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Seven Year Plan

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  • Good job making an OP this month alongside those lumpy annual expenses! :beer:
  • greent
    greent Posts: 10,748 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Great job on the OPs :)

    I'm another one for whom paying off the mtge was more important than making my money work harder (S&S ISAs, pensions, accounts which paid more than my int costs etc) - I wanted the simplicity of seeing that balance owing decreasing. Now we're MF, we've still not done much else with regards to investments - we've spent on some big house improvements/ work (new doors and windows, new boiler etc) and have just started a tiny contribution through workplace pension. (We both have old final salary schemes from previous employers)

    I think everyone has to take their own path. I acknowledge that ours was not the 'smartest' financial path, but the mental benefits of being wholly MF cannot be underestimated :)

    You have a plan - and that's the important bit :)
    I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul
    Repaid mtge early (orig 11/25) 01/09 £124616 01/11 £89873 01/13 £52546 01/15 £12133 07/15 £NIL
    Net sales 2024: £20
  • andy1886
    andy1886 Posts: 263 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Mortgage-free Glee! Debt-free and Proud!
    Well time for an update since my last posting . 3 weeks after my last posting my father passed away which although not exactly unexpected still happened very quickly . That meant that the run up to Christmas became very hectic with dealing with helping my mother with arrangements and sorting out what had to be done . It has also meant I have visited her more than I did when my father was alive and she lives a 4 hour round trip away so it has ate into my petrol budget each month . Then at the end of January this year my mother in law passed away which again was not unexpected but has needed dealing with .
    Because of the winter we have had we also booked a short holiday in March just to recharge and relax , made easier by the beast of the east visiting and us being stuck for most of it but memorable .
    Financially this year I have paid all the bills as usual but instead of making overpayments with the spare money I have bought several pieces of furniture that we liked , probably not needed but they are items ticked off my ever expanding list .
    My monthly budget has now changed with me spending about £100 a month more on petrol than last year but circumstances and priorities have changed but moving forwards I am going to try to make some overpayments however small they may be , in fact this week I made the first of the year for £100 .
    The big factor moving forward though is we will receive an inheritance off my mother in laws estate once it has gone through which we have decided to use to pay the mortgage down and hopefully it will be about the amount I can overpay the mortgage for the next 2 years so if all goes well this will take us up to our remortgage deal . Hopefully we will receive this towards the end of the year but until then I will be trying to make any overpayments I can no matter how small .
  • andy1886
    andy1886 Posts: 263 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Mortgage-free Glee! Debt-free and Proud!
    Not a great month in terms of personal relations go because I have received a letter from in laws family requesting me to keep my nose out of the sale of mother in laws house , won’t go into full details but I visited the estate agent for an update which I am not allowed to do ! Anyway along with the letter was a cheque for £1000 from the remainder of her bank accounts which we have decided to put to the mortgage overpayment so it means we are now well in front of our annual target , not got a current balance but will find out soon .
  • andy1886
    andy1886 Posts: 263 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Mortgage-free Glee! Debt-free and Proud!
    Time for an update , we have received funds for our share of the in laws house sale which we have decided to use against the mortgage . I have made the most I can pay for this year penalty free which is just over 3k which has brought the balance down to less than 35k . There is enough left over to make a full years overpayment next March when the new mortgage year begins and it will leave a small amount I will pay the following year when we get a new deal . It might go against the balance or I might use it to pay any fees for a new deal depending on which deal we go for , but it will be one that allows as much to be overpaid as possible as that will be what we will be doing at that time .
  • andy1886
    andy1886 Posts: 263 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Mortgage-free Glee! Debt-free and Proud!
    Spoke to the building society and I am now allowed to make my overpayment for the last year of the current deal so I have overpaid by £3400 which takes the balance down to £30000 . We can speak to them again in November to see what deal we can go to and the plan will be to swap onto the rate that allows the greatest overpayment possible and then pay as much as I can to reduce the balance . It will be a bit more regular than the once a year it has been lately .
  • andy1886
    andy1886 Posts: 263 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Mortgage-free Glee! Debt-free and Proud!
    Right the past year has passed incident free and we have managed to renovate the bathroom so the first job ticked off the list that never ends of to do . Spoke to mortgage provider and have arranged to switch to a 2 year fix with 50% overpayments allowed , the only other option was 10% maximum which we may exceed . The rate is 1.86 and the balance is £27 957.00 with a monthly payment of £272.96 . We hope to overpay at least £250 a month , I will set up a standing order to cover this . This will be very tight but the end goal will make the sacrifice worth it . I will be booking my annual leave this week and we will not be going away , in fact the social diary for the year is 2 concerts .
    We have spent the last year discussing all options open to us , moving , borrowing to renovate and becoming mortgage free and are totally committed to achieving this aim . As an aside I have a small separate savings account which I am going to use to either pay for a treat for finishing the mortgage or to help pay the final years balance . If it is treat it will be a holiday to the USA probably a road trip and probably to visit the music cities of Nashville, Memphis and New Orleans . This will be our reward and we can then decide whether to do more or spend on that never ending to do list .
    I started this week by being involved in a car crash which wrote off my car , I am ok , and this has enabled us to think our car needs , we had one each but will now try to manage with one between us which should save a few pounds this year and the insurance payout will go to fit new windows , another job ticked off .
  • savingholmes
    savingholmes Posts: 28,932 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Hi Andy it sounds like you went through a lot in a short period and are coming through the other side. Well done for staying on track and OPing however small it felt at times. I'm sure it will be fab to be mortgage free
    Achieve FIRE/Mortgage Neutrality in 2030
    1) MFW Nov 21 £202K now £174.8K Equity 32.77%
    2) £3K Net savings after CCs 6/7/25
    3) Mortgage neutral by 06/30 (AVC £22.5K + Lump Sums DB £4.6K + (25% of SIPP 1.1K) = 28.2/£127.5K target 22;12% updated 6/7
    4) FI Age 60 income target £16.5/30K 55.1%
    5) SIPP £4.6K updated 6/7/25
  • andy1886
    andy1886 Posts: 263 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Mortgage-free Glee! Debt-free and Proud!
    £250 overpayment set up as a standing order brings the balance to £27 445.00 . Going to be a tough ask to get through the month but determined to succeed .
  • andy1886
    andy1886 Posts: 263 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Mortgage-free Glee! Debt-free and Proud!
    edited 31 March 2020 at 10:14AM
    Well what an eventful month ! Firstly I am currently off work due to my employer being non essential therefore I am on week 2 of staying at home . We all had to reply to an email from my employer asking permission for them to change the t&c of our contracts so we could become furloughed allowing them to apply to the government for 80% of our wage . As of today I don’t know whether this has happened but we have received this months wage in full .
    I have received settlement for my car being wrote off and somebody at work was selling a car which was the same as the hire car I had and I could afford after finding out the settlement figure so I bought it off them , tax is £20 , insurance is comparable to before although it has not been serviced though so I will get it serviced and mot’d in July when due and hopefully it will be ok until then .I am only going to use it to get to work and back and use other vehicle when I am home for shopping , days out etc .
    Mortgage balance today is £27 499.15 and overpayment achieved this month , first month done , twenty three to go on this deal and then see where we are at . Hopefully we can struggle through these hard , uncertain times , I know the three month mortgage holiday is available to me but if possible I will struggle through and keep paying the mortgage amount and hopefully if I can manage it the overpayment too .
    Let us see what April brings .......
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