MFW & Retirement Planning on a Single Income

nellis10

TallGirl wrote: »

Just spotted your diary congrats on your progress so far and your birthday I'll be 47 in Aug so roughly same age. Really interesting thoughts about pension versus mortgage overpayment versus investing I've been glued to the savings board for months now and it's a minefield.

Thought it might help you to but I went with an IFA originally right at the beginning of my mortgage free journey to essentially make sure we had enough pensions and also look st life insurance. We had no kids though. He charged us £800 for a glossy document and didn't nothing else no recommendations nothing. Useless indeed.

Fast forward when I inheritaget a large sum I found an IFA through a friend and he's been a god sent. He's charges are very reasonable and I'm now doing the pension top up and investing. I'm not saying you should use an IFA right now but for Pensions SIPPs etc they can be helpful and the charges really aren't that much.

Being mortgage free is amazing I did it nine years early and benefitted hugely. You sound like you have a good sense of what you want and where you want to go so stick with it and you'll get there. Life does throw some curveballs and you also need to live so update your house and enjoy it even it it means an extra year or to added to the mortgage. You'll get the pleasure out of it.

Enough waffle from me I'll subscribe look forward to see the progress.

Thanks TallGirl! Everyone is telling me I need to enjoy myself as much as save for the future, so I've decided to break down all extra income into 3 pots: Living Now & Updating House, Mortgage and Investments - that way I will feel as though I am making headway on all 3 fronts )

edinburgher

I always think about it as the legs of a stool - it usually makes sense to have at least 3

Congrats on paying down your debts.

nellis10

edinburgher wrote: »

I always think about it as the legs of a stool - it usually makes sense to have at least 3

Congrats on paying down your debts.

Now, if only each of those legs was worth a million pounds lol

edinburgher

nellis10 wrote: »

Now, if only each of those legs was worth a million pounds lol

Stradicharius?

nellis10

Well, the remortgage went through at the end of last month...
Rate changed from 3.74% to 1.94% fixed for 2 years with unlimited overpayments in that time.

The only !!!!!! is, they don't do online servicing of the mortgage account - but monthly text messaging will allow me to see all the details I want and I will keep track in a spreadsheet.

Keeping the mortgage payments fixed at £500/month so increasing the OP by about £60 overall.

Hope everyone is doing well?

nellis10

Hey guys!

Not been on much...life getting in the way lol

Good news is - I'm still Debt Free! :j:j:j

AND I've managed to save money and had my yard "landscaped", so all I need to ever do to the yard is planting, vegetables and any furniture etc...That was this year's "House Project"

I'm putting money aside from now on, for next year's "House Project" - New Bathroom! But in the meantime I am also saving for new Soffit/Facia and Guttering - Oh the joys!

Regarding becoming mortgage free...I have a new plan in place for this. I've moved to a new role in work which now pays a quarterly bonus. So along with any payrises, most of the bonus money is now going to go towards paying off the mortgage early.

I'm upping my ISA investments from £100 to £200 from January. It's still VLS80, but I may diversify to something like a VLS60 once I get it up a bit.

Fully funded emergency fund isn't there yet...I am probably only a quarter of the way towards it, BUT that's mostly because I hadn't properly budgeted for the yard this year.

I'm changing my car in 2020 so I need to start thinking about a Car Fund to pay for that. Eek...more lines on the spreadsheet!!!

Anyhoo...just thought I would let you all know I've not disappeared, and will hopefully keep popping back regularly!

Nat.

nellis10

So I forgot to update my Mortgage Free Wannabe situation yesterday:

Current Mortgage is 1.94% fixed until April 2019.
I pay £385.05 repayment.
I'm overpaying by £115 each month to bring mortgage up to £500/month.
This month I lowered the balance from £64821.04 to £64800, just to give the balance a nice round number and I intend to do this going forward each month, round it down to the nearest £100 regardless of additional overpayments.

I now get a bonus quarterly in work, so adding £500/quarter to overpayments, with 2 of those overpayments being £1000, if I can afford it.

Also each payrise (assuming I get one) I will increase monthly normal payment by £100.

Also trying to get LTV level to <60% by April 2019 (About £50K) so I can get to the lowest possible rate avaiable.

At this rate, I will then be on target to pay off my outstanding balance by mid 2023.

Fingers Crossed!

nellis10

Morning folks!

So, regular saver is set up once more. £300 each month. I've put this into the tracking section of YNAB so it's not part of my budgeting.

I've taken out a tesco credit card for purchases so I can get extra points, and will then put most of my wages into my new Ulster Bank savings account (pays 1.25% AER). I used topcashback for the CC, so hoping that will net me £30.

I'm still investigating stoozing, but I don't fancy messing around with DD at this stage...But it's something to consider in the new year. I need to work out how to start circulating my wages around various accounts to get advantageous regular saver amounts going in.

Again, something I am pondering on, and working out for the New Year.

If anyone still reads all my waffle, do say hello :beer:

michelle09

Hi Nat! Just started reading your waffle today.

I like the idea of stoozing but my control freak/OCD side worries about it going wrong too much. We're looking into credit cards with decent rewards now that the Amex cashback deal is coming to an end.

nellis10

michelle09 wrote: »

Hi Nat! Just started reading your waffle today.

I like the idea of stoozing but my control freak/OCD side worries about it going wrong too much. We're looking into credit cards with decent rewards now that the Amex cashback deal is coming to an end.

Hi Michelle!

Yep I'm thinking stoozing would be too much for me at this time to keep a track of. I've gotten a new tesco credit card that I'm going to use for all spending...which will give me tesco points (tis where I do me shopping mostly). All my money is now going to go into my new 1.25% savings account.

More waffle to come soon! :rotfl: