Stop coasting and get serious!

FacelessNumber

Thanks! Yeh there is a long way to go but I'm breaking it down into small goals as we go and can't wait for the snowball effect to kick in when we are paying off more capital than interest! We are around the 50/50 mark with capital and interest payments at the moment.


We are going to New Zealand for three weeks and really have no idea of how much money we are going to need but will just take it as it comes!

FacelessNumber

Well it hasn't been a great month money wise. I've taken my eye off the ball a bit (I'm pretty busy with uni deadlines and wedding planning but that's no excuse really). A few too many bought lunches and other bits and pieces.


Also after meeting with my accountant I've found out I have ~£650 to pay in January to my student loan which I have the money for but it sets me back a bit in terms of my other goals. I have a lot on in December as well which is all money so I'm feeling a little stressed by it at the moment!


I will write another post to update the goals as there have been some changes, mostly positive I think. I will be adding a new goal for the student loan payment to my signature as well, have started saving for it from this months pay and it won't catch me by surprise again at least! As this has been my first year self employed it has been a steep learning curve to say the least!

FacelessNumber

OK so a goals update:
The wedding budget has changed again (constantly changing as we spend more / less than we budgeted for stuff). It currently stands at £1491.11.
This adds a little money to our honeymoon fund, plus we have paid for a couple of things without dipping into savings. We used our topcashback earnings towards wedding suits for example, saving us £180. As a result our honeymoon fund currently sits at £1636.54/£5000 or 32.7%.


I have taken the first year of uni goal off my signature as it has been paid off.


My 2nd year of uni goal is at £589.71/£2700 - I still don't know the exact amount for this as they haven't billed me yet, and I'm not going to rush them! This puts me at a percentage of 21.8%.


Finally my new goal of £654.05 for my student loan payment in January is sitting at £132.20 or 20.2%. I don't expect to hit 100% before this is due but the less that has to come out of a different fund the better!


Mortgage goals will be updated tomorrow as that's when joint money gets moved around. I think I need to start focusing on some little things money wise to keep me focussed as I have lost it a bit this month. I may be back with another post regarding this later!

FacelessNumber

OK so the mortgage update:
£8623.98 paid off so 86.3% of the goal. Pretty happy with that!

Also the first week of December has been pretty good in terms of spending, not too much unplanned spending so far! Hoping to keep it up this month and have a decent chunk to go towards savings at the end of the month.

I've also started reading Frugalwoods blog, I'm loving it! I would love to get a savings rate anywhere near theirs! Unfortunately paying for my education at the moment is slowing my savings down! But they are giving me ideas on home renovation - maybe we can do more of it ourselves! After the wedding I am hoping to get cracking on some DIY projects.

FacelessNumber

Well everything is a bit all over the place money wise at the moment! Lots of payments going out for the wedding this week and we go on honeymoon next week so lots of juggling around being done! I will re-evaluate where we are at in mid Feb when I get back.

Some of the honeymoon is being paid for by 0% card so when we get back we will have an idea of how much we need to pay back and work from there to rework our goals!

We have decided to start investing this year - splitting our money 4 ways:
25% to overpay the mortgage (guaranteed 3.49% return!)
25% to a cash ISA for any repairs that might crop up
25% to Funding Circle
25% into an Index Fund

The funding circle and index fund will be long term investments, we won't be taking anything out of those at all. Again I will be working out the finer details of this when I get back from our honeymoon! We also need to make sure we have money set aside for holidays/car repairs etc so will be having a complete rework of the budget! Including credit card repayments of course So a slight deviation from the MFW plan but I am excited about it!