, spreadsheets are firmly in place now

Sounds like you have become very good at being disciplined! I might fall off the wagon tomorrow already. Girlie day out = possible spending spree.

My original mortgage term was 35 years! eek! (I wasn't earning very much then so it was an affordability thing) Its now about 30 years which is still way too long so I hope to reduce the term to 20ish years at my next fix - hopefully before the interest rates start to go up! Ideally would like to aim for 15-17 years.

Glad everything went well with your scan (I missed that earlier!)

shangaijimmy

debtfree - the thought of twin boys to add to 2 boys was making me shiver so i'm relieved with 1! Thought Mrs SJ was a tad disappointed.

Lucky - the 1 income i appreciate would make it tough but at least your in total charge of spending. Mrs SJ has a day off on a Friday and i have to budget for that because she sneezes and £50 falls out of our account!

Lippy - i'm chasing you down!! Your signature is like a big red cross for me to hunt!

Newgirl - we started similar to you by having to go interest only over 30yrs to secure a mortgage (we wouldn't meet affordability in the current climate) and miss 2 rungs of the ladder so to speak. They only built 4 of our houses where we wanted so it was a massive decision (foolish in hindsight). Now we're in a position that the overall 30yr term will hopefully by done by 17-18yrs (secretly hoping 2 less but we'd have to have some windfalls or substantial pay rises).

I've just glanced at a few pages of my diary and its amazing how quickly you pick tips on here. I'm very much a novice at the whole MFW thing yet i've learned so much about discipline, commitment, spreadsheets etc... i really feel that the SJ's are set up for the long term challenge now. By making regular posts on the diary and seeing e-mail alerts that someone else has posted it keeps you going! Paying off the mortgage early is a taboo subject, even among family members and this virtual family is a fantastic support.

Have a great weekend and keep those bank/credit cards out of sight...

Luckyinlife

shangaijimmy wrote: »

debtfree - the thought of twin Mrs SJ has a day off on a Friday and i have to budget for that because she sneezes and £50 falls out of our account!

That made me laugh i know what you mean tho on 1 wage things are harder but less complex :beer:

shangaijimmy

Lucky - fortunately this Friday went without a bank account attack, so my budgets are safe!!

I'm up and running for August. A few money shuffle's done, some interest paid off Nationwide (£8.31) and a £3.35 tilly tidy to the mortgage account. Technically i've broken into the 130k category for a day but interest to be added tomorrow i wont get hasty and colour my brick in yet, i'll leave that till the end of the month when the August accounts are finalised.

I've also got an interesting decision on the horizon. Mrs SJ gets paid 13 times per year but i only work our accounts on 1 standard payment per month as i get mega confused otherwise. So next month she effectively gets paid twice. That's £1313 in our account twiddling its many thumbs...

Now that we're financially savvy this year what should i do? Be mega bold and make a big OP? Move it to 5% savings and drip feed it in? Move it to holiday fund? Move it to long term savings? Make a lump sum to Mrs SJ's pension? Or a selection of a few (not being bold)?

Decisions, decisions, decisions (nice decisions of course)...

ourcornercottage

I'd move it to 5% savings and drip feed it in. Just in case Mrs SJ needs longer off work or anything next year. I'd dripping £50 per month plus any interest if I were you that'll cover you the whole pregnancy/newborn period.

shangaijimmy

That's my current thinking if I'm honest OCC. But I'm also considering £1k to savings, £319 to mortgage for psychological effect of mortgage. I am seriously thinking of the £1k to pension though. Be a nice boost to it.

lippy1923

I would do £1k into savings and the odd remaining to the mortgage.
Once the 5% deal for the savings ends, if the money hasn't all been used them maybe consider putting it into the pension.

lippy1923

Yay for the new month. Just OP'd my max £500 for this month DD for this months mortgage payment should be taken tomorrow as it never goes on the weekend. Should bring my mortgage balance down a tad more. Will update tomorrow.

[Deleted User]

shangaijimmy wrote: »

That's my current thinking if I'm honest OCC. But I'm also considering £1k to savings, £319 to mortgage for psychological effect of mortgage. I am seriously thinking of the £1k to pension though. Be a nice boost to it.

Similar here. £1300 odd is getting chucked into the pension after all I can access it in 11 years and gets all that lovely tax relief added. Yes it could go to the mort or other savings but got to strike a balance and at the end of the day it is the most important of them all

Cheers