Hope is not an Effective Financial Strategy

Suffolk_lass

I've got the swap thing in prospect as our electricity supplier (no gas here) - Yorkshire Energy has ceased trading as of yesterday. I've just snuck in with my meter reading as per the advice on here. Shame. They were really straightforward and transparent to deal with and a responsive team with a great tariff. 

shangaijimmy

Just to finish off the whole home insurance saga, they'd taken an extra payment as well (they'd sent it for processing before I's cancelled the direct debit)... So I was gearing up for a phone call tomorrow, but thankfully that is not needed as the cash has been returned. Then can go back on the lost of companies to consider in the future!

Over the last 18months of me learning about pensions and investments, I opened a SIPP and have a rule that whenever my work pension hits a certain number I sort a partial transfer (works out at 4 times per year). This was the case today so that 2 minute online job has been actioned. I use this time to rebalance my very simple portfolio if needed, but that wasn't necessary at this stage. All in all simple task now everything is set up.

And thats it. Mrs SJ has spent a little bit of cash on her lunch and that triggers an automatic account round up. These TT's then will get OP'd on a Sunday morning. This weeks pot currently stands at £2.23.

shangaijimmy

November Financial Update

• 69 months into the MFW challenge, which has now evolved into a Mortgage Neutral quest
• 51 months to go to Mortgage Neutral, and £61,160.26
• Overall Reduction to Neutral - £74,839.74
• Daily Interest at Highest - £16.41
• Daily Interest Now - £3.92

Overall, hitting neutral by Feb 2025 is a massive challenge, and I reckon I need to make up approximately 19 months or £17.5k!

Onwards and upwards!

debtfreeoneday

But you do love a challenge SJ!

Suffolk_lass

You see, with that £160.26 lurking on the end of your 51 months I would have to tidy that down in some way! - Or be actively looking to get the interest down to £3.50 daily as my next mini-targets... haha, you do well enough without me chipping in!

Karmacat

The decrease in the interest figure is fantastic, Jimmy, well done you.

shangaijimmy

debtfreeoneday said:

But you do love a challenge SJ!

Indeed I do love a challenge. I think all us personal finance hobbyists do..., and it definitely keeps us on track.

Karmacat said:

The decrease in the interest figure is fantastic, Jimmy, well done you.

The high figure was the highest that we ever had it. We moved into this house in 2006 taking advantage of all those lax money lending protocols that ultimately led to lots of people getting into trouble 3 years later. There is no way in the current mortgage climate that we would have gotten the money. Reminding ourselves of that figure makes us both feel sick, and ultimately has been our major motivating factor. Its certainly a statistic that resonates with Mrs SJ.

shangaijimmy

Suffolk_lass said:

You see, with that £160.26 lurking on the end of your 51 months I would have to tidy that down in some way! - Or be actively looking to get the interest down to £3.50 daily as my next mini-targets... haha, you do well enough without me chipping in!

Since you asked... Here are a few of my 'mini-targets'

• Mortgage balance below £70,650 by the end of the year (currently £30 predicted shortfall)
• Mortgage balance below £69,500 by the end of Feb which is our 12 month mortgage years end (£312 predicted shortfall)
• Daily Interest below £3.75 by May (1p per day predicted shortfall)
• Daily Interest below £3.50 by the end of Feb 2022 (2p per day predicted shortfall)

My next major target(s) is to eradicate the £70k's for mortgage, which triggers a mini celebration for us both, and at the same time we should clear the £60k's on our Mortgage Neutral Journey. This landmark should arrive in February.

shangaijimmy

I OP'd our TT pot this morning which stood at £3.95. That accounts for 1 days worth of interest plus a few extra pence. Daily interest has always been a major motivator for me and with my weekly TT pot I can safely say that each month i scrape together enough small change to account for 4-5 days worth of daily interest. I appreciate its not really the actual case but I enjoy the mental reward of viewing this that I only have to pay 25/26 days of interest each month. An odd way of viewing it but easier to rationalise on the run without trying to work out the compound interest values etc... This definitely helped for Mrs SJ in those early days of her buying into my quest and ideas.

I hope this makes sense!!

Todays plans are a 10k run, 2 dog walks that hopefully the kids will join in on their bikes and I'm nipping to the office (I'm technically not allowed to go) as I'm in need of some paperwork and I'm going to bring home my office drawers to get ready for future working! 

Oh final point is the home insurance cash that was taken, is now back in our account and I'm tempted to OP it...

Karmacat

shangaijimmy said:

Karmacat said:

The decrease in the interest figure is fantastic, Jimmy, well done you.

The high figure was the highest that we ever had it. We moved into this house in 2006 taking advantage of all those lax money lending protocols that ultimately led to lots of people getting into trouble 3 years later. There is no way in the current mortgage climate that we would have gotten the money. Reminding ourselves of that figure makes us both feel sick, and ultimately has been our major motivating factor. Its certainly a statistic that resonates with Mrs SJ.

Things are so much tighter, aren't they!  I bought my first house back in 1987 and basically I lied, and the person I was subcontracting from lied on my behalf, so I could get that mortgage.  The intent was to rent out two of the three bedrooms to lodgers, to get them to pay my mortgage, basically, and it worked really well.  It did mean that my home wasn't my own for about 4 years, but I was juggling so many balls in the air, it didn't often make any difference.