Project Mortgage Neutral Begins

Watty1

Great overpayment. It is surprising how quickly nature regains a hold.

ajmoney

I have 8 weeks left working away and then I will be living at home again. I am a little bit conflicted with this as there are pros and cons for each, but being in my on home more is definitely going to be better.

I had tweaked my monthly saving etc while I was away but looking at it this morning it seems a little complicated and I think I may be leaving myself short with the amount I am putting away into savings etc. Over the next couple of weekends that I am away I think I will go back to basics of what needs to be paid etc and go from there. My ad hoc savings seem to be creeping up so I will need to pay more attention to those. For the rest of this month I have worked out what the maximum I can spend each day is and will use that limit and see if I can use that for the next couple of months to track my spending a little.

ajmoney

I booked a summer holiday to Tunisia yesterday, we leave 6 weeks today. I am a little nervous about going there but I am sure it will be fine. I am trying to step out of my comfort zone and tap into the adventure side of me, this is definitely that!

I have a list of things that need to be sorted for the holiday. I also want to work through a couple of financial things. First up is to see what my NI contributions look like and how much I need to top them up by. I can't seem to get an online account for HMRC so need to sort this first as I believe you can see everything easily.

Watty1

What a lovely place to go. I have happy memories of being there many many years ago!

ajmoney

I have a dilemma. The plan for OPing this year was to OP the interest each month and put the rest of the money into savings and OP at the end of the year. With interest rates on savings rising and my fixed deal not ending until July 2025 I wonder if I am better leaving the money in savings for longer. I really like seeing the mortgage number go down but with an interest rate of 1.34% the answer seems obvious.

Any ideas? 

SuperSecretSquirrel

With that rate ajm, I would pay as little as possible off the mortgage and shovel as much as possible into savings. When you come to remortgage pay a big lump off if the mortgage rate would then be higher than what your savings could earn.

The only good reason I see not to do this is if you'd be tempted to spend the savings rather than keep them ringfenced as a deferred mortgage OP. In that case locking in the OPs might make sense. I don't think you need to worry about that, you're far too sensible to fall into such an obvious trap 👍 

ajmoney

You are right that I won't spend them. I either like to see my savings total increase or my mortgage decrease. I have quite a bit in savings that is ringfenced for other things, it used to make my financial advisor laugh. He would comment on how much I had in savings before I reminded him they were mini-savings pots already reserved for other things and could tell him exactly how much was actual savings!

I will keep an eye on the savings rates and ask when I come to remortgage, what the difference would be if I make a large OP or not. I think my LTV if lower than the point where it makes much of a difference but at remortgage time, if it makes a difference to my monthly payment then I may use it. After the next remortgage I may be changing jobs, so the lower it can be, the better.

ajmoney

After 8 months of working away I am now at home again with 3 weeks off before I start back at my old work place. I have very mixed feelings about going back there which I need to work through but until my start date I am going to try and not let it occupy my mind. I don't feel very settled anywhere which I guess is understandable but as well as catching up on all the jobs, unpacking and sorting I would really like to find a way to be comfortable in my own home.

First up this morning has been to clean the car as an unpleasant smell appeared yesterday. I did have to put a lot of wet stuff in after parkrun on Saturday so I hope that having aired it out it will go now. If I need to, I will wash/clean the carpets and seats etc but I would rather not have to do that when I feel I have a mountain of other things that need to be done too.

Next up is food shopping. I don't have a huge amount in my house, there was no point while I was away. I go on holiday a week today so I am only going to get what I need for now and steadily build up my supplies when I get back. I would like to get back to having less waste so need to get planning but that is where I seem to get overwhelmed. I am sure a solution will present itself that won't cost the earth.

Money wise this might take a bit of settling too. I didn't need to adjust much while I was away but I did get used to not having to fuel my car very often so that might be a shock to the system. I will see if I can find an easy way to track my spending for a while so I can see where I am spending my money. So long as I don't restart my regular going to coffee shops thing again that will help!

ajmoney

I feel really excited/overwhelmed today and I'm not sure why. I am going on holiday on Monday so it could be that but I don't think so. I also have an overwhelming urge to get rid of anything in the house that I am not actually using so maybe I am on the edge of some kind of change. Whatever it is, I am nervous and scared! 

ajmoney

I have been paid a lump sum today. I am sure that a lot of people (especially those who don't frequent this site) probably wonder what to buy. I am torn between saving it, putting it away or OPing it

Seriously, I really am not sure where I should put it!