mortgage neutral by 2026

pathtofreedom

Well it has been nearly a month - where has the time gone - and I'm still getting unpacked, but I am a bit more settled into my new place. So no more new house spending madness, and back to the business of paying the place off. Well that's not 100% true as I'm investing in a multi stove burner as this place only has electric heating with economy 10, so I hope this will help keep the bills down long term. I've budgeted around around 3k for this including the wood store, coal store and some fuel, but am still getting the details and quotes in to get it sorted out.

As for the OP'ing.

The new mortgage is £[FONT=&quot]153,892.45 with two different interest rates, from where I ported over some of the old mortgage to avoid the early repayment charges.

Today it stands at £153,131.52 but this will keep creeping up, with the £12.60 a day interest I'm currently paying. So I'll try and track this on the 1st of each month or there about to make the figures easier to follow.

I'm going to try and OP the interest each month, which would be £390 or so starting from next month. As well as building up my savings in parallel to get to my mortgage neutral aim. This is just mentally better for me, and has worked in the past, as I don't like seeing the total owed going up each month and to more than what I originally borrowed. As the higher of the two rates is 3.39% I think this is worth while doing really.

My current savings total - not including the money for the stove - is £[/FONT][FONT=&quot]12,148.02 but once I've paid off an old credit card, and bought the stove, this should still go up a bit more as I don't want to spend all my contingency funds.

Annoyingly the bills, both council tax and utilities, are higher in this 2 bed bungalow compared to the 3 bed house I was in before, but I'm hoping with careful management these will decrease a bit from the direct debits setup now based on the previous occupiers usage.

My commuting costs are also obviously massively higher, as I'm still based out of my old office, so new job is the next big thing on the agenda as quidco and shopping around, will only save me so much a month. Even though that will probably mean higher dog care and commuting costs than the old place. I feel so much better living here already mentally the move has been well worth it. I can't imagine ever moving again at this point.

I have bought a new couch that I've been dreaming about for years, but resisted buying until I had somewhere to move to in case it wouldn't fit. It is a 2 seater and a 3 seater in fake leather (because of the dog) which cost £624.98 including delivery, which I ended up get £20 back for as they messed up the first delivery for different reasons.

[FONT=&quot]I've sent my new t[FONT=&quot]otals to update my MFi[FONT=&quot]T tracking. I haven't paid any towards this since it started. I'm not sure if they can track savings and OP's but I'm thinking I want the total to be down to £120k and have another 20k in savings. If I get some of these new jobs I've appli[FONT=&quot]ed for that might be too easy, but that's based on my income now and really stre[FONT=&quot]tching myself so we'll see.

[FONT=&quot]A fr[FONT=&quot]iend has invited me to their wedding aboard in [FONT=&quot]December[/FONT] so depending what happens with jobs and savings, I might go to that, just as [FONT=&quot]it has been years since I've had a proper holiday, just with spending all my money on doing up my old pla[FONT=&quot]ce an[FONT=&quot]d pa[FONT=&quot]ying down the negative equity[FONT=&quot] so I could escape it. I think I'll have to see closer to the time though, as I want my emergency fund - which is included in my savings total - to be a [FONT=&quot]bit more healthy again first. [/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]
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SuperSecretSquirrel

You sound very happy and full of optimism in your new house, really great to see

I don't think MFiT is designed to track the two separate targets, but there are a couple of options I can think of to work around it:
1) register two numbers, one for mortgage payoff and the other for savings target.
2) think of it as an offset so a 100k mortgage and 30k savings balance would be a 70k offset target.

The second option is quite common

pathtofreedom

I'm really getting bored of staying away from home half the week now. I miss my new house, and I am just not getting the place sorted as fast as I'd like. People keep telling me they still have stuff in boxes from when they last moved, and to be honest so did I, but this is the first place that has felt like home in I don't know how many years, so I want to get all unpacked and settled in properly.

I managed to get a bed for the spare room off facebook for £50 at the weekend though that I'm quite pleased with. I was looking at some other options, but I think for now it will do, as I won't really have people come and stay that often anyway. I'd rather spend more sorting out a multi fuel stove I think, and getting that done the best I can do, as the costs for that adds up pretty quickly, then you have the store for the fuel and the fuel itself too. It is a lot of up front cost but I think it will be worth it in the long run.

Job hunting I think is going well. I've had a couple of interviews and have a second interview in a couple of weeks so fingers crossed for that one. There might be a bit of travel with that, but it will be different to what I'm doing now so am really hoping I get it.

I've just paid off one old credit card as the 0% was running out, and moved that onto a virgin one. I could pay it off IN FULL but the money is better off in my offset really. I need to see if I can do any purchases at 0% on it in the first few months too, to use up the rest of the credit I think, then I could put some of the stove costs on their too rather than take more out of the offset than I'd like to.

I need to get my eating back on track too, I'm having far too many take aways with being away which is wrecking my diet and my mse planning. The places I'm staying though don't have a fridge, although there is one at work I could use really, so might try and plan better next week to keep some stuff in their so I don't keep buying lunch and dinner when I'm in the office.

pathtofreedom

A few days late but here is my monthly update. Mortgage total down to £152670.58. Daily interest is down to £12.12. Savings total is £16772.78 which is minus the cost of the stove I'm planning.

I have recently discovered something called bullet journals, which I have started this week. It is like an organiser system, I have tried online ones in the past but haven't managed to maintain them. I am a bit of a stationery junky, but with this you can make each entry what you need it to be that day, week... depending on what you're doing, rather than trying to fit your life into 1 page, or the limitations of an app. So this combined with GTD I hope will improve my productivity both at home and work the way that ynab has helped my finances the past couple of years.

Next interview is on monday, I'm freaking out a bit as they have now asked for a presentation as well, so my weekend will be now sorting that out. I really want this job though so keeping everything crossed for that.

Moneyfordreams

Good luck with your presentation and interview

pathtofreedom

So I've been awol for a while but been very busy. I start my new job tomorrow - eek - and my multi fuel stove is installed just in time to trigger a heat wave. So far this year that is a new house *tick*, a new job *tick* so just want to work on my health and life balance now for the rest of the year, well and OP's etc but that helps towards that.

I've started reading the morning miracle by Hal Elrod as it is mentioned a lot by bullet journal fans. I am not a morning person at all but it does really make sense so far, and although I'm very good at doing whatever is needed for work, I am not good at motivating myself to do things just for me. I'm hoping this will help with that, as if I'm not doing everything I can for myself, no other !!!!!! is going to help me.

I've realised it is about 18 months till I'm 40, and I keep losing and gaining the same weight over the past couple of years. So I'm going to sign up with slimming world again this week - not very mse I know but the groups help with my accountability, and who doesn't like stickers - and work towards trying to lose 100lbs by the time I'm 40 which should be very doable as a challenge as it is just over a lb a week.

I have still been using ynab and saving for my over payments, I just didn't want to actually pay it yet, until I get settled into the new job and see what my take home is like for that. So I'll try and do a round up at the end of the month, then hopefully the month after things will start to be a bit clearer, especially with costs for dog sitting, commuting etc.

katep23

pathtofreedom wrote: »

I've realised it is about 18 months till I'm 40, and I keep losing and gaining the same weight over the past couple of years. So I'm going to sign up with slimming world again this week - not very mse I know but the groups help with my accountability, and who doesn't like stickers - and work towards trying to lose 100lbs by the time I'm 40 which should be very doable as a challenge as it is just over a lb a week.

Hi PTF - I'm in the same boat (although only 11 months to my 40th :eek:) Keep trying different things but nothing sticks.

I'm joining SW tomorrow (first week free ). It's the accountability that helps for me too; I lost a stone and a half on it several years ago and kept it off for quite a while. Good luck - we can check up on each other and cheer each other on

Well done on the new job, I started a new job 2 weeks ago and am enjoying it, so far the work/life balance is much improved and I really like the sense of teamwork I have seen so far

You're ahead of me with the wood burner though - OH wants to fit the mantelpiece before we get someone in to quote so may not be before winter at this rate :rotfl:

pathtofreedom

katep23 wrote: »

Hi PTF - I'm in the same boat (although only 11 months to my 40th :eek:) Keep trying different things but nothing sticks.

I'm joining SW tomorrow (first week free ). It's the accountability that helps for me too; I lost a stone and a half on it several years ago and kept it off for quite a while. Good luck - we can check up on each other and cheer each other on

Well done on the new job, I started a new job 2 weeks ago and am enjoying it, so far the work/life balance is much improved and I really like the sense of teamwork I have seen so far

You're ahead of me with the wood burner though - OH wants to fit the mantelpiece before we get someone in to quote so may not be before winter at this rate :rotfl:

I've done well on slimming world before and I'm all fired up to give it a good shot. I work better when the group is smaller though I've found. The first time I tried it, there was a massive group of maybe 40-50 people each week and was very cliquey so was very hard to talk to other people there and ask advice.

As for the stove, you might want to check before you put the mantel in, as the regulations for the space around the stove are very strict, I had to have a lot of building work done to get the hole made bigger so I could have one. I still have to paint where they re-plastered once that has dried out, then I might also get a mantel later too once I'm used to how it looks now.

pathtofreedom

Well the new job isn't quite what I expected, then new jobs never are I guess.

I am focusing more on 2016 being the best year yet though, so with new house and new job, next is improving me so I signed up at slimming world last week and am looking at self improvement.

The commute to the new job isn't easy as I thought it would be, I normally listen to radio 4 in the car, but with everything going on the the world it is getting a bit depressing and not helping with the positivity. So I've made a new playlist of songs for the car, although it turns out it is longer than a cd's drive so I've gone back to listening to my ipod through the radio for now.

I am working on my plan for my miracle morning tasks, as I haven't fully started that yet. I did get around to reading another book I bought forever ago called buddhist bootcamp though which has inspired me to quit sky for a while.

I kept meaning too cancel it, as I get too sucked in each time a new sky season starts, especially on sky atlantic. I just wanted to watch game of thrones which is why I didn't cancel it when I moved. Turned out I could have lived without seeing that last series though. So to give me more time in the evenings I bit the bullet and went to the live chat to cancel. They couldn't think of a reason to talk me out of it, when I said the problem is they are too good. They tried to get me to get someone to call me back but I held my nerve. So this should be good for me not only for time but for being MSE.

I still have netflixs, and can obviously watch iplayer etc. Even with netflixs going up though I have a deal which means I get free massages out of having that from a friend, which would cost a lot more than I pay for it. So I'll be keeping that on for now. I'll have to just try and resist watching that and iplayer etc all the time instead, and focus on my plan to work on me more which means education both for personal development and for work.

I'm still trying to work out some of the benefits for the new job, and the pension %'s and things, but I'm just waiting for hr to get back to me about a couple of things to see if it is worth while or not. It might make more sense to pay less into that specific pension and get a sipp and a lisa next year and do it that way.

pathtofreedom

Well a belated happy new year. I ended up getting 2016'd good and proper so have been away from MSE for quite a while it seems.

I'm only just starting to feel myself again so might still be a bit hit and miss, but even if I can only be focused half the time it is better than none of the time which it has been.

I had imagined the offset magically reduced the mortgage more than I thought, so it has given me a bit of a kick that since buying in april for £153k I'm still not even below £150k due to interest. I know originally I wanted to be more mortgage neutral that pay it off, but just seeing 150 it is such a big number I need to step up the OP's I think again. So I'm going to try and do 400-500 a month I think, as well as working on the savings side for the offset.

I've reconciled ynab as I'd completely fallen off the wagon for everything since about august for different reasons. I didn't go through everything but just added in some big expenses I've had due to the 2016 curse. It feels better to be caught up again now though and have a budget to work with for jan and feb now.

Hopefully this will also help my waist line too as no more excuses for take away now. I am hoping to start whole30 soon too, once I've read the book, which will mean lots of meal planning and healthy food. I have joined a local gym too but it is a month by month contract and only £10.99 a month, they are also open 24 hours which is what I need really as my insomnia is still bonkers so I keep ending up in the wrong time zone.

There might be a new job on the horizon too which would help the budget. This isn't just about paying the house off it is trying to get to the point where I can retire or semi retire asap before my health gives out. I'm 39 soon so if I really crack down maybe I can get there near enough by 55 or so but we'll have to see if I can last that long. I haven't even made it to 70k in the pension yet though so have a very long way to go, maybe the LISA scheme will help. I also want to look at p2p but it is so tricky knowing what's best to do with so much uncertainty with brexit and trump really.

Anyway here is to a much better 2017 than 16, and making a good attempt towards financial freedom.