FinancialBliss: My mortgage free journey…

financialbliss

Bit of a poor effort this weekend...

Was intending to get some updated into this diary, but daughter has been barking like a dog – sore throat. Was very unsettled on Friday and ended up in our bed after kicking off at about 11pm, at which point I got ejected to daughters room. Was there again on Saturday evening and daughter is also settled into our bed again this evening after thinking she was going to be sick, so looks like I get daughters bed again!

Still, can't moan. Back to the diary.


Anyone spot that it’s 10/10/10 today?

Started this diary on 10th October 2007, so I’ve been here rambling on about our mortgage for 3 years now.

Time for a bit of reflection on where we were, where we are now and where we hope to be.

On 10/10/07, the mortgage was £70,153 and I was getting excited about breaking through the £70k barrier in November 2007.

Today, our mortgage is £35,793, ie just shy of HALF what it was in 2007. I don’t think that’s bad going at all considering you’ve all the normal household bills being supported on one wage and still managing to find extra cash to overpay the mortgage.

That’s where we were and are now covered. It’s no secret that I aim to be mortgage free by 12/12/12 – at the start of this diary I suggested that I’d have a shortfall of about £6k in the months running up to December 2012 and in the grand scheme of things, that wasn’t much to be short by and we could probably recover from this gap.

That was then. I’m now (gu)estimating that we will be short by around £12k, ie double my original thoughts.

Why? The usual suspect. I’m being too optimistic with overpayment expectations. The kids are now soaking up more disposable income. Son has Karate on a Monday, after school sport on a Tuesday, swimming on a Thursday and daughter has swimming on a Wednesday, all needing to be paid for. Along with £9.50 each per week for dinner money, we’re spending a considerable chunk of cash on them each month. No regrets at all on spending this.

Can we still make the 12/12/12 date? Got just over 2 years to go just yet and I’m not writing myself off just yet. Should Mrs Bliss get herself back into employment - earning £12k over 2 years should not be a problem, even if employment was only part time.

Watch this space…

Financial Bliss.

golfiematt

well done on your progress so far, in 2007 i think our mortgage was 60 odd and probably around about the same balance as yours now! Some days you wake up and think its near impossible to keep up the O.P.'s and some days you wake up more determined than ever! 12/12/12 isnt all that far away now, time seems to be getting faster! keep up the good work!

financialbliss

financialbliss wrote: »

And now the first instalment of not so good news…

Last posted 9 days ago and thought that was "only a few days ago"...

Just re-discovered this on page 5 of this MFW section, quick update post...

Above quoted not so good news was issues with credit card and savings. Here's second instalment.

We borrowed some money off the kids :eek::eek::eek:

What did we borrow the money for? Had a dry patch with regard to cash flow and borrowed the cash to top up the regular saver.

Ok, only £800, but at the time I felt a bit bad for doing so. I can't imagine that I've been the first and I expect I won't be the last either, but the good news is that it's repaid now.

I've pondered over estimating the lost interest and topping up with that amount, but just pondered that so far. Kids were unaware of it, so unless they discover this diary , they'll probably be none the wiser either.

Back to the regular saver - this has now matured and I think I recall that we should have got around £150 in interest, but due to opening the product late in the first month, then placing further cash straight in at the start of the second month, we managed to get £180.17 in interest, so not too badly done.

Big day tomorrow - comprehensive spending review, so I'll either be on here moaning at how worse off I will be or quiet as a mouse while I soak up all of the information.

FB.

financialbliss

Crumbs. Last day of October already. Don't know where the time has gone this week - was intending to post an update or two, but haven't found the time.

As ever, with the last day in the month, here's the mortgage interest stats:


Opening Balance: 48,499.96
Opening Nationwide completion date: December 2014

Overpayments in Blue.
Interest in Red.
Balance in Green.

Month: Payment (Std / OP) / Interest (day) / Net reduction / Balance / Nationwide completion

January: 1,398.03 (898.03 / 500.00) / 191.83 (6.19) / 1,206.20 / 47,293.76 / Oct 2014
February: 1,429.33 (929.33 / 500.00) / 168.71 (6.03) / 1,260.62 / 46,033.14 / Sep 2014
March: 1,429.33 (929.33 / 500.00) / 181.65 (5.86) / 1,247.68 / 44,785.46 / Sep 2014
April: 1,429.33 (929.33 / 500.00) / 170.88 (5.70) / 1,258.44 / 43,527.01 / Aug 2014
May: 1,429.33 (929.33 / 500.00) / 171.45 (5.53) / 1,257.88 / 42,125.21 / Aug 2014
June: 1,429.33 (929.33 / 500.00) / 160.98 (5.37) / 1,268.35 / 41,000.78 / Jul 2014
July: 1,429.33 (929.33 / 500.00) / 161.17 (5.20) / 1,268.16 / 39,732.62 / Jul 2014
August: 1,429.33 (929.33 / 500.00) / 156.20 (5.04) / 1,273.13 / 38,459.49 / Jun 2014
September: 1,429.33 (929.33 / 500.00) / 145.97 (4.87) / 1,283.36 / 37,176.13 / Jun 2014
October: 1,429.33 (929.33 / 500.00) / 145.62 (4.70) / 1,283.71 / 35,892.42 / May 2014


Totals: Payment / Interest / Net reduction.

Minimum: 1,398.03 / 145.62 / 1,206.20
Maximum: 1,429.33 / 191.83 / 1,283.71
Average: 1,426.20 / 165.45 / 1,260.75
Grand Total: 14,262.00 / 1,654.46 / 12,607.54

Balance outstanding: 35,892.42


Nationwide now calculate that we will complete our mortgage in May 2014, but they don't know about our planned future overpayments!

With a monthly total payment of £1,100 to the mortgage, I estimate we will be cleared of the mortgage in November 2013.

October sees our largest net reduction this year at £1,283.71

Funds now in place to cover mortgage payment and overpayment for November.

FB.

newgirly

Hi, just wanted to pop in and say how well you have done with the overpayments. I think the kids definatly slow you down! But you have got the balance right, mine get to do clubs and activities if they want to, but we don't go out buying the lastest video games etc. like some parents do. You want them to experience things as they grow up, paying off the mortgage too quickly at the expense of everything else would take the pleasure out of it.

black_taxi_2

FB--im close to your MF target date--dec/2013

good news for both of us---im 100% sure that target will defo be reached

was disappointed couldnt do it in 3 years---but only being 12 months late is fantastic in the bigger scheme of things

financialbliss

Good news. The November mortgage payments have cleared. Drum roll - mortgage today is: £34,476.83

It's less than the original MFiT challenge to reduce balance to £35,000. Ok, 7 months late, but objective still achieved...

Ok big breath. I've:

* Updated signature
* Updated last 100 steps graph
* Updated stats on post #1
* Updated mortgage balance summary graph
* Updated mortgage balance summary (25 year term graph)
* Updated monthly interest graph
* Updated daily interest graph
* Updated daily interest difference graph
* Updated payment v reduction v interest graph

FB.

black_taxi_2

1st year nearly over FB

always good to look back and see progress

financialbliss

black_taxi wrote: »

1st year nearly over FB

always good to look back and see progress

Crumbs, Last diary update back on 3rd November!

Think I'm suffering a bit. Full of enthuriasm at the start in the diary, but enthusiasm tailing off in the middle before I probably have a rush of enthusiasm to make sure I still hit my target towards the end.

Note that there's always the thought of actually becoming mortgage free before my 12/12/12 target, but as I currently think this is unlikely, I'll not entertain that thought.

Spurred on by black taxi showing that I've not updated in a while, I'l try and get a proper update in this evening...

FB.

RosieTiger

I understand exactly what your going through and keep feeling the same - our spreadsheet seems to irritate me more than it picks me up these days!!!
We are now aiming for a net position of mortgage less savings to be zero for April 2012 - it's totally doable, but, just seems so far away some days.
The best medecine I have found is seeing some of our fellow questees making it - it can be done and I can't wait to do the same - hope this works for you to, we need you on board !!!!