Mortgage free & able to live the dream!

SWSEGirl

Thank you for the kind comments, they really are appreciated.
 We took my Mum to the doctors yesterday to try & work out a care plan - but sadly due to where she lives (I can’t say without completely outing myself) - there just isn’t care available. So I’m torn about whether to stay & look after her until I can arrange private care in the new year, or go back to London where I can get help for my son, & he can be in childcare (which we’re obviously still paying for) - it is very difficult. 

I am also only being reactive at work - just dealing with issues as they arise, rather than being proactive, if that makes sense. It’s all a bit of a mess. 

In terms of money - I’m hoping my pay clears before the weekend, I do find that my salary takes ages to clear into my First Direct account - it is my only gripe banking with them. I’ll get my Christmas shopping done & also my Mum’s, as she isn’t able to this year - I’ll then see what’s left for saving after that, but won’t push myself this month.
My husband & I are thinking of using some of our chunk of savings to pay up to our 10% mortgage overpayment allowance this year. We can overpay roughly £12k before December 31st. I think we may as well do it, our savings are doing nothing. But would love some other perspectives as I don’t have a lot of brain space at the moment!

SWSEGirl

Quick Question - our mortgage provided advised that if we pay off a large lump sum we need to call them to confirm if we want to reduce our monthly payments or reduce the term - I am assuming we want to reduce the term, is that right? I’m not thinking particularly straight at the moment! We need to remortgage in September 21 in any case.

rugbymadfamily

Yes reduces the term (if you want to shorten your mortgage final repayment date), otherwise they just adjust your future monthly payments down. I think that's a good idea, you have a very decent chunk of savings but I am guessing it earns less in interest than your mortgage costs in interest? So well worth paying off a chunk I would say!

SWSEGirl

So I've handed my Mum's care over and my toddler is back in childcare - so now I'm trying to take stock and make a plan for our future. We won't be selling our flat any time soon - so the plan is to hammer the mortgage, perhaps in the future if we clear the mortgage on our flat and rent it out, it will pay for a mortgage elsewhere. I'm increasingly frustrated at how slow progress on this front is, but today I paid of an £11k chunk to take the balance down to £250,852.

I know we are making progress, but I'm just impatient to see this mortgage gone, we would like another baby at some point, but living in this flat doesn't seem to feel sustainable with 2 children.

savingholmes

Just caught up on your diary. Sorry things are so tough with your mum and toddler. Love the country dream and really admire your earning capacity and financial discipline.

SWSEGirl

I’m having a rare lie in today & it’s blissful.
Thinking ahead to the new year, I’m planning to be really frugal & really keep our dream of moving back to Cornwall at the forefront of my mind & with as low a mortgage as possible. 

With that in mind I am going to try to not buy anything new for the first 3 months. We were given a 2 month meal subscription for Christmas, which gives us 3 meals a week. Along with this I’m going to carefully meal plan & see if we can boost our savings a bit more. 

I still need to submit our toddler’s DLA forms - getting the relevant signatures during Covid times has been difficult, but hopefully that will cover his speech therapy at least. 

I am worried that childcare will be closed in the New Year, so I’ve got no idea how I’ll manage work & looking after a toddler - but I guess there’s no use in worrying about something so far out of  my control!
I’ll follow this post with a few of my financial targets for 2021.

SWSEGirl

So looking ahead to 2021 - my main aims are:
*To reduce mortgage balance to £225,000
* To remortgage (September) & for our monthly repayment to be no more than £780 per month
* To increase our savings pot to £50k 
I need to rejig my spreadsheet & see what our realistic savings capacity actually is at the moment - we tend to throw whatever we think we can afford each month at the mortgage savings, but I’m sure if we were a bit more intentional we could manage more.

SWSEGirl

Well it's 2021! I won't wish everyone a happy new year, as things feel very bleak at the moment, but I hope this year is more positive than the last at least.
Not a huge amount of news from me - I had an appointment for my toddler today with a specialist who has pushed me to submit our claim for DLA, so I have posted the form today and will wait to hear back. If we are successful we will also be entitled to 15 free hours of childcare - which I might use to put our toddler in nursery a couple of days (he is currently with a childminder) - just to expand his learning and the help prepare him for mainstream school, if we can help him progress that far. It would simultaneously be a real help, but also quite a painful acknowledgement that he is different to other children, so I have very mixed feelings about it.
In other news, I am still waiting for my December pay from my employers - which is really frustrating. Their system seems to take forever. Once it arrives I'll allocate funds to the mortgage & then perhaps finally open my LISA.
I need to complete my first ever self assessment - but still waiting for my P45 from my last employer, I can't wait until it's done. The calculation online did seem higher than I was expecting, but I do have sufficient funds put away, so hopefully it'll be ok.

IndiJonesi

Happy New Year @SWSEGirl, all will be well.  You're moving forward and so is your little one and we're all different in our own ways.  Indi

SWSEGirl

Thank you @IndiJonesi! I am taking each day as it comes at the moment, which is what I think all of are doing pretty much!
I do find financial planning strangely soothing, I guess it's that element of control that is reassuring.
With that in mind I am facing that age old dilemma of whether to plough more money into my pension or keep paying the mortgage off. I know it is a balance, and I am definitely neglecting my pension at the moment.
I really want to reduce our LTV to 60% by the time we need to remortgage in September - which involves us clearing another £22k off the balance. I would hope then our monthly repayment would be around £750 - after which I could devote £200 extra to my pension savings I guess. Our main focus is being able to move to Cornwall before our little boy starts school (September 2023 - 32 months!)  
In the meantime I am going to become a lot more intentional with my spending and anything I can save,  I will put into my pension/LISA (which I haven't yet opened.....)