FinancialBliss: My mortgage free journey…

wynnvegas

Hi FB,

Brilliant progress. I've every faith that you'll crack 12/12/12 as a target. It hadn't really occurred to me that anyone might be posting false information or that anyone might be questioning the voracity of what people are saying. Both the DFW and MFW boards are so helpful and supportive that it would be really disheartening to think that anyone is at it. After all, the only person being cheated would be the person posting the information. The folk on the debate the economy board are much more aggressive and I like the idea that the attitudes a lot of them have are run out very quickly.

Cheers,

Billy

RosieTiger

wynnvegas wrote: »

Hi FB,

Brilliant progress. I've every faith that you'll crack 12/12/12 as a target. It hadn't really occurred to me that anyone might be posting false information or that anyone might be questioning the voracity of what people are saying. Both the DFW and MFW boards are so helpful and supportive that it would be really disheartening to think that anyone is at it. After all, the only person being cheated would be the person posting the information. The folk on the debate the economy board are much more aggressive and I like the idea that the attitudes a lot of them have are run out very quickly.

Cheers,

Billy

Agree what would be the point of making it up????

financialbliss

Oops. Post once a week. Nearly caught out again.

Was fully intending to post on Wednesday of this week, ie 6th April, which was dubbed Black Wednesday - got sidetracked and can't remember why (seriously sidetracked I guess), so here's a quick post.

April's mortgage payment actually cleared on 3rd April, but I didn't get around to updating "stuff" here. I've just done that.

Updated no less than 6 images and uploaded to photobook, updated the charts the last 100 steps and the final push, plus updated signature.

So, down to the numbers - the April payment pushed the mortgage through the £30k barrier - £29,795.15 in fact and with £250 of savings specifically ring fenced towards the mortgage, that's an effective mortgage of £29,545.15. :j

More in the coming week regarding Black Wednesday and my estimates of what the tax changes have done for us.

Financial Bliss.

financialbliss

financialbliss wrote: »

More in the coming week regarding Black Wednesday and my estimates of what the tax changes have done for us.

Quick update - that's now likely to be next week instead. We're away in the morning for a few days, so diary update next week instead.

Filled the car (it's a diesel) up with fuel and paid £1.39.9 per litre today. Seems no time at all since we broke through the £1.30 barrier and the general direction seems to be a relentless up and up.

Suspect we put something in the region of half a tank of fuel in today (60 litre tank) - stopped at a round £42 today :eek::eek::eek:

Need roughly £1.66 a litre before a tank of fuel costs us £100, but it's edging ever closer towards that figure.

Petrol rant over...

FB.

Innominato

...and so i reach the end. Hi FB. Have read through from page 1 over the course of this weekend (in between enjoying the sunshine I should add) and have to congratulate you on a thoroughly entertaining and interesting diary.

In reference to a comment you made earlier regarding your diary possibly only being of interest to those with mortgages, a little about me. I'm just about to become debt free for the first time since before Uni (over ten years now). All of the focus of the last couple of years has been on paying the debt down, hard but very worthwhile, and now we're almost there (final payment is next month). Still a long long way from having a deposit large enough to even consider buying so for now we have to be content with paying someone elses. I certainly know now that what I've learned from my own experiences and what i have and will learn from diaries like these will ensure that i set my sights on reducing the term of my mortgage. Perhaps I'll even do my own version at some point in the future. (I've certainly got a similar interest in analysing the numbers:rotfl:)

Best of luck to you in still making your 2012 target and I'll certainly be keeping up to date. :beer:

financialbliss

Innominato wrote: »

...and so i reach the end. Hi FB. Have read through from page 1 over the course of this weekend (in between enjoying the sunshine I should add) and have to congratulate you on a thoroughly entertaining and interesting diary.

Thanks Innominato - was on holiday last week and haven't been too near to the computer much this week either!

Very nice to know that my ramblings are appreciated and drives me to continue to try and attain my goal...

Thanks again,
FB.

financialbliss

Well, as just posted above, I've not been too near the computer in the last week, but I guess you all expected an appearence today with it being the last day of the month.

Mortgage interest for April. Interesting one in this shows the difference the new 2.5% mortgage rate has had over the last 30 days with the interest roughly halving to just 61.27 for the month - equivalent to 2.04 per day.

Opening Balance: 33,304.75

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

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

January: 1,000.00 (929.33 / 70.67) / 131.57 (4.24) / 868.43 / 32,436.32
February: 1,000.00 (929.33 / 70.67) / 115.64 (4.13) / 884.52 / 31,551.96
March: 1,000.00 (929.33 / 70.67) / 124.43 (4.01) / 875.57 / 30,676.39
April: 887.41 (887.41 / 0.00) / 61.27 (2.04) / 826.14 / 29,850.25


Totals: Payment / Interest / Net reduction.

Minimum: 887.41 / 61.27 / 826.14
Maximum: 1,000.00 / 131.57 / 884.36
Average: 971.85 / 108.23 / 863.63
Grand Total: 3,887.41 / 432.91 / 3,454.50

Balance outstanding: 29,850.25

Starting paying into savings from April - have other savings, but these savings have been specifically ring fenced towards the mortgage, so I'll add into these numbers:

e-ISA Savings: 250.00

Effective mortgage balance: 29,600.25

Just transferred some funds to the current account to cover bills and mortgage from the first onwards. Will continue to monitor mortgage rate and the base rate and adjust paying to savings / mortgage, but for now, will be paying into savings again in May.

FB.

financialbliss

Just firing up PC to check email, MSE, file some of the paperwork / receipts that never seem to go down that much…

I’ve mentioned a few times that I acknowledge that I'm about 9k down on my 12/12/12 target – see the spreadsheet final push for the details.

I’m just scanning and shredding a letter from Virgin money. Have a Virgin credit card, that now has a zero balance and have just been sent a money transfer offer, which from what I understand would allow me to transfer a sum of money from my credit card into my current account which would sit at a 0% interest rate until May 2012.

Sounds great in principle, but there’s a 4% fee. So, if I say transferred £5k (I have a £5,900 credit limit on this card), this would cost me £200 and I’d have 12 months to repay the amount. But with a mortgage rate of 2.5%, it doesn’t make sense to borrow at 4% to pay back a loan at 2.5%.

If were were at more normal mortgage rates and my standard variable rate was 5.5% or 6%, then I’d look into this in more detail, but the numbers don’t stack up for now. Don’t think the base rate is going to rise in the next 12 to 15 months to make this a viable option either, but I’ll mentally file this as a shortfall reduction option should the rates / changes swing in my favour.

However, this got me looking at the 0% for purchases deals and I see I could potentially take out a Marks and Spencer 0% for 15 months for purchases credit card, transfer my spending to this card and pay back the minimum each month – this would free up cash which I’d normally put towards the monthly credit card bills to throw at the mortgage.

The risk here is being left with a debt which needs to be paid alongside the mortgage, but the ideal would be to use 10 or 11 months to free up extra cash for the mortgage, which would leave a few months to clear the card in full, with the money freed up from no longer having a mortgage.

Need to do some further calculations about optimum times, but I suspect November or December 2011 would be the best time to apply for a card. This strategy also depends on the credit limt I may get offered – does anyone know if I’d be in for a higher credit limit if I closed the Virgin card?

Back to a bit of paperwork sorting…

FB.

financialbliss

And further to my last post last night regarding balance transfers, stoozing / slow stoozing etc, I did some further reasearch and discovered a thread regarding the Marks and Spencer card (long thread):

http://www.stoozing.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1159043738/0

It should be possible to apply for the card, purchase sterling travellers cheques up to your card limit, then cash into your current account and transfer to the mortgage once cleared. A 1% charge is applied when purchasing the TCs.

Certainly sounds interesting and I'll give it some further thought nearer the time - probaby early next year.

But, again, this also depends on the credit limit granted.

FB.

abouttimetoo

financialbliss wrote: »

And further to my last post last night regarding balance transfers, stoozing / slow stoozing etc, I did some further reasearch and discovered a thread regarding the Marks and Spencer card (long thread):

http://www.stoozing.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1159043738/0

It should be possible to apply for the card, purchase sterling travellers cheques up to your card limit, then cash into your current account and transfer to the mortgage once cleared. A 1% charge is applied when purchasing the TCs.

Certainly sounds interesting and I'll give it some further thought nearer the time - probaby early next year.

But, again, this also depends on the credit limit granted.

FB.

Lol, great minds FB, I had just got to your previous post about 4% handling fee and was going to tell you about the M&S 1% thing but I see you've beat me to it I've not done it myself but the guys on the stoozing forum seem to think highly of it - seems like and innovative idea to me

Good luck

PS, your o/s mortgage number is fab :j:j:j:j