Project Mortgage Neutral Begins

ajmoney

I found out this week that I am going to get promoted soon. It has brought a bit of relaxation to my mind as I have worked hard.

I will be on leave in a few weeks and haven't yet booked my summer holiday, we know where we want to go but I can't decide between the hotels. I had a rough order and then I started reading the reviews and it has completely put me off, even though I know that a lot of people don't leave reviews, especially those who have been happy with the service.

KajiKita

Congratulations on the promotion 😊👏 When will it take effect?

What happens if you pick a location and then immediately sort hotels by rating - can you find something that way?

KK

Watty1

congratulations on the promotion.

ajmoney

KajiKita said:

Congratulations on the promotion 😊👏 When will it take effect?

What happens if you pick a location and then immediately sort hotels by rating - can you find something that way?

KK

Some point in the next year. I am aware that is pretty vague but there is an official point but also a potential advance on that. As soon as it does happen and I get the payrise I am going to divert the increase to my OPs. I don't want to get to used to the extra money when I am likely to take a huge pay cut in a few years when I take on a new job and being MF will be really helpful then.

My new mortgage starts next week. I've got no idea what my saving/OP plans are going to look like so I might have a look at the interest rates etc tonight.

Still struggling with the hotel ideas. The prices are still coming down but I don't want to gamble for too long and risk all the seats going on the plane.

glass_half_full

Congratulations on your promotion @ajmoney !

ajmoney

Interest on my new mortgages as of 1st August is going to be 4.29% (currently 1.34% )

Interest on my highest savings rate easy access account is 3.20%, luckily my regular saver is 6.50%

Common sense says I now shift the focus to OPs rather than saving but I definitely want to keep boosting my savings. What can I say, I like to see the numbers going up! I just need to work out how I divide it up, my plan up to now is:

Mortgage OP £100 - split between both mortgages

Cash ISA £500

Regular saver £200 - this is the max I can put in

S&S ISA £250

At the end of each month I sweep whatever money is left over into either my ISA or my savings pot account to boost my holiday savings. 

I don't think I can cope with only putting £100 a month into my ISA, especially as this is what I am using to pay for all the decorating costs, it might be a little different once that is complete. 

The plan is to go mortgage free when this fixed term ends in June 2027. At the end of June I had just under £13k over the mortgage total across all my savings accounts.

Watty1

I intend to rethink my savings plans when the work on the house is done, for me trying to juggle the savings and then paying people was really hard.  

ajmoney

I have come up with a savings/OP idea, the plan is to give it a go for the rest of 2025 and see how it pans out. I will be putting 2/3 towards OPs and 1/3 towards my cash savings (this reflects the mortgage vs savings rate). I have some spare cash monthly so some of this might be repurposed as time goes on.

I have been OPing both of my mortgages for the last five years, covering the interest plus a little bit; one is around £39.5k and the other is £17.6k. Both mortgages have the same interest rate so I might focus the OPs on one and just cover the monthly interest on the other.

I am trying to do a few bits in the garden this week as I kind of have the week off. Before lunch I cut the grass and weeded the drive, after lunch I am going to weed the path to my front door and plant up the flower box next to the door. If I have the energy I will do some more bits in the front garden today. The weather isn't great tomorrow so if I fancy going out in the rain I will weed the side path as it isn't very big. It leaves Friday to do some work in the back garden. It needs a lot but I plan to alternate weeding with planting. 

I recognise that my life and lifestyle doesn't give me much time in the garden. I am going to try and address this but I am also considering getting a gardener to help me for a bit. 

ajmoney

Operation garden... my back is sore  I weeded as planned yesterday and seeing as it didn't take that long, I moved onto the side path too. Today I have weeded cut back a small amount of my cherry tree so it doesn't injure people walking by, took some large weeds out of the flower be the tree is in and weeded the path in front of my house. This job shouldn't necessarily be done by me but the council don't come and sweep the gutters here and it looks so much better for having been done. 

I am giving my back a rest while I have a cup of tea and then heading out to see what I can weed on the back patio. A gardener tackled it for me not that long ago so I am hoping it shouldn't take long. If my back isn't shouting at me very loudly by the end, I will rake over the flower beds he weeded as hopefully they won't have taken hold too much. 

I have an optimisitc list for the rest of today and tomorrow morning. If I can get it done, I am going to pick up some compost tomorrow and spread it over the beds that will hopefully have been weeded. I have some matting so I might cover it over temporarily while the worms do their work. I reminded myself this morning that my garden doesn't have to be perfect and is never going to be. While I have long term plans for the beds, for now I am just going to plant so it looks nice and there is something in the beds to hopefully keep some of the weeds at bay.

Watty1

Definitely easier to weed the beds when planted and if not planted just cover with something. (I wish I had done that with my one that was waiting).