Hope is not an Effective Financial Strategy

greent

That's my view with insurance companies - if they cant give me enough respect to give me the best price at renewal then I will change to a new provider.
All sounds good in sthe sj household

shangaijimmy

Little bit like groundhog day/week/month here at the moment. I've definitely had enough of the whole home schooling thing and I'm pretty sure that the boys are sick of me as well. Very much in life gets to me, and so far I've always been able to handle anything thrown own way (we've had some tricky moments too), but the thought of a second wave and school closures during Sept... Now I don't think I could deal with that  The weather forecast is terrific for the next 2 days, so the plan is to nudge the schoolwork forward to get it all done for about 1.30pm, and then the paddling pool and water balloons will be out.

Paydays are Thursday & Friday this week, and we have £22 left in the current account. So we've either made it by the skin of our teeth, or its been a perfectly measured budget and we can allow ourselves an extra cheeky OP.... In May and June I did quite a bit of 'money organisation' by closing accounts, modernising spreadsheet, transferring ISA's and the like. This nicely scratched my personal finance hobbyist itch whilst I've been off work, but now I'm not sure I have any more meddling left to do for July! I'll have to get my thinking cap on and come up with something...

Suffolk_lass

Knowing you as I feel I do from these pages, I am sure it is the latter! - I was thinking about what to do now the hedging is done in the garden and @themadvix has started matched betting so I might take a look at the Team Profit site to watch their beginners videos of how to as a beginner. Not until the weather is poor though. Too much fun outside at the moment

shangaijimmy

Well we ended up with £16 left at the end of the months money. I haven't OP'd the money yet as I suppose I still have the niggling work doubt, so I've added it to our holding pot. At least its getting 1.05% interest 

Yesterday I OP'd our TT pot for the week, which sat at £4.20. We're crawling forward mortgage wise but are continuing to add to pension(s) and ISA's which is our priority now. Accounts round up day is tomorrow and I think mortgage neutral may nudge forwards by another month (or maybe 3 weeks).

When I started this MFW journey I always had a goal of paying the thing off in 10 years. After a bit of redirection as I have become more money aware, this is no longer going to happen. However to maintain motivation I would like us to be mortgage neutral by this date (end of Feb 2025) and for this to happen we currently need to shoot things forward by about 16 months or £18k (or need to find £321 a month from now...)! 

All in all I'm happy with a mortgage neutral journey!

Karmacat

Hi again Jimmy - sorry it's Groundhog Day where you are, it must be rough being the one at home when your OH is out 50-75% of the time.  Have you done any gardening with the kids?  I'm seeing a lot of kids on the videos people were asked to send in to Gardener's World - it looks fascinating.  And are their schools being of any help?

Anyway, loving your mortgage neutrality, and the broader base your finances are now on - thats got to be a good thing.

longway2go

Hi, sounds like plans are going well for you and you have a holistic approach. I think routine definitely helps with home schooling.

shangaijimmy

Karmacat said:

Hi again Jimmy - sorry it's Groundhog Day where you are, it must be rough being the one at home when your OH is out 50-75% of the time.  Have you done any gardening with the kids?  I'm seeing a lot of kids on the videos people were asked to send in to Gardener's World - it looks fascinating.  And are their schools being of any help?

Anyway, loving your mortgage neutrality, and the broader base your finances are now on - thats got to be a good thing.

Its taken a while but I'm really happy with the mortgage neutrality target. So much in fact I tried to explain it Mrs SJ a the weekend, I'm still not too sure how it landed but I'll keep plugging away!!

I'm am the opposite of a gardener...and anti gardener if you like. Other than my dog the best thing I've ever bought was artificial turf in the garden!! Mrs SJ takes care of all the pots and baskets and the kids do enjoy helping out. My role is to drink a beer and move the heavy pots around and then begrudgingly tidy up the mess!!

shangaijimmy

longway2go said:

Hi, sounds like plans are going well for you and you have a holistic approach. I think routine definitely helps with home schooling.

The routine actually helps to get them up, dressed and fed. And without any moaning or arguments. It also means the boys don't even try to go on consoles when they get up, and then they go in the garden or a dog walk for 'play time'. It's also helped to keep a sense of the weekend, as I leave them to get dressed and breakfast when they want to and DS1 we leave to play on his console online with his mates. So it works all round to be fair. I just never imagined it would last so long, though I'm not sure anyone could.

shangaijimmy

Well another month has evaporated before us, and we inch closer to Mortgage Neutral!

Month 64 - June 2020

• Closing Balance - £73,674.67
• OP's - £43.21
• Net Reduction - £448.56
• Added to Mortgage Neutral Pot - £400
• To Neutral - £66,409.77

Life of Diary Figures - 64 Months

• Total OP's - £32,728.71
• Total Balance Reduction - £62,326.42
• Mortgage Neutral Pot - £7,264.90

try_harder

Great numbers as always and rapidly increasing mortgage neutral pot just what we like to see