Determined to be debt free in five years!

Debtfreein5yrs

Hi everyone
I'm guessing the title of this thread and my user name says it all.
After nearly 10 yrs of fighting debt I'm now determined that we will be debt free within 5 yrs from now.
Over the past 10 yrs we have had taken out a huge secured consolidation loan (massive mistake) and been in a DMP with Payplan.
We are now self managing our DMP and at last I hope there is some light at the end of the tunnel!

Currently we owe around £21,000 on the mortgage, £52,0000 on a second mortgage (used for consolidation) and around £25,000 on unsecured debt. That's a massive total of around £98,000 of debt. I'm just in the process of establishing the exact figures for each which I will post in a signature when I have all the info.

Now for the positives
We both now earn really good incomes so the debt should be manageable.
Our son finishes Uni in June so we will no longer have to support him financially which means we will have even more to throw at our debts.
Most of our unsecured debt is interest free as it has been sold on to debt companies many years ago.

By my calculations we will be able to clear all the debts, including the mortgage and secured loan within the five years and still have a reasonable standard of living.
Once the debt is paid we then intend investing the money we've been using to pay into a retirement fund.

Decided to start this diary to chart our progress. Hoping it will inspire me to keep going to achieve our goals.

I have been a 'lurker' on these forums for a long time so it's definitely time to say a big 'HELLO' to everyone

System

Hello and welcome to the diaries . You are in the right place, I am sure there will be more experienced posters who will offer you good ideas etc.

Debtfreein5yrs

Thank you for your welcome Cumbria Lass. Looking forward to getting to know everyone on here

angelpye

Hi and welcome! :wave:

Good luck on your journey. Well done for making it so far already, a think a diary will help to stay on task. Keep posting

Debtfreein5yrs

Thank you angelpye for your welcome. Really excited now about debt busting. Makes me feel like I'm back in control :j

moneyfacts

mortgage free in 5 years! That's a good achievement indeed !

Debtfreein5yrs

Thank you moneyfacts. If we do achieve it it will be amazing. It will be the first time in the whole of my adult life that I will be totally debt free. Have had a mortgage since I was 19 so been paying one for over 30 yrs!!
Our current first mortgage has 5 yrs to run so will be paid off without making any overpayments. The second one is the one we need to throw extra payments at as it's at a much higher interest rate and is over a longer term.
Currently working on the calculations
Going to be difficult but I'm now really committed as I don't want to spend all my life in debt

Debtfreein5yrs

Good evening
For various reasons and despite my best intentions I've had very little time in the last couple of weeks to focus on my debts.
My immediate goal now is to sort out my SOA before the end of the month so that I can start my debt busting for real on the 1st April.

Debtfreein5yrs

Good morning everyone
I've now decided to tackle my debts one at a time. Going to make minimum payments to everything other than the debt I'm currently trying to clear.

Have signed up to YNAB and it's amazing what a difference it's now making already. The figures at the moment are in red because of the overdraft but the plan is to tackle that debt first. Can't wait to see the 'to be budgeted' bit turn to green.

The overdraft has to be the first debt to go as it's costing us around £40 a month in fees and interest.

At the end of February our overdraft was maxed out to the tune of -£1900. At the end of March this will be down to -£1300.25. Can't believe we've managed to pay off almost £600 in one month by careful budgeting, making a few extra £'s online and some overtime.
Just a month ago we would have frittered that money away without a second thought!

Really excited and pleased with what we've achieved already

Debtfreein5yrs

Just added a signature to my account

angelpye

Hi, YNAB lover here too! Gives me no option but to be truly honest with myself but also keeps money related stress at bay due to being able to see where I am at all times. Sounds like you have a plan in place and its great you are already at 32% of target 1! Well done!