Project Mortgage Neutral Begins

ajmoney

Just had a letter through from the bank about the last interest rate change and my new monthly mortgage payments.  Since the beginning of the year with the interest rate changes and my monthly OPs my monthly payments have gone down £39.25 and this amount doesn't reflect the OP I made at the beginning of the month.  The small mortgage monthly payment has reduced by £18.80 I have been keeping the mortgage payments the same and OPing the extra into this mortgage which is on target to be cleared at the end of the year.

ajmoney

I am tackling the biggest job today...I am finishing the filing cabinet and mountain of paperwork that I started weeks ago.  I am trying to finish this by the end of today and have ordered a shredder so I can get rid of all the paperwork I don't need.  I normally take it to work to shred it but that's not an option and I don't want it sitting around the house.  It should be here by Monday so I will put everything in a box until then.  Once this is complete I have my clothes to sort through and the pile from Thursday.  I also need to look at the stuff in the loft before I put some other stuff up there. I have some DIY jobs to do, some of them are easier than others but I will work my way through the ones I feel comfortable with during lockdown and make a list of who to get to help me with the others when human contact is allowed.  This is not easy and everytime I start a new pile everything inside me is willing me to stop but once it is all over I can hopefully breathe a sigh of relief.  The spring clean can commence soon!

ajmoney

The end of the paperwork is in sight although I will probably go through everything in the filing cabinet again as I suspect I can still be more ruthless. 
A question on mortgage info. I have the initial set of paperwork from when it was set up last year and my annual statement, with all the rate changes and OPs I have numerous letters about payment changes, I guess I just keep the most recent?
S&S ISA I have A LOT of paperwork, statements etc for this. A lot of it is online too so I guess I only need to keep the most recent?
Payslips, still burying my head in the sand with this one but I am so close to finally getting this done that I want to see it through. 
I think the issue with all this is I don't know what to do with things and often don't know where to go for the answers so let it all build up and consume me rather than asking and admitting I haven't got a clue. 

ajmoney

£45.12 has reached my account this morning, a refund from a triathlon I was due to take part in two weeks from now.  Normally I would OP this money but I have decided to send all extra money into my ISA to bolster my cash reserves.  Most of the events are rescheduling so it is nice that this club have refunded straight away, there is no way all these events can go ahead in the window people assume is free at the end of the year.

It is going to be interesting to see how much money I have left in my current account at the end of the month as I am actively choosing not to spend money.  There are a couple of things I want that will help out with some of the time I am spending on my bike (in the garage on a turbo trainer) at the moment so I am researching and pricing at the moment and consider buying later in the month.

Today I am going to try and finish the paperwork, ditch the clothes from my wardrobe that I don't like or don't fit and clean the oven after dinner - I know how to live!!!  Also have a session on my bike and a walk lter.  I hope everyone has a good day.

Suffolk_lass

I was listening to the radio (5-Live) about people using online cycle trainers from home. There were some anecdotes about famous sportsmen agreeing to compete with their team-mates at a particular time over a pre-arranged course (such as a Tour de France stage) and then other people on that session being thrilled to compete against their sporting heroes (I think they were cricketers). It just sounded really fun. Not sure if you have considered linking to one of these for a bit of competitive virtual company. 

I am def not the one to advise on paperwork. I mildly regret losing my first ever payslip from each employer, and having discarded all old paperwork relating to credit cards, accounts and mortgages, we were stuffed when the payment protection thing required a lot more info than we had kept.

ajmoney

Suffolk_lass said:

I was listening to the radio (5-Live) about people using online cycle trainers from home. There were some anecdotes about famous sportsmen agreeing to compete with their team-mates at a particular time over a pre-arranged course (such as a Tour de France stage) and then other people on that session being thrilled to compete against their sporting heroes (I think they were cricketers). It just sounded really fun. Not sure if you have considered linking to one of these for a bit of competitive virtual company. 

I am def not the one to advise on paperwork. I mildly regret losing my first ever payslip from each employer, and having discarded all old paperwork relating to credit cards, accounts and mortgages, we were stuffed when the payment protection thing required a lot more info than we had kept.

A lot of those competetive cycling things are on "smart" trainers that link online, I only have a basic one so am not able to do that at the moment.  I turned down the offer of a second hand one a couple of months ago as I wasn't sure how much I would use it, ironically I am now on mine 3 times a week but I have time to upgrade.  I have just signed up to a 3 month trial of an app that I believe I can use some of their bike training with as well as plenty of workouts, I just need to get a little computer thing that measures my output.  I have been trying to put off spending the money on that and a new bike seat until the end of the month but I think the bike seat might win out a bit sooner.

I didn't end up doing any of those jobs yesterday so might attempt some of that today.  Instead I went for a walk on some back lanes behind my house, there were a few people around but not nearly as many as on my normal routes.  I got to see a lovely tree/very large shrub with pink flowers (I have no idea what it was) and got to see pheasants and squirrels running around too.

I think paperwork wise with the stuff I haven't sorted out yet I will keep everything from the last 6 years and get rid of the rest and then I can work out what I need to do with the rest but at least the amount I have shouldn't be so overwhelming.  My shredder is arriving today so I can start getting rid of what I have already decided to get rid of.

Lomcevak

Suffolk_lass said:

I was listening to the radio (5-Live) about people using online cycle trainers from home. There were some anecdotes about famous sportsmen agreeing to compete with their team-mates at a particular time over a pre-arranged course (such as a Tour de France stage) and then other people on that session being thrilled to compete against their sporting heroes (I think they were cricketers). It just sounded really fun. Not sure if you have considered linking to one of these for a bit of competitive virtual company.

Zwift is the best-known one, and it is quite fun - I'm a (not very good) triathlete and I use it a bit to get some miles in when it's wet and dark in winter, and was bimbling along one day when Mark Cavendish rocketed past, accompanied by dozens of amateurs frantically trying to keep up. They then all vanished into the virtual distance and I was left by myself again! The training courses are good too if you like structured training, otherwise you can just freeride.

Only downside is it's quite expensive, my basic turbo trainer setup was hundreds of pounds and I already had a spare bike and laptop that could just about run the software, it's effectively a 3D game so needs quite a good computer. It works ok, but not brilliantly. My neighbour takes it very seriously - he does many hundreds of miles a month on Zwift, which is his main source of exercise - and has his shed fitted out with a complete setup that cost him the better part of five grand (professional-grade static bike with powermeter, big screen TV, surround sound, air conditioning, fan that adjusts to your virtual speed, something that lifts the front of the bike as you go 'uphill', the lot). It's very impressive, but a bit outside my budget!

ajmoney

Lomcevak do you use zwift with a basic turbo trainer or a smart one?  If you can use it with a basic one I might give it a go, I signed up to a 3 month trial with peloton yesterday.  I have a good friend who does a lot of stuff on zwift and my triathlon club have meets every few days on it now but I figured I couldn't use it because of my basic trainer.  I would like to do more triathlons but I am not a fan of the bike and when that is the biggest part of it that is a problem!  I am hoping this time in my garage can build up my bike fitness and then I can transfer it onto the road when we have more freedom again.

Today is a run day.  I have just been watching a video on warming up, I am terrible at this so I am going to give it a shot later.

Right 30 minutes until I start work, I made some good progress last week so I am hoping I can build on that.  First I need to go and do the washing up.

Lomcevak

I use a "minimally smart" one, a Tacx Satori. Cost was a little under £200 a couple of years ago, and I had to pick up a new rear wheel and 'turbo tyre' because it seems to rip up road tyres quite quickly, plus a couple of other bits (front wheel stand, mat, basic office fan) to get a working setup.

The Tacx has ANT+ and Bluetooth so can connect to the laptop and it records cadence and power so Zwift can figure out how fast you're going, but doesn't do any of the clever stuff like varying the resistance as you go (virtually) up or downhill, and power isn't very accurate. Overall it's fine for getting some miles in the legs, I've always found turbo sessions dull but the "game" aspect of Zwift helps keep things a bit more interesting. However, it can't do the clever training stuff my neighbour likes to do, like ramp tests and functional threshold power training, because it's not controlled and accurate enough. He's using a Wahoo Kickr with the smart fan and gradient simulator accessories.

A_Frayed_Knot

Just a thought, regarding your paperwork, might be an idea to have a small A-Z book or similar to jot down the likes of account nos, codes, ref nos, starting balances etc, so you still have a note of them all in case of any query that comes about later on.

I've been doing this gradually with some of my paperwork, and while on the subject, and all that is going on in the world atm, I am deciding to write a will or at least some thoughts on paper, of what I would like to happen, I'm sure there will be no battles, but who knows.  (Gulp !!!)