Project Mortgage Neutral Begins

ajmoney

I have finally started to spend some of the mortgage refund money although I am still nervous to do it and have bought a washing machine and tumble dryer as planned when I realised I had the money.  My delay in sorting it out means I have spent slightly more than if I had done it straight away but I have a better tumble dryer for it so I am happy with that.  I have put the purchases on the credit card for extra security and they will be in my house a week on Saturday which means I will use this weekend to rejig my spare room a little as that is where the tumble dryer will be going.

I have just had an @m@zon delivery and picked something up from curry$ so all presents I had ordered are now in my possession.  Just need to sort niece's presents, pick up some planned gifts for my mum and sister and buy 2 edible gifts and I am done...I wonder if I can get all this done before the end of October!

The weather is horrible here, I managed to get a sea swim in before the rain came although the water was very choppy so it was a fairly tough swim.  I have a couple of jobs left to do on my list and then I will enjoy my evening of nothing.

ajmoney

My financial review is tomorrow so I am going to double check my budget plan again and read over the documents he has sent through in preparation tonight.  My new savings plan with redirecting savings towards my S&S ISA might not reward me straight away but standard savings accounts aren't exactly helping either.

My productiveness has dropped off over the last couple of days but I don't mind too much, I will play catch up on my jobs over the next couple of days.

ajmoney

My 2 hour financial review lasted 40 minutes but not for bad reasons.  As I already have investments, know what I want to do and know where all my money goes it cut a lot of the time out.  Apparently I have £300 spare a month on top of the money that is already budgeted although I don't see that when I do my monthly budget and as I said to him I am not happy ringfencing all of my money each month, I am far happier with a buffer.  I have committed to increase my monthly investment by £150 a month so will now be directing £250 into my S&S ISA and at our next meeting in 3 weeks time I will see how my portfolio is now spread.  I have a rough plan for my money going forward although I will review this again before the end of the year and come up with new goals. 

I have no idea what I will be doing this weekend.  My back did a strange spasm thing while washing up this morning and so I need to be careful, it hasn't fully eased now so I am unsure what to do.  I hadn't finished cleaning this week but I will give myself today to catch up on reading magazines.  I did want to sort my spare room out in advance of the tumble dryer going in there next weekend but unless ex can come and help me I don't think it will be possible now. 

ajmoney

Ex is coming later to help me sort the spare room furniture.  After I am going to measure up the cupboard in there to work out a better set up for the shelving as they are too shallow to be usable at the moment.

I have a dilemma.  I normally do my week's shopping and fill my car up with fuel on Sunday's (I have actually started to get organised and not even do a top up shop) but with the suggestion in the news that a national lockdown might be imminent might prompt people to panic buy and apart from one portion of chilli I don't have anything in my freezer and only enough in the fridge for today's food.  They were talking on the news about it being in England so it may not reach up here but I think it is only a matter of time.  I will do my meal plan and shopping list today as I planned and go out first thing tomorrow and hopefully I will be able to get what I want.

juliejim

Everything's up in the air isn't it? Nobody knows what's happening from one day to the next!

ajmoney

I am resisting going shopping until tomorrow, I haven't even left the house yet today and now the wind has picked up so I might just stay safely inside. 

My spare room is now looking better, it didn't take much help but I am glad I didn't try it myself.  I have checked and updated my food inventory and then meal planned and written a shopping list for tomorrow while catching up on some recorded programmes.  I would like to finish the cleaning but am still being sensible and not doing too much so about to make myself a cup of tea and have a look at my S&S ISA statement that came through yesterday.  I normally just look at the total of all the funds once a month but I would like to understand it a little bit more.

ajmoney

First day of the month and my financials are all now up to date.  I am still redirecting the money that would have been going into my holiday fund now it is topped so this month I have included it in my mortgage OP.  I have also been looking at the challenges I set myself on 03/06/20 to meet by the end of year.

1. Reduce mortgages to £89710.82 Current total £90468.20 which is before this months standard payment and OP are taken off

2. Build up 3 months of emergency fund in immediately accessible money Target £4171.32 Current total £3977.20

3. Save 10% overall from June onwards Target was £30011.66 Current total £30371.49

The mortgage totals are a slightly incorrect figure because I note the figures on the 1st but they don't take into account the standard monthly payment and OP.  It is likely I will be a lot closer to this in a few days when they show and my initial calculations suggest I will be on target at the beginning of December.  I will hit the emergency fund target next month with my standard transfer into the account.  The overall savings is not increasing as much as I would like as it includes my S&S ISA which is suffering at the moment due to the U$ election but I have hit the target so long as it doesn't dip too much.

I suspect 1st December is going to be an exciting day for me with hitting these targets (is that a little sad?) so I will have to decide what to do with my extra £250 that month, probably split between the mortgage and my ISA.

ajmoney

Even more exciting, it looks like I will own 50% of my house with December's payments

ajmoney

Although the figures above are good I am feeling a little frustrated that it is a marathon and not a sprint at the moment.  I have been trying some calculations but nothing was reducing the time very much so I am looking a bit longer term.  Based on my current job contract I would like to be mortgage free in August 2027, based on my projected balance of the mortgage and my current savings totals I would need to save about £8961 more to be able to clear the mortgage in full at that point.  I would need to save £25650 over the next 5 years to be mortgage neutral when I remortgage I am not sure how achievable it is but it would give me a target each year (about £427.50 a month).  As it stands I will be saving £450 across my cash and S&S ISA each month.

These are my current musings - I am more than aware during this crazy time I am fortunate to be in the position I am in.

savingholmes

Some great targets there. Good to hear you are so close to hitting 50% home ownership