FinancialBliss: My mortgage free journey…

financialbliss

Been massively hectic this last week or so and haven’t had much time on MSE – even less on my diary. Thought I’d put a few minutes towards the diary while I’ve some spare time.

Nationwide credit card. Got a letter yesterday advising that they would like to offer an increase to my credit limit from £7,500 to £9,400 – which I’ve just telephoned to confirm I would like this to go ahead. The Nationwide account was 0% for 18 months – expires in October 2013. Intend to continue using this card for slow stoozing, even after I’m mortgage free – freeing up cash for savings.

Nationwide e-ISA. Got a letter reminding me that my savings rate on the e-ISA is dropping from 3.1% after 30th September. It would drop to 1.75% This has been the funds to net down my mortgage and I’ll be emptying this account “soon”.

Nationwide online ISA issue 6. Got an email yesterday advising that Nationwide were launching a cash ISA from 21st September with a rate of 2.55% (for £1k plus). Has a rate guarantee until 31/01/2014. Could end up using this for post mortgage savings, but going to scan the market first. I’m not loyal to Nationwide – just the best rates.

Mortgage free date. Don’t want to give too much away here, but having previously had a date in mind, on reflection this could have involved two or three overpayments depending on how quickly the payment and the regular mortgage payment cleared, ie having to clear residual interest added to the account. More messy that it needed to be.

Having thought about this more logically, I’ve arrived at a much better / simpler mortgage free date and this will definitely go ahead. Watch this space – more details after the event.

Cycling. Been feeling a bit under the weather and my times have been suffering as a result. I’m approaching a total of 1,850 miles and should hit my commuting target. Today would have been a great day to do a morning cycle, but our son has been vomiting again, so I’m in / looking after him while Mrs Bliss takes daughter to a party.

Aldi have a range of cycle accessories on offer this coming Thursday (27th):
http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/offers_week39Thursday12.htm

Still on the subject of cycling, I treated myself to a new bike last week. A hybrid with hydraulic disc brakes, 700cc wheels, 24 gears etc. I paid £299 (was reduced from £349) from Halfords and got a further £11 in store cash back too via QuidCo:

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_786861_langId_-1_categoryId_165534

Considering it’s my first new bike in about 14-15 years, it’s good enough for me for now. Got a very luke warm response from bike to work scheme queries at work and partners in the scheme were much more expensive. Eg popped in at a local Evans cycles and the assistant tried to sell me a £750 hybrid. Ok, it’s not a boardman, but do I actually need that? I’ll find any new bike a big improvement over my old bike. Paid using NatWest credit card, which doesn’t need to be cleared until 2014.

Had a purchase a new pannier rack due to wider back end due to the disc brakes. Haven’t been out on it at all – weather being cruel, feeling under the weather and lack of time in general.

Mobile. Had issues with the display on my Huawei Ascend G300. Popped in at a Vodafone who sent the phone off for analysis. Turned out it was the screen and the screen was replaced under warranty. Got the phone back now.

And that’s it for now. Going to try and catch up on the MFiT-T2 and T3 threads this weekend.

Financial Bliss.

uzubairu

financialbliss wrote: »

Cycling.
Still on the subject of cycling, I treated myself to a new bike last week. A hybrid with hydraulic disc brakes, 700cc wheels, 24 gears etc. I paid £299 (was reduced from £349) from Halfords and got a further £11 in store cash back too via QuidCo:

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_786861_langId_-1_categoryId_165534

Considering it’s my first new bike in about 14-15 years, it’s good enough for me for now. Got a very luke warm response from bike to work scheme queries at work and partners in the scheme were much more expensive. Eg popped in at a local Evans cycles and the assistant tried to sell me a £750 hybrid. Ok, it’s not a boardman, but do I actually need that? I’ll find any new bike a big improvement over my old bike. Paid using NatWest credit card, which doesn’t need to be cleared until 2014.

.

That sure is a great purchase.
700c wheels, 24 gears and disc brakes will make you ride to work so much more efficient and enjoyable.
I started riding to work on a mountain bike and since changing bikes (to a cyclocross), I really look forward to my journeys to and from work.
The improvements were immediate (especially journey time and handling).

My OH didn't rate the Cycle To Work scheme with his employers when he purchased his hybrid earlier in the year.
With his MSE training, he ended up getting a Giant Seek 1 hybrid (£750 bike) for £315 from Wiggle because it was the 2011 model and not the current 2012.
It was 50% off sale and a further 10% online discount code.
The difference between the 2011 and the 2012 model was cosmetic.
It happens every year with lots of bike retailers.

financialbliss

Kids have just got up - I've been up a while. Think I'm on breakfast duty, but a quick post before I log off.

Month end mortgage interest:

Opening Balance: 23,172.41

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

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

January: 900.00 (887.41 / 12.59) / 47.36 (1.53) / 852.64 / 22,319.77
February: 900.00 (887.41 / 12.59) / 41.14 (1.47) / 858.86 / 21,460.91
March: 900.00 (887.41 / 12.59) / 43.71 (1.41) / 856.29 / 20,604.62
April: 900.00 (887.41 / 12.59) / 40.56 (1.35) / 859.44 / 19,745.18
May: 900.00 (887.41 / 12.59) / 40.07 (1.29) / 859.93 / 18,885.25
June: 900.00 (887.41 / 12.59) / 37.02 (1.23) / 862.98 / 18,022.27
July: 900.00 (887.41 / 12.59) / 36.42 (1.17) / 863.58 / 17,158.69
August: 900.00 (887.41 / 12.59) / 34.58 (1.12) / 865.42 / 16,293.27
September: 900.00 (887.41 / 12.59) / 31.70 (1.06) / 868.30 / 15,424.97

Totals: Payment / Interest / Net reduction.

Minimum: 900.00 / 31.70 / 852.64
Maximum: 900.00 / 47.36 / 868.30
Average: 900.00 / 39.17 / 860.83
Grand Total: 8,100.00 / 352.56 / 7,747.44

Balance outstanding: 15,424.97

Ring-fenced mortgage savings: 15,500.00

Net mortgage: :j:j:j £0.00 - Could clear using ring fenced savings :j:j:j

Credit card stoozing information:
Tesco CC @ 0% : 5,025.00
Nationwide CC @ 0% : 6,449.82
NatWest CC @ 0% : 2,372.00

Total CC debt: 13,846.82


Well nothing much surprising there - if you check my daily interest month on month you will see the daily interest is going down by 6p per month.

The interesting point is the comment regarding the net mortgage :j:j:j

We'll also skip over the credit card debt - effectively my mortgage balance shifted over to 0% :eek:

Think I've mentioned before that I'm going away next month. Thus I knew when I could break the news to Mrs Bliss but wasn't exactly 100% sure of how.

Was considering leaving a card in the hotel room, but we have now started detailed planning / booking of things while we are away and something has cropped up which gives (I think) an ideal opportunity to break the news. I'll not give anything away - but I'll mention as soon as possible after the event

Watch this space...

Financial Bliss.

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Morning, look forward to hearing how the news is broken and received

Love the idea of 0% mortgage

Best wishes Tilly

Daisyworld_2

Congratulations FB. Looking forward to hearing how Mrs FB reacts to the news. We've got about another 10 months to go and can't wait to join you in mortgage-free land.

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice

How exciting... I hope you get the reaction you want from MrsFB!

financialbliss

I appear to have made a small mistake in my month end stats for September. I’ll rectify those in due course.

But on to other things. I’ve been away for a few days, so first post in a while. Got the east coat line train up to Edinburgh and stayed there for a few nights. Booked a nice restaurant – Jamie Oliver’s Italian in Edinburgh. As it’s the internet, here’s a few pictures to prove it:



and a better one showing the name:



So, imagine the scene… just the two of you enjoying a bottle of wine and a romantic meal and you reach into your coat pocket and hand your wife a card saying to her at the time – “You may want to open that…”

Any guesses anyone?

Financial Bliss.

pavlovs_dog

well I hope it wasn't a dear John letter!!!

Congrats on being MF FB :T how did Mrs B take the news?

financialbliss

Ok. You probably saw this coming. Card contained two images showing:



and:



Mrs Bliss was just stunned into silence and then she managed to get out: What? Us? When?

I just smiled and said “last week”.

For anyone wanting the gory details – it’s been one hell of an emotional and stressful week with emotions ranging from complete stress and anxiety, self doubt to sheer happiness.

Got into work early on Friday 28th September. Transferred two lots of £7,750.00 out of our ISA accounts – the rate was dropping on the 30th September from 3.1% to 1.75% to seemed like a good time to put the funds to another use…

With £15,500 in my current account, I attempted to transfer £15,422.85 into the mortgage account. Much to my alarm, this failed due to transfers being limited to a maximum of £10,000.

So, I made two transfers to the mortgage account – the first being £10,000.00 and the second being £5,422.85 which was made at 07.43 on Friday 28th September. Due to the transfers not showing as cleared on Saturday 29th, I called Nationwide who kindly closed the mortgage account and waived the £1.06 interest that had been added for the Saturday. Later on the Saturday, the mortgage account showed as zero and I grabbed the above summary and detail screens above.

:j:j:j So, from Saturday 29th September 2012, we’re mortgage free… :j:j:j

Didn’t really hit home at the time and I had quite a sleepless night on the Saturday – OMG I’ve just spend almost £15,500 without telling my wife. In the next few days, I relaxed a bit as the mortgage account continued to show zero. Apparently I’m due a congratulations / confirmation letter from Nationwide but have not received that to date.

Thanks ever so much for the support and delighted to be sharing the news that I’m mortgage free!

Financial Bliss.

llamahead

That is amazing - I have been a silent stalker since your journey began but just wanted to de-lurk to congratulate you, you have worked so hard and been so dedicated, you must feel amazing and FREE!

Have you worked out how much interest you have saved rather than if you had paid your mortgage to term?

Anyway - I only have about another 10 years to go, I will get there!

Congratulations. x