Project Mortgage Neutral Begins

ajmoney

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

I'm a bit the same with feeling I need to be doing something. I have just shared my 20-20 list - not sure if you have seen that thread - I have lots of things for myself and for our pleasure, otherwise I get a chores mentality going - so things like read 20 books, 20 local walks from home, that kind of thing are on my list, although I confess I have 20 deep proper cleans of the bathroom on there too.

I currently have 16 things on my list, I am sure I will come up with the other 4 before 2020 starts. I have also asked my mum and sister if they would like to do this with me. My idea is we all come up with our lists, email them to each other and every time we do something we send a message which should keep us all accountable. We don't do very much together as we all live so far away from each other, my sister does a lot with work or my niece but not by herself and my mum gets stuck in a rut and doesn't do anything. They might not fancy it but it will be nice if we do it together.

savingholmes

Sorry your phone needed replacing at xmas of all times. Hope the replacement works out well. I hope you manage to relax.

ajmoney

savingholmes wrote: »

Sorry your phone needed replacing at xmas of all times. Hope the replacement works out well. I hope you manage to relax.

The replacement was great for 24 hours...and then the SIM card failed but they swapped it over and everything seems fine now.


I had a great sea swim today, the first decent one in over 6 weeks, it always focusses my brain. It is a shame the tides mean I won't get many for the next week.

Suffolk_lass

I really like your idea of a team-family 20-4-20! We have friends coming to spend NY who will stay one or two nights and I am going to suggest we all do one. We can then review them next year to see what we have done. We did try recording predictions for the forthcoming year a number of years ago and then completely forgot about them until about 3 years later but emailing updates is a nice idea, and more likely to help us keep track.

ajmoney

What are the chances that I might have found a tradesman that turns on time and seems ok...? Electrician came this monring and is going to start working out some prices for me. The good news is that it doesn't look like I need a whole rewire but with new regulations coming in there are things I need to get done but they should last me for the time I am in the house. I have no idea yet how much everything is going o cost but he is going to itemise everything so I can work out what to do and when. He is going to come back for a more in depth look to work out a time frame in a couple of weeks. Next stop is to find a heating engineer to get the heating system checked out and then I will know what money I will need to get my house sound. While I don't intend to sell any time soon you never know what is around the corner and at least I will be covered on the home report and can probably have a higher asking price because of the work done and the certificates that will come with it. Electrician thinks the last lot of work was done about 16 years ago which is when previous owners moved in so boiler might be that old too.


Over the next 2 days I am going to sit down with my spreadsheets as I am setting up a few more savings pots but they will all be going in to the same account so I need a better system of knowing what money is for what. I am going to hold off on the large OP while I get these estimates in and then will OP what is left. I am intending on a larger monthly OP now I don't have a RS account to pay into. Knowing how little interest I have got back on my money over the last year is may be a better option. The mortgage I am trying to get rid of sooner has an interest rate of 1.99% so unless anyone knows of a super duper place for me to put my money I am going to concentrate on getting rid of this as I would like it cleared before I remortgage in April 2021 if not by the end of 2020...

ajmoney

Without OPing the large sum from this year's RS account and redirecting the money each month to the mortgage my smallest mortgage will be gone by Feb 2021 :j if I OP £3k at some point before then it will be gone by September...


I have my mortgage interest spreadsheet ready to go for 2020 and am about to make another cup of tea and work out my spending and the account t is going into as it is confusing my brain but putting it off isn't helping.


If it is possible I have even more dread moving into the new year than I did about spending Christmas alone. The start of the new year should be a time of optimism but my life is not where I ever saw it or in truth wanted it to be and I struggling to get my head around this. I am going around it circles with thoughts that aren't helping so I need to try a new approach...what was my focus before I met Mr AJM...saving money and I was very good at it. This (saving and OPing) and plans for improving my house need to be my focus until the rest of my life catches up, oh and exercise. These are the things I have control over and so will work at making these a success.

ajmoney

Right, time for responsibility and accountability. Can anyone see anything obvious that I have missed out?
Essential spending
Mortgages 507.16
TV licence 12.85
Council Tax 150
Gas/Electricity 76
House savings 22 (covers house insurance-to be reviewed in Feb)
Kit insurance 9.68 (work necessity)
Car savings 54 (covers insurance, tax and service costs)
Mobile 26
Work fees 12
Sky 78 (not essential as such at this level but I will keep this)
Life insurance 50 (need to review this as I don't currently have any )
Total 997.69


Savings
Holidays 250 (a large amount but has stayed the same from when Mr AJM and I put money aside)
Christmas 25 (figure basd on what I have spent on presents this year)
S & S ISA 100
Total 375


Others
Fuel 160
Food 200
Mortgage OP 500

Total 860


Overall Total £2232.69



I have estimated my food and fuel costs and will stick with these for a couple of months while I check if this works. Once reviewed I will aim to save this rather than OP it as I feel I could send more money to savings. Based on these calculations I should have about £340 a month left over and the only things I don't think I have money allocated to are haircuts. I have a couple of annuals, membership for triathlon club, triathlon Scotland and the gym but these are normally paid for from an ad hoc income and I am likely to get free Triathlon Scotland membership moving forward so that will save a little.


Next step...work out these individual savings pots...I may be gone some time :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

ajmoney

I think the easiest thing to do with the pots is to put them into my new larger savings pot after each has been reviewed. I save over and above what is needed each time and then save or OP the excess each year when I review and this is what is confusing me with putting them all together. Just need to work on a spreadsheet to show all of this and I have until February to do this.
I feel a lot better getting to grips with this. I used to save the maximum ISA allowance when it was at a manageable level and before I got larger monthly outgoings with my houses, I know I can't go back to savings this much but I would like to save more than I am. 2020 is going to be my money year.

savingholmes

Have you worked out how much you need to put away per month for all your annual bills (and what they are)?

ajmoney

savingholmes wrote: »

Have you worked out how much you need to put away per month for all your annual bills (and what they are)?

All my annual bills are covered by the car and home savings pots apart from the exercise ones.