Hope is not an Effective Financial Strategy

Suffolk_lass

That lack of vanity around cars is a key thing with regards to saving money. We are trying to keep ours going until the point where we bite the bullet and drop down to one between us. With the new e-bikes that could be a lot closer after DH went to the local shop on his yesterday (local is still multiple miles away here) - that's the killer for us, relatively short trips of about 5-10 miles each way.

Retireinten

Hi Jimmy

Hope you don't mind me popping into your diary, I've read your first post and then the last six months of this diary and I just wanted to wish you luck.

Your journey is following a similar pattern to mine in that we moved to our second home, always with the intention of paying the mortgage off early.  We initially aimed to be mortgage neutral and was heading down the path of mortgage freedom, when I turned 40 and woke up dreaming of early retirement.  With some help from the pensions forum on here I took an idea (with no plan at all to get there) and slowly shaped a plan to retire early. 

This slowed our mortgage free journey a bit but we have been mortgage free for a while now (the security of owning our home still remained a priority) and we are on track for a comfortable retirement at 55😁

To be honest it's all thanks to these forums and the people that post here.

So good luck on your journey, its nice to read about people aiming for overall financial independence! 

shangaijimmy

Suffolk_lass said:

That lack of vanity around cars is a key thing with regards to saving money. We are trying to keep ours going until the point where we bite the bullet and drop down to one between us. With the new e-bikes that could be a lot closer after DH went to the local shop on his yesterday (local is still multiple miles away here) - that's the killer for us, relatively short trips of about 5-10 miles each way.

I can safely say that we have no car vanity!! As expected Mrs SJ's car needed the brakes doing, and a new tyre. And as much as it pains me to have to shell out on cars I kind of accept that she probably does need working brakes!

Mrs SJ all but finished off the Christmas shopping this morning (1 online order is needed tonight but she knows what she's getting there), and it looks as if we'll be about £200 under budget, so that money can roll over to January. In January we have 5 family birthdays (2 of our kids, 2 sisters and a dad)!

shangaijimmy

Retireinten said:

Hi Jimmy

Hope you don't mind me popping into your diary, I've read your first post and then the last six months of this diary and I just wanted to wish you luck.

Your journey is following a similar pattern to mine in that we moved to our second home, always with the intention of paying the mortgage off early.  We initially aimed to be mortgage neutral and was heading down the path of mortgage freedom, when I turned 40 and woke up dreaming of early retirement.  With some help from the pensions forum on here I took an idea (with no plan at all to get there) and slowly shaped a plan to retire early. 

This slowed our mortgage free journey a bit but we have been mortgage free for a while now (the security of owning our home still remained a priority) and we are on track for a comfortable retirement at 55😁

To be honest it's all thanks to these forums and the people that post here.

So good luck on your journey, its nice to read about people aiming for overall financial independence! 

Thank you for popping in and your well wishes. I can say for certainty that we need all the luck that can be thrown our way. Its so nice to hear about people that well along their pathway, and to hear that you have taken a similar route adds that extra bit of confidence that we can achieve this long slog! The forums on this site are tremendous for advice and the opportunity to read what others are doing is both inspiring and thought provoking.

For me those first few years of aggressively overpaying the mortgage brought some peace of mind that our debt was at a manageable level, and now we can really save towards our retirement whilst chipping away at the mortgage. It took a while for me to appreciate the switch in focus but reframing things to use a mortgage neutral quest has really helped my mindset. Like yourself the security of owning our home remains a priority and I may well accelerate this again once we get nearer the finish line. For the remaining 3yrs of our current fix however we will stay as we are (roughly on the original plan) and reevaluate all facets of our finances alongside our family situation, once we remortgage.

Busy_Mee

Morning Jimmy. It is lovely to see you back and so sorry you having been having a rubbish time of it. As usual you never fail to impress with your attitude to providing a great life and security for your family. I'm not sure you need luck as you have got this, although a little bit of luck is always welcome and would be very well deserved.

shangaijimmy

Busy_Mee said:

Morning Jimmy. It is lovely to see you back and so sorry you having been having a rubbish time of it. As usual you never fail to impress with your attitude to providing a great life and security for your family. I'm not sure you need luck as you have got this, although a little bit of luck is always welcome and would be very well deserved.

Thank you Busy. It feels good to be back, I just need to get my head around catching up with everyone else's journeys. So many diaries, so many journeys and everything moves so quickly there are hundreds of posts to catch up on!

Well my weekly TT pot overpayment has just been dispatched. £6.34 for the last 7 days. So thats 1 day and 3/4 of another daily interest taken care of.

Feeling very unmotivated for my Sunday morning run today, so unmotivated in fact that I haven't gone yet! It's pouring with rain here and I'm very much a fair weather runner. I'm going to take a pragmatic approach and get dressed into my running clobber and that way I may as well head out at some point as I'm dressed for it so it would be a waste if I didn't... 

debtfreeoneday

Hope it brightens up during the run for you SJ

greent

shangaijimmy said:

It's pouring with rain here and I'm very much a fair weather runner. I'm going to take a pragmatic approach and get dressed into my running clobber and that way I may as well head out at some point as I'm dressed for it so it would be a waste if I didn't... 

I take that approach - I get dressed into kit and then can't get changed into normal stuff unless I've exercised in some form....

shangaijimmy

Well the weather didn't brighten up, but Greent I can happily report that our tactic worked! So I trudged out for a 4.5mile trot.

Last week in school for the kids and they are very excited, as is Mrs SJ! We had 'the talk' last night and agreed that we don't need to buy each other presents, and instead we need to have an evening out together. So we're just going to pick up something small to wrap up for the kids to give each of 'us'. I hinted that I need some new running socks...

Christmas funds wise it all seems to be going too well! I'm just waiting for Mrs SJ to say "Oh we just need to get....(insert numerous expenses)..." I suppose we'll see how the accounts look on the other side!

shangaijimmy

Not much happening today. Mrs SJ car wasn't as straightforward as we'd hoped because some machine to run the MOT through brokedown...how ironic! And then apparently Covid meant there was a delay in fixing it, or parts...to be honest I gave up listening. Hopefully the car should be ready late afternoon today so in the meantime Mrs SJ has my car as today is the 1 day of the week she's allowed into the office.

I have jobs to do but no motivation, so I'm not! I've had a long dog walk interspersed with a 'carers visit' to my folks for a brew, then a lovely 5mile trot. And that's my lot. I will enjoy the tranquility of 2 more hours in an empty house before the kids come home from school!

And to add to my joy I made a £1 OP!