FinancialBliss: My mortgage free journey…

someday_soon

OK, got it now. I don't expect it will take too long before you put the steering wheel to good use given your track record - thought about a pun there but it was not going well:rotfl:

All the best

Someday Soon

abouttimetoo

financialbliss wrote: »

Why have I done this in google docs?

I’m very much contemplating a savings diary to push me along for the last two years of the MFiT challenge. Keeps me focussed and keeps me on MSE. Not 100% that I’ll be doing this just yet, as there’s a lot of traffic in the savings forum and I’m quite unfamiliar with that area of the site / how friendly the regulars are / how a new savings diary is going to be received etc…

Jury is out, but should I start, it’s likely to be sometime in December as this seems a logical progression after drawing a line under this diary.

Watch this space.

FB.

Hi FB, congrats on being within a sniff of paying off the last of the stoozes. I like the sound of your savings challenge and I'm sure there would be other MFW'ers who would sign up, after all, we already know some of the MFW challengers are saving/offsetting etc rather than just straight OP, i'm one of them in fact

I was laughing to myself however, as I've just updated my own thread saying that at the rate i'm spending money at the moment on some rather large items I might be better off staring a Savings Free Wannabe thread/board

Just one other thing re the PS4, grr, why did you have to write something like that, I'm trying hard enough as it is to convince myself I don't really want one

Regards
ATT

financialbliss

abouttimetoo wrote: »

Just one other thing re the PS4, grr, why did you have to write something like that, I'm trying hard enough as it is to convince myself I don't really want one

You don't need a PS4 right now. November the 29th will do :rotfl:

Seriously though, there's apparently 120+ games in development for it, so by next year, there should be a better range to choose from.

FB.

financialbliss

OK. I briefly mentioned a while back that after I did a personal credit card review, I would look at current / savings accounts.

Current accounts. Listed below are relatively easy pickings current accounts - with the exception of Santander, I’ve sorted by the interest rate I’d expect to get. Nationwide are clamping down on their FlexDirect, so I’m assuming we can only have two now – a personal account each and and a joint one. I’m intending to switch to Santander as the main current account, hence why it is listed first.

Santander 123 – partial tax (2.66% net)
Nationwide FlexDirect – tax free (4.89% gross)
Nationwide FlexDirect – partial tax (4.40% net)
Yorkshire Bank CA Direct – tax free (3.93% gross)
Clydesdale CA Direct – tax free (3.93% gross)
Nationwide FlexDirect – taxed (3.91% net)
Bank of Scotland x3 – tax free (2.96% gross)
Lloyds Vantage x 3 – tax free (2.96% gross)
TSB Enhance x 3 – tax free (2.96% gross)

Regular savers. I’ve picked a few of these as they offer a reasonable rate (12m = 12 months). The N&P account requires a current account, so a little more of a pain:

N & P Gold savings account (12m) – tax free (4.00% gross) Note: Needs current acc.
Barclays monthly saver (12m) – tax free (3.20% gross)
Leeds regular saver (ongoing) – tax free (3.05% gross)
Yorkshire building society regular saver (ongoing) – tax free (3.00% gross)
Bank of Scotland monthly saver (12m) - tax free (3.00% gross)
Lloyds monthly saver (12m) - tax free (3.00% gross)
TSB monthly saver (12m) - tax free (3.00% gross)


I’ve been emailing various providers to ensure that when they say branch based, they really do mean branch based accounts only and that it’s not possible to open via post, so that also discounts a number of accounts. Note that there’s more than enough accounts there than I can fill in the next 4-5 years, so I need a plan to maximise interest. I could:

• Concentrate on current accounts only
• Concentrate on best current accounts, then move on to regular savers
• Open current accounts / then regular savers (ongoing) / regular savers (12m) by interest rate
• Open purely by rate

I guess there’s no one right or wrong answer. Eg if I end up wanting to open a Yorkshire bank current account direct next summer and if it had only 9 months remaining at the guaranteed 3.93%, is it really worth the effort, for the gain?

Still looking around for savings accounts, so if there any any 3% + accounts, I have missed, please do shout. I'm less inclined to go rushing at current accounts that require funding and direct debits just now, but as I fill up the better rate accounts, I guess I'm going to have to be less choosy.

If anyone has a few moments spare, I’d appreciate your take on this ”problem”. I’m inclined to open the current accounts by decreasing rate with the exception of BoS, Lloyds and TSB, then open the ongoing regular savers then consider my options after that.

FB.

edinburgher

I can't see any benefit to using the regular savers - surely the current accounts blow them out of the water due to the need to drip feed them (at lower rates)?

Ps. Like your weighted rate of return figure a few posts back, I was going to suggest that for your spreadsheet

gallygirl

The flex directs are no brainers (which explains why Mr GG and I haven't opened a joint one :doh:) and Clydesdale/YB sounds good depending on restrictions. With regards to the others, I use Santander as my main account and am really pleased with it. Will be using it as a savings account going forward (which will need more lines on the spreadsheets ).

With regards to the regular savers, even the best one is a lot of faff for the extra interest. 4% - tax = 3.2%. Santander on your calcs is 2.66%, so a difference of 0.54%. Say £300 a month, £3600 a year, that's just under £20. Half that as you'll have on average £1800 in there and you're opening a current account to get the reg saver, then funding both accounts every month for less than £1 a month. Even if you open one tax free for Mrs FB it's a lot of faff for basically a meal out.

However, you've missed the First Direct reg saver at 6% (needs current account). If in Mrs FB's name that's 3.34% more per annum, around £60+ for opening, funding etc.

I'd be inclined to go for FD (x 2, one taxed, one not), fully funded flex directs and probably just bung the rest in Santander. Unless you're talking decent amounts (say 10k) to put in Clydesdale and YB.

However.......... what are you doing about investments. If I'd been [STRIKE]lucky[/STRIKE] intelligent enough to have paid my mortgage off at your age I'd have a S&S ISA probably with Vanguard funds in it and chuck the best part of 1k a month at that. Having said that, if I knew then what I know now, I'd have done that instead of overpaying the mortgage (:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:).

financialbliss

gallygirl wrote: »

However, you've missed the First Direct reg saver at 6% (needs current account). If in Mrs FB's name that's 3.34% more per annum, around £60+ for opening, funding etc.

Oops. On my radar now:
http://www2.firstdirect.com/1/2/savings/regular-savings-account

I mentally discarded that, as I thought that they charged £10 a month for their 1st current account. Appears charge is waived if £1,000 is paid in monthly. I'll do some more research this weekend. Does their regular saver need to be funded from their current account, or can it be funded from anywhere?

Got to dash - cash point run (at work on lunch)...

FB.

gallygirl

[QUOTE=financialbliss;63852251 Does their regular saver need to be funded from their current account, or can it be funded from anywhere?

[/QUOTE]
I fund mine from the money I transfer in. Pay £1,500 in, drop off £300, transfer £1200 to next victim on the list .

financialbliss

Just a quick update to say:

1) I've paid off a further £250 off my last mortgage debt credit card, which leaves just £1,750 - NatWest card.

2) After pondering for a while, I've started a savings diary. Is here:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4832503

Due to not knowing how much traffic / comments if will get, I've put an email notification on that thread.

3) I've put £2,500 into a Nationwide FlexDirect account, getting me out of the starting blocks in the MFiT challenge.

FB.