Mortgage free by 2021?!

hiddenshadow

Thanks ATB and Watty.

Finally pulled the trigger on some of the offset...transferred £749.07 from offset account to the mortgage. On paper nothing changes as the offset amount has been accounted for, but the interest owed in February should be 5p less.

Will likely transfer a fair bit more over (if not all), but waiting to see what January pay will be on SSP, what my notice period/start date for new job will be (which affects how Feb/Mar turn out for OPs), and we've started a bank switch for more cash so would like that to go through as well.

Also need to plan in the budget for the Lifetime ISA when that appears. Don't think we can fund it and our current OP level from salary, but if we used some rental income from the house it should be fine. Will have to play with the numbers and see what works best - with our level of pension contributions we don't need to contribute to the Lifetime ISA, but it's certainly a better place to stash our EF than the bank account paying diddly squat.

hiddenshadow

Mid(?) January Goal Update:

Personal

1. Move to Ireland Pack 4 boxes No progress whatsoever, unless buying boxes counts!
2. Move to Ireland De-clutter closet Also not done
3. Health Lose 0.5kg No progress? Need to weigh myself more regularly and find out
4. Health Neurology appointment Done!

Financial

1. Mortgage OP £1,500 Done!

Career

1. Job Sort out interview(s) Done, including job offer/acceptance!
2. Learn Download 4 tech books, read at least 1 Downloaded, need to read

hiddenshadow

Mid-month progress chart looks a bit grim. At least the big wins (OP, job, and neuro) are done. We lost mojo on house tidying/moving prep due to illness and a busy weekend last weekend, but I'm hoping to get back to it this weekend.

Job front looks good - gave notice today, will find out next week how much (if any) of my notice period they expect me to "work" (would hope very little since they won't allow me to work!). It's not a huge deal if I have to wait out the full thing, but would certainly be nice to start at new job (and earn new salary) over staying on SSP another month. Boss was very understanding/supportive about me giving notice, so at least that's something.

Neuro appointment was hugely frustrating. All my test results are still...normal. So we know the symptoms but not why they're happening, and neuro seems to be out of ideas. Ordered re-do of bloodwork (because I guess if you just keep checking that it's bound to show something eventually?!), re-do of the nerve test (in case that's degenerated at all), and I can wean myself off the one medication I'm on to see if it's causing any of the symptoms (which would be helpful if it was as I'd improve off it, but I was hardly in amazing shape when I saw the neuro the first time, so not much hope there...)

At this point I'm expecting I'll see neuro again in another 4 months, at which point perhaps she'll have more ideas (going to consult with colleagues in other specialties in the meantime). Then maybe do more tests, wait (probably 4+ more months), and get a diagnosis (?). So effectively things (e.g. my life) are on hold until late summer most likely.

I don't mind waiting on the Ireland move (provided we can move sometime this year as the whole point is to get settled there asap), but I'm soo tired of being so limited physically. DH and I had a "busy" (for me) weekend last weekend: out to lunch and then a play in London on Saturday, and a local wool show (20min away by car) for an hour on Sunday. Both days I was exhausted all day, and couldn't really move when we got home. Both days were majority sitting (more walking on Saturday to/from Tube stations, but Sunday was all sitting!) So...that's not very fun.

New job is the main thing I can/do look forward to (and even that's a bit nerve-wracking as I'll need to go in to London for a bit to learn the ropes, so I'm unsure how tiring that'll be). Upcoming trip to the US should be fun, but it looks like we'll skip my dad's wedding after all (his oh-so-helpful criteria for deciding whether to take the second flight to Hawaii for the wedding itself: do I feel up to hiking and/or snorkelling?), so that's a shame. At least it means more time with my best friend in California.

In budget news next month looks lean (based on approximate SSP) but hoping for an OP ~£500. Bit tricky as it's DH's birthday so I don't want to completely nix things like eating out. We're also booked for the Crystal Maze experience in London on his birthday, but apparently it's very not-accessible/handicapped friendly so I don't know if I'll be able to do anything. DH says he's happy with just that on his birthday, no need to go out to eat, but I think we'll do something.

debtfreeoneday

Sounds like a nice thing planned for his birthday. Sorry you didn't get answers at your appointment.

CathT

Fingers crossed your current company are flexible on your notice period. How frustrating that your neurology appointment gave you no answers.

greent

Hi hs - have read the whole of your diary over the past few days - what a rollercoaster. Glad you have a new job with more sympathetic employers. Disappointing you have no answers as to what/ why your health issues. Will follow your journey from now on - have subscribed
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edinburgher

Will have to play with the numbers and see what works best - with our level of pension contributions we don't need to contribute to the Lifetime ISA, but it's certainly a better place to stash our EF than the bank account paying diddly squat.

Your EF must work differently from mine, doubt I could wait 27 years to get my hands on it :rotfl:

hiddenshadow

greent wrote: »

Hi hs - have read the whole of your diary over the past few days - what a rollercoaster. Glad you have a new job with more sympathetic employers. Disappointing you have no answers as to what/ why your health issues. Will follow your journey from now on - have subscribed
x

Thanks greent! It has been an exciting 18 months, looking back. I certainly didn't expect us to be this close to 5 figures based on my off-the-cuff suggestion to DH to try out throwing loads of money at the mortgage.

edinburgher wrote: »

Your EF must work differently from mine, doubt I could wait 27 years to get my hands on it :rotfl:

:rotfl:

I'm counting our OPs as a backup EF, really. As we OP £1,400+ every month, that buys us time to absorb any unexpected expenses, so if we were to shift £667 a month from our EF to LISA and we had something come up, we could make up the difference with the next paycheque.

As you say, though, a LISA isn't exactly an EF. Fair point.

hiddenshadow

January OPs: £2,383.61
January Offset: -£749.07 (transferred to OP)

Current (offset) balance: £116,934.27
Month we’d be in to get to our current balance without OPs: February 2026 (+4 months)

2017 Overpayments: £2,383.61
2017 Offset Savings: -£749.07
2017 Interest Saved: £1,181.26

Total Overpayments/Offsets: £58,840.87
Total Interest Saved: £55,118.25

Daily Interest: £8.28 (down £0.08)
Monthly Interest: £255.32 (up £5.37)
January 2016 Interest: £328.17 (down £72.85) <- first comparison on the same interest rate
January 2016 Daily Interest: £10.59 (down £2.31)

House Bricks: +3

Mortgage reduction: £2,734/£20,000 (13%) (Average: £2,734.60/mo)

Promising start to the year.

Net worth increase: £14,448.71/£80,000 (18%)

My pension alone went up by over £6,000 from December to January. :eek:

MFIT-4: £42,565.73/£90,000 (47%)

13% ahead of schedule.

Goals

Personal

1. Move to Ireland Pack 4 boxes Still have boxes waiting to be opened, let alone packed.
2. Move to Ireland De-clutter closet Also not done
3. Health Lose 0.5kg Done!
4. Health Neurology appointment Done!

Financial

1. Mortgage OP £1,500 Done!

Career

1. Job Sort out interview(s) Done, including job offer/acceptance!
2. Learn Download 4 tech books, read at least 1 Downloaded, haven’t had a chance to read

Overall a decent month, considering work upheaval, health issues, etc. New job started this week, have gotten almost all pay from old job (think I'm due another few days' worth of SSP), and I'm hoping things can settle into a new routine for the Shadow household. (Dogs seem sad to not have me at their beck and call all day this week!)

Need to get better at focusing on/doing the goals, so will likely copy AlexLK (and others) and set myself monthly goals with daily check-ins. Off to ponder that now...

hiddenshadow

Trying to make these a bit more specific, actionable, and require more attention/frequent check-ins (I sort of forgot about my goals for most of January ).

Personal

1. Move to Ireland Boxes packed 0/10
2. Move to Ireland Items de-cluttered 0/10
3. Health Lose 0.5kg 0.0/0.5kg
4. Life DH birthday gifts 0/3

Financial

1. Mortgage OP £1,500 Done!
2. Life Set up pension Not yet done

Career

1. Job Commute to work 1/20
2. Job Generally be awesome at new job (or at least try) 1/20
3. Learn Tech book chapters read 0/12

I think these are reasonable/achievable. We'll see!