New but not new - Year 1 of 5!

Betterthanever

I am both very relieved and a bit excited.


The remaining term on my mortgage is actually 11 years 3 months, so if I can achieve the target of getting it repaid in 5 years I will be dead chuffed. Of course, it does leave me some wriggle room if life throws any sort of curve ball, and I can spread it out over the longer term if I have to, which is a comfort, but I do not intend to have to need it!


The basic idea is that my minimum payment each month is £968. I can overpay by 10% a year without penalty. I shall overpay by £700 a month up to the allowed 10% overpay, and then any excess will go into savings/investments building up the "offset" pot that appears in my signature, so that at the end of the 5 year term I can make an appropriate transfer to clear the outstanding balance, and hopefully will still have a reasonable savings amount there with which we can do fun stuff in the future.


The new mortgage minimum payment of £958 is £48 lower than my current payment, so I shall automatically increase my monthly savings plan payment by £50.


I don't have much of a savings pot to talk of, so it is important that I build this up - with the intention of it being used to offset the mortgage as above, but also to act as a safety net if needed. The pot is currently made up of a regular savings investment account (stocks and shares) and my cash ISA.


My "money for nothing" money is not allocated to the mortgage as yet - this is money that I am using to prove a point, of sorts, and to be able to have an accumulated lump sum at the end of the five years that I hope to pay for a "fabby dabby end of the noose around my neck and debt free in every sense forever" holiday of some sort.....At the moment it is going into premium bonds. Again, when it gets to a reasonable amount, I may look at doing something more with it, looking at increasing the "money for nothing" return, and again it can be used in a real emergency if needed. But it is unlikely to be allocated to the mortgage overpay.

Betterthanever

Not much to report.......another £10.85 in Amazon vouchers plus £6.40 from shopmium. Both amounts added into the money for nothing account and other budgets (food/gifts) adjusted accordingly. Big shop done at Aldi and some stocking fillers bought for Christmas.

Other than that, a lazy day....we were out last night and the "one last Cosmopolitan" was almost one too many. Almost. Well, we were celebrating the new mortgage!!

beanielou

Glad you had a good night

SunnyVic

Hey Betterthanever, just wanted to stop by and say hi now that I've finally registered on the forum and stopped lurking! Your diary has really inspired me, I used your referral code a few weeks ago for SB but haven't managed to get anywhere near the figures you're making! Must try harder :-) Subscribing and rooting for you x

Betterthanever

Hi Sunnyvic! Thank you for de-lurking!! I love SB so if you need a hand with any of it, do let me know!

Nothing MSE to report today..... DS dislocated his shoulder ski racing so we have just returned from A&E via the kebab shop for ease! Classy dinner for a Sunday evening!!! £20 spent there but hey ho!!

beanielou

Your poor DS.

Betterthanever

There always a chance of injury with sport, I guess. He has been racing for 17 years now, though, and this is his first big injury, so he's not done so badly. Thankfully he gets full payment at work while he is off, so he can recover properly.

Monday again already. £10 requested from Prolific....slowly slowly catchy monkey! Have a good week!

beanielou

Have a good week.

benbenandme

Hi Betterthan, I know you're saving for M&S vouchers on Swagbucks at the mo but tomorrow they are reducing Amazon vouchers to 620 swagbucks

benbenandme

Oops ... just read it properly - the sale includes M&S vouchers too :j