My Lightbulb Moment

Trixysticks

Secret_Saving_Squirrel wrote: »

Good luck with your plans. I wish I had had my LBM much earlier too, but no matter when you start, it is always worth it.

I love your username secret squirrel!

Congratulations on being MF- what are your top tips?

Trixysticks

So it's been a year since my last post :rotfl:

But what a year... I've been learning, researching and completely throwing myself into the mortgage free journey. I had a big set back with the sudden loss of a parent (goodbye emergency fund, hello grief shopping) but I'm happy to say I'm coming out the other side.

I'm returning to my diary to update, reflect and plan ahead (apparently October is my year to do that!)

My plans last year were:

1. Save an emergency fund. £6000 is the first target (3 months pay)

I've done it! In fact I've got £7000 and growing. So pleased.

2. Overpay on the mortgage

As you can see my mortgage has come down but nowhere near what I wanted. I've got some big OPs planned for the next few months so should see some big changes soon.

3. Contribute to my pension pot

I did. A bit. Not gonna lie, I HATE doing this! It's so, so, so, dull. But I get it, so I'll just try harder.

4. Log every penny I spend and BUDGET

I am the queen of budgetting now. I use everydollar.com religiously and make a plan for every penny. What a difference a year makes..

5. Focus on me and my family and don't worry about what others are thinking

Oh lord yes, I'm over it guys. I'm over the flash clothes and fancy trips. I deleted facebook and I only see people I genuinely love and care about. I listen to uplifting audio books and plan fun things to do with my family. Life is good.


If you read to the end- well done! :rotfl: I'll try and pop back to record my new goals before October 2019 :j:rotfl:

Hazelnutty

Hi Trixysticks - so sorry to hear about your loss. It sounds as if you've come through it strong though and made some important life decisions. Huge congratulations. No 5 is something I'm working on too. How did you get yourself to that position? It's one thing to know but another to really absorb it and live it.

Trixysticks

Yes, it's very hard! A big 'jealousy trigger' for me is social media so I've just had to cut facebook out of my life! Instagram is different, I really like the positivity on there.

I also started a gratitude journal; I don't always have time to write them down, but I make myself say aloud 10 things I'm grateful for every day. I do it when I drive to work and it seems to help me feel a bit more positive about my day!

The third big thing that's helped me is seeking out good role models that talk about these topics; I follow people like Jordan Page (funcheaporfree.com) and Rachel Cruze- she wrote a good book about loving your life, not theirs.

So much of my year has been about self improvement that I've just not had time to think about what anyone else is doing around me. It's a strange shift but I am honestly feeling so much happier for it. I think you just have to catch yourself when you are admiring another person's bathroom/haircut/car and think of the great stuff you have!

Anyway, always learning, so let me know if you have any tips! :beer:

Primrose

I don't do social media. I've decided there just isn't time in my life for getting involved in the minutiae of other peoples' lives and I'm perfectly capable of keeping in touch with "real" friends by phone or email.


Reviewing the things for which we can be grateful is a very useful way of keeping ourselves balanced and grounded in what has become an increasingly commercialised and materialistic world.


Every evening a friend and I exchange brief emails on the positive things in our day so we go to bed in a grateful state of mind. It's interesting the varied things we come up but it's a good exercise in mindfulness. . As we go through even a grumpy day we know we have to come up with something so it forces us to look at our daily interactions and activities in a more positive way. The flowering shrub , interesting bird, the friendly "hello" in the street which one might normally take for granted suddenly becomes a brief moment of pleasure to remember.

Crumpets

Hi trixysticks,

Great diary, I didn't notice it was started a year ago until I read the end! I'm sorry to read about your loss, but glad you have returned to your diary.

I have also learnt not give two hoots about how others live their lives, I used to be terrible at trying to keep up with the Joneses. Now I'm in my late 30s, I really don't care and it's really liberating! My friends still seem to like me and I'm much happier living a simpler life.

Best of luck with your journey, I look forward to keeping up with your diary

gallygirl

So sorry for your loss. Good to see you back (though like Crumpets I didn't notice the first entry was a year ago :rotfl:).

1. Save an emergency fund. £6000 is the first target (3 months pay)

I've done it! In fact I've got £7000 and growing. So pleased.

Well done, that is so important :T.

2. Overpay on the mortgage

As you can see my mortgage has come down but nowhere near what I wanted. I've got some big OPs planned for the next few months so should see some big changes soon.

Well done on that as well :T.

3. Contribute to my pension pot

I did. A bit. Not gonna lie, I HATE doing this! It's so, so, so, dull. But I get it, so I'll just try harder.

Your future self doesn't think it's dull. Your future self is very, very grateful to you .

4. Log every penny I spend and BUDGET

I am the queen of budgetting now. I use everydollar.com religiously and make a plan for every penny. What a difference a year makes..

:T:T:T

5. Focus on me and my family and don't worry about what others are thinking

Oh lord yes, I'm over it guys. I'm over the flash clothes and fancy trips. I deleted facebook and I only see people I genuinely love and care about. I listen to uplifting audio books and plan fun things to do with my family. Life is good.

Again, :T:T:T.

Re the mortgage I've found knowledge is key to everything. Knowing how much your mortgage is costing you. Not just how much your monthly payment is but using a groovy spreadsheet to show much you're going to be paying over the whole term. Then how much interest you are paying - daily, weekly, monthly. (Or even hourly if you particularly sad, which I may have been :whistle:) Armed with that knowledge you can play the 'how much' game. How much do I need to pay to bring the final date forward a year/monthly/day. How much do I need to pay to get the daily rate into the next £ bracket. How much is that piece of cake? B*gger that, I'd sooner knock a day off my mortgage (then actually go on line and pay it).

Knowing yourself is so important as well and you've nailed that :T.

But - will you answer a question for me? Why do you want to overpay your mortgage? What exactly are you trying to achieve? I think the answer to that question is very revealing.

Primrose

But - will you answer a question for me? Why do you want to overpay your mortgage? What exactly are you trying to achieve? I think the answer to that question is very revealing.[/QUOTE]


Everybody will have their own motive for this but having lived through various recessions and redundancies and felt the fear of possibly having your home repossessed, our motive was that no Institution would ever have the power to take away the roof over our head. Having the certainty that you will never lose your home, even in difficult times, was a major incentive. In our case, another redundancy DID come unexpectedly quite late in life. By then the mortgage had been paid off and it made coping with a stressful situation so much easier.

Good luck with achieving your target. I'm sure achieving your goal will give you great peace of mind.

Trixysticks

So it seems I did my usual and went MIA for a few months! Although it’s not quite October so that’s something right?! Perfection not progress...

The question about why I want to be mortgage free is a good one and I’ve definitely got to reevaluate this now that I’ve been focusing on it for a few years. Will update tomorrow!

Will also update tomorrow how the past few months have gone, financial and otherwise!

Trixysticks

Ok so here we go!

Since last posting life has been great! I feel incredibly blessed to be able to say that, I know I’m pretty privileged compared to so many others. This is the first year I feel like an adult! Probably because losing dad forced me to grow up in a lot of ways- I took over his business and have had to learn a lot in a short space of time! I’m very lucky that with a mixture of incomes we’ve been able to throw more at the mortgage.

I’ve been enjoying the simple things in life: looking after my home, cooking, books from the library, running, walking the dog. This year I’ve given up smoking and adopted a much healthier lifestyle. My gratitude practice still continues but I now write them down...5 things every morning whilst drinking my coffee. I urge everyone to try it! My whole mindset is more positive and relaxed.

Goals I set in January were:

1. Overpay mortgage by £18000
2. Boost EF to £10000
3. Pay off car (ridiculously I never even thought about this! It really is the hidden debt and I’ll never finance a car again. Lesson learnt.)
4. Have a holiday. (Hubby and I hadn’t taken a holiday since 2015 so this was a must!)
5. Run 240km.
6. Read 12 books and listen to 12 books (using my audible subscription.)

So as of today in August:

1. Overpay mortgage by £18000 not sure where I got this number from! I reduced to £12000 but I’ll be happy with £10000. Current £5600.
2. Boost EF to £10000 EF took a hit this year because of number 3! Current £5000 aiming for a modest £6000 which reflects 3 months expenses. Hubby has savings too so I’m happy that 3 months is safe for us. Want to work on it next year though.
3. Pay off car (ridiculously I never even thought about this! It really is the hidden debt and I’ll never finance a car again. Lesson learnt.) £4000 later and it’s done! Driving it until the doors fall off then buying second hand.
4. Have a holiday. (Hubby and I hadn’t taken a holiday since 2015 so this was a must!) We totally splashed out and it’s why some of my goals didn’t go to plan. But I actually don’t care at all! We don’t get much time together so a really relaxing week of good food and drink was worth every penny. And we paid cash so no guilt there.
5. Run 240km. At 140km and going strong!
6. Read 12 books and listen to 12 books (using my audible subscription.) Already read 12 and listened to 7! Loved this goal.

Thanks for hanging in for that long post! Will hopefully be sticking around much more to try and achieve these goals by December.