Mr and Mrs P's journey to freedom - destination 2020

pennystretcher

How are you doing on your MFW journey? Would be nice to hear from you again..

MrParr

Hi everyone,


Been a little busy over the last 8 weeks as little baby P has finally arrived!!!


I'm finally feeling human enough to think about an update now he is settling down into a bit of a routine. Hmm, the word 'routine', very rarely used before baby P came along and now it is the buzz word of the time!


Anyway, back to the MFW story.......


Despite a beautiful distraction, we have made some good progress since my last post. The highlights are:


1. For the first time ever, we received a letter from YBS to say that we are approaching our annual 10% overpayment limit on the mortgage. We are on track to have paid off almost £8,000 extra this year.


2. Savings are up to just over £26,000, which will primarily be used to pay off a large chunk of the remaining balance when our 5 year fixed deal end in Dec 2016. I also plan to pay off all of next year's overpayment amount at the start of the year to maximise the interest saving.


3. Our house insurance has renewed at £227.60, giving a decent saving from the £296.43 paid last year.


4. Our phone and internet deal with Virgin has been renegotiated and renewed for another 12 months. Although the line rental charge was more this year (£164 this year compared to £144 last - paid upfront in full) the monthly payment for the evening and weekend calls and unlimited broadband has gone down to £13.10 from £22.94. All this for a 10mbs speed drop (60mbs to 50mbs), which is almost impossible to notice.


5. I have stopped my private fuel benefit from work and so far, we are gaining an extra £50 to £60 per month from the tax saving and fuel expense claims for my business travel compared to the cost of the diesel.


6. We have opened some Halifax savings accounts for baby P, which have already received a few generous donations from friends and family.


Considering what has happened in the last few months, after reading this back, I am quite impressed with what me and Mrs P have achieved


Life couldn't be better at the minute and we are several steps further down the path to being MF


I'll try not to leave the next update so long next time but I am sure you can forgive me!!


Mucho Love,


Mr P x

diamondsonly

Congratulations on the arrival of baby P. Sounds like you have done amazingly well considering the new arrival and sleep deprivation that goes with it.

Excellent on the halifax accounts too, :T they really are useful although we still haven't got round to opening them for our mini diamonds as they have to be opened in branch and it's impossible to find available appointments within a 6 mile radius.

Diamonds xx

Luckyinlife

Your doing really well should be proud

Amazing OP and saving's

How much of the savings would you pay off come end of terms ? would you chuck 80% at it ?

MrParr

Thanks Diamonds and Lucky


Opening the halifax accounts was a bit of a pain as we thought you could just wander in and open it but we had to make an appointment for a couple of days later as the advisors were busy and they said opening it could take an hour and a half!!!


We had to watch 2 videos to ensure we understood what we were doing.... yes, we do, we are trying to open a savings account!!!


I have a lot of dealings with banks in my job also and I think they have gone compliance mad.


Not sure how much we are going to pay off yet Lucky. I would imagine most of it, say 90-95% as we have been putting money away quite quickly so the chance of us having a financial disaster before we can get a decent chunk together again is quite low.


Got another letter from YBS today telling us exactly how much more we can overpay this year so I will call them tomorrow to pay the exact amount and then we are done with the Op'ing until January when we can do the big lump in one go.


I know we have still got a bit to go (a few years) but the end being in sight is a great thing


I cannot decide what I would like to do after we have paid the mortgage off - Work hard for another 5 to 10 years to achieve FIRE or reduce to 3 days a week and enjoy more time with baby P?


Good problems to have I guess!

MrParr

Hi all,


Thought I would try and keep up with the updates now I have got back into the swing of things.


So, I finally got around to calling YBS to make our final, allowed overpayment of £800 for the year.


We have managed to pay off the full 10% OP allowance of £7,949.33 this year so combined with the regular monthly payments, we will have paid around £15,600 off with about £2,600 of interest going back on


The next annual mortgage period starts on 23rd December so I plan to call them up again then to pay the full OP allowance for next year off in one go as we have the cash sat in the savings and paying it off the mortgage is a guaranteed 3.49% return so definitely worth doing.


This will then mean that we can focus on building up as much in the savings accounts as possible next year before the 5 year fixed deal runs out in December with the intention of paying a big chunk off and seeing where we stand with the outstanding amount then. I think we will have around £25,000 to £30,000 outstanding at that point so will see what the best way to finance the final amount will be closer to the time.


Like Hannibal used to say 'I love it when a plan comes together!'

Luckyinlife

Fantastic mrparr

Really is some great OPing here ya paying the mortgage off not only saves you on interest but its very motivational in terms of making you think to yourself we are almost there :]

What is the balance now ?

MrParr

Hi Lucky,


Thanks, the OP'ing is definitely motivating, especially as I feel the end is in sight


The current balance, which doesn't take the final OP I mentioned above into account yet, is £67,628.93. I've just noticed your outstanding balance in your sig and I expect that ours will be very similar amount come the middle of December.


Sorry if I have already asked but do you have a diary?

Luckyinlife

Ohh that is great :]

Ya Iv just started with my mortgage journey myself managed to put a 20k deposit down leaving me with a 67k mortgage and spent about 10-12k on the house over the last 4-5 months

iv also just remortgaged so am now allowed to OP the 10% like yourself i dont know if i can or will use the whole 10% each year only time will tell

YA my diary is here
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5172796

:]

diamondsonly

Well done Mr P. Im sure the motivation of seeing you savings pot grow is the same as seeing the mortgage balance shrink.

How's baby P?

Diamonds x