FinancialBliss: My mortgage free journey…

financialbliss

Apologies everyone. Haven’t had much time lately for this diary. Been busy with a bit of DIY - helping the family!

Still, it’s the end of June already, so with me taking monthly snapshots of the mortgage interest, I need to grab and calculate the balances.

So, as of 30th June 2008, the total interest for 2008 is: 1,576.54

This breaks down as follows…

• January 279.86 – 9.03 per day
• February 249.23 – 8.90 per day
• March 271.85 – 8.77 per day
• April 259.23 - 8.64 per day
• May 263.84 - 8.51 per day
• June 252.53 – 8.42 per day

At the end of Q1 (March) I estimated the 2008 year end interest I’d end up being charged on the mortgage as: 3,031.34 based on planned payments and overpayments.

As we’re at the end of Q2, I’m going to do the same again. Based on revised lower total payments of 1,000.00 per month, I’m now estimating that the year end interest charged will be: 3,085.05


I’ve got a few pointers scribbled down for a few “feature” posts. I just need to try and get back into a regular habit of posting here…

FB.

clarew

wow, well done to you. I love reading your and Tall Girls diary, it helps to keep me focused. I am nowhere near your achievements, buts it keeps me inspired!

abouttimetoo

Hi FB

Thansk for the update, look forward to hearing your 'feature post'. Like ClaireW says, I like reading your posts too:D

financialbliss

Yikes...:eek:

A week later and I've failed to post anything to this diary. I suppose you could argue that posting twice a month, every month is "regular", but I want to try and post more often than that.

In terms of "feature" posts, what I meant by this is a number of features, articles or whatever you want to call them, instead of just ramblings on my part, eg like the posts I did regarding each house purchase along the way.

I'll try and get a post typed up this evening to get back on a steady pace...

FB.

financialbliss

Tuesday evening was a disaster. Without internet for about 2 hours...

Microsoft release OS and product patches and upgrades on the second Tuesday of each month. This is commonly called patch Tuesday.

Computer was working earlier in evening. Shut down and noted it was installing patches. Came to use it later and no internet access. Turns out that one of the patches downloaded (KB951748) is in conflict with Zone Alarm. Result - no internet access. Rolled back to earlier that evening and everything ok.

Today mrs bliss reported that computer not working. This time, in addition to rolling back, I googled the two patches and got lots of hits on KB951748. Instead of rolling back, you can just delete the above patch.

I've changed automatic downloads from automatic to "to “Download updates for me, but let me choose when to install them..." to make sure the above doesn't automatically get picked up again.

If anyone is wondering what this has to do with mortgages, well I work in IT, so I'm bound to stray onto this subject now and again.

Besides, someone may actually find the above useful, well that is providing your internet access isn't already down!

FB.

Trillionaire

Hi F

I had the same problem. I phoned Microsoft who told me to uninstall ZoneA. I did this and was then able to browse the internet. I went to ZoneA's website and they are fully aware of the problem - so much so, they allow you to download the lastest ZoneA package free of charge!:T

By the way, I've never posted here before but I have your diary in my subscribed threads:D .

financialbliss

Hi Trillionaire,

Nice to see a new name! The BBC technology section posted a Zone Alarm item:

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7499260.stm

and checkpoint software have since released a fixed version of Zone Alarm.

FB.

financialbliss

Just a quick update to keep things ticking along…

MFiT. Completely forgot to update Tall Girl with my latest numbers. As of 3rd July, mortgage stood at 63,654.80. The balance represents 25.81% of my MFiT target.

Graph. Despite updating my signature numbers almost immediately after the July mortgage had been taken off, I’ve only just updated the progress graph on page 1 this evening.

Property prices. I use the house price index data to track my hypothetical house price – applying the index to the previous amount to determine roughly where my house price is going. I say hypothetical and roughly as I fully appreciate that each street has a ceiling value, each house is different and each house is only worth what the market will pay for it. In June, I lost 6,877.43 alone, bringing the year to date loss to 23,482.84. Not at all surprised by this as we’re constantly being told that property prices are falling.

Going to leave it there. I’ll try and get another update in tomorrow…

FB.

financialbliss

Thought I’d combine some comments about the June 2008 inflation figures with what’s currently going on in local government, since as I’ve mentioned before, I work there.

The June inflation figures were released yesterday to headlines of inflation at 11 year high of 3.8%.

Well that was the consumer price index (CPI) that was 3.8%. This excludes housing costs. The retail price index (RPI) figure that includes mortgage costs was 4.6%.

I’m sorry, but as a mortgage owner, I’m more biased towards the RPI calculation of inflation, rather than the government’s preferred CPI index, as this reflects mortgage costs. I’m sure some would argue that inflation is much more than 4.6% anyway. I would love to ignore my mortgage costs, but if I want a roof over my head, I need to pay these month on month.

Ok, so where am I going with this? Central government have recommended that local government employee cost of living increase that was due in April 2008 be limited to a maximum of 2% and they want to do this for the next 3 years. They suggest that our wage bill is contributing to inflation!

A final offer of 2.45% was put on the table and rejected by the unions. You may have noticed that local government employees are taking industrial action today and tomorrow to attempt to make some progress on the matter.

I’ve estimated that my daily gross rate of pay is 142.27, thus I’d loose 284.54 during a 2 day strike. I’ve also calculated that in order to recoup a potential 284.54 lost over the two day strike, I’d need to receive a 3.20% pay increase. As we’ve been told the 2.45% increase is final and there is no more money available, I can’t see there being a resolution anywhere near 3.2%. The unions want 6% by the way, due to consistently low wage increases – which I can’t disagree with.

The April 2007 increase was 2.475%, so it’s even less than last year. However, I took the decision to work today, plus I’ll be going into work tomorrow.

Yes, I’m taking a short term view, but I’ve bills to pay now, not December – when the 2007 April increase materialised.

I’d be happy to sign a document limiting my personal increase to 2.45% - if further negotiations result in a better deal being put on the table for everyone else, then great but you just need to look around at the almost daily occurrence of redundancies and cut backs in the current economic climate / credit crunch.

Yes, 2.45% is a raw deal, but I’d rather have job security and a small wage increase than a big increase with the risk of service cut backs or redundancies.

I guess time will tell as to where this stand off leads…

For my own personal reasons and circumstances, I believe I’ve made the right decision for me!

FB.

notisis

Interesting thread FB. I've had 3% increase over the last 5 years or so until this year when we were given 2% (firm of lawyers). Most of my friends in same/similar industries (law, financial services etc) have not even had a pay increase this year and have been told there won't be any for the foreseeable future. Lots of people locally on south coast and in national law firms have also been made redundant; therefore no one is complaining as we need to pay the bills! By the way I'm not a lawyer - IT side.