Mortgage free by 2021?!

hiddenshadow

I've read the MMM blog (not checked out the forums) but find it...odd. I understand his points on minimising costs, doing things for free, etc, but he seems so hard-and-fast (mustachian, I suppose) on it. (It's also obviously very US-centric as far as housing costs/etc).

Our plan is to be MF in ~5 years and then cash out on our house and buy elsewhere for cash. In theory at that point we can work for ourselves or freelance and be able to pay our bills, so we'll be quasi-retired (we both like what we do, and I can see DH doing it until he physically/mentally can't). That's fine by me. If we wanted to be mustachian I suppose we'd buy a studio flat in central London somewhere, get rid of the pets (as there wouldn't be room), and get really into batch cooking :rotfl: (nothing against batch cooking, but that's the only MMM hobby I can see doing in central London!). We don't really have expensive hobbies (as I'm not doing the horse thing now), but I think we have a decent balance going. We pay a lot for public transport, but that and the mortgage are our big expenses.

For me, I'm cool with it taking us until we're in our early 40s to live the MF/quasi-retired lifestyle (rather than mid-30s if we'd been mustachian). I suppose if we'd done the studio flat thing a few years ago (though I moved to the UK with a dog and cat, so that would have been challenging) maybe we could do it now. I don't know what sort of life we'd have had for those years, or if it would have been worth it. I do keep looking at houses online and thinking "oh it'd be so nice to just move there now", but I don't think either of us are quite ready to make that leap yet (in fact I know DH isn't, I'm amazed he's ok with the concept of it happening in 5 years!).

Sorry if this is a bit incoherent, I still haven't really figured out where I stand on MMM (obviously!).

Also, belated happy birthday! I have a couple of friends on the 26th as well - they either love/hate that it sometimes falls on Thanksgiving in the US.

hiddenshadow

So, good news and bad news...

Good news
Pay arrived! Yay.

Also, November interest from S@ntander - £3 sent to the mortgage.

Finally, as we've been opting for no-rush delivery on the am@zon lightning deals, I was able to use that credit to buy 3 books on daily deals today, so sent the equivalent £2.97 to the mortgage.

Bad news
No season ticket payment. :mad: (Also no adjustment to my paycheck to reflect the loan.)

I've re-jigged the budget so that it'll apply in December (hoping so, at least! Was told three weeks ago that it was all sorted, but apparently not). Thanks to the PPI payment we're fine as far as obligations go, and if I count the season loan ticket against the savings we were going to set aside for a car, we can still make a big mortgage OP. Off to do that now.

hiddenshadow

New mortgage balance confirmed at £162,636.18 :j So that's our original 2015 goal smashed.

Set a new goal of £161,800 - should mean finding ~£80 to OP next month. May be a challenge with Christmas, but we'll see.

smallholdingsister

Your mortgage is about 8k less than ours.

hiddenshadow

Got our home building/contents insurance renewal quote today - £320.57 :eek: (Last year's renewal was £245.46)

An hour of filling in the same info in various quote forms later, we've secured a new policy for £158.03 Plus £35 cashback in January (?). Much better!

(Might have to up the end-of-year challenge as freeing up home insurance savings has pushed December's potential OP over £100. Will keep fiddling with the numbers first, though - may bump the food budget up a bit to account for all the Christmas dinner bits.)

lippy1923

Great deal on the home insurance.

Looks like the end of year challenge is going well

cazmanian_minx

26th November is my brother's birthday too, this is turning into a positive glut!

Good find on the insurance, I can barely get buildings only for that.

hiddenshadow

Thanks Caz!

Slightly unintentionally MSE day - was going to buy a book on kindle deals for DH but then he saw the deal and dismissed it . Already have presents for him for Christmas and birthday, so no real need to buy anything else.

Also looked at a bag on ebay but the bidding went higher than I was prepared to spend, so passed on that.

Did have to go to the shops to get ingredients for baking, though - surely that's a need, right?

Gift card from surveys came through, so £5 OP to the mortgage.

smallholdingsister

Bet he's a good bloke, Caz.

hiddenshadow

December's payment posted (interest will apply tomorrow, for weird reasons known only to the bank - have factored in that number here though)

November OPs: £2,267.47

Current balance: £161,870.21
Month we’d be in to get to our current balance without OPs: April 2020 (+ 8 months!)

2015 Overpayments: £13,325.03
2015 Interest Saved: £11,704.79

Total Overpayments: £25,344.81
Total Interest Saved: £28,950.81

Daily Interest: £18.67 (down £0.35)
Monthly Interest: £578.76 (up £8.17 but 31 days rather than 30)
December 2014 Interest: £646.47 (down £67.71 :j)

House Bricks: +1 (+2 in November)