My 5 year plan

onedaysomeday

I have been quietly following - great news, congratulations

Egon76

I was going to suggest to pay off the loan. In the meantime you already made your decision. Yes, the mortgage has higher interest. But the loan would always have been hanging over your head. Now you can concentrate on the mortgage.

Have you heared about Dave Ramsay and the snowball effect? Interesting read and I believe it does work for a lot of people.

I like reading about your ideas and changes you make in your life to get where you want to be. Makes all sense to me and gives me some extra ideas. Mr. Egon76 likes the idea but isn't all the way on board for the journey. He doesn't like to make concessions on some comforts.

I am debating to write a journal myself. Just to stop us from falling of the wagon (more often then not right now). Also, as we life in Germany, I have to research all the ideas I am getting from the Moneysavingexpert-Board to see if they can be transferred. Something to sleep over....

fatrab

Hi Egon76, yes I did read up on the snowball method. There are 2 ways to look at it though, either pay the smallest debt first or pay the debt with the highest interest first, I prefer the latter.


You should definitely start a diary, I found it the single best tool for advice and recognition of my bad choices! Keeping a spending diary was also a great help to me.


It's not easy when your partner isn't fully on board, I have the same problem. Mrs fatrab doesn't even like to talk about financial topics.


Best wishes!

jwil

Congratulations on clearing the loan :T :T

Egon76

fatrab wrote: »

Hi Egon76, yes I did read up on the snowball method. There are 2 ways to look at it though, either pay the smallest debt first or pay the debt with the highest interest first, I prefer the latter.

I do prefer the latter as well. It does come down to preference, does it not? :rotfl:

fatrab wrote: »

You should definitely start a diary, I found it the single best tool for advice and recognition of my bad choices! Keeping a spending diary was also a great help to me.

A spending diary we already have. Mr. Egon76 is also mostly behind it. DS1 and DS2 believe money just comes out the bank. *yikes*

fatrab wrote: »

It's not easy when your partner isn't fully on board, I have the same problem. Mrs fatrab doesn't even like to talk about financial topics.

Oh goodie, Mr. Egon76 will "discuss" it with me. It goes along the lines of me telling him what I think we should do and him saying: "Sure, do what is best." I think I can be glad he is sort of contributing... :beer:

fatrab

A pleasant surprise to end the week, the refund for the car tax came through. £170.

Have a great weekend

JoJoC

Hooray! I love surprise money!!

Egon76

:jGreat surprise:j

fatrab

A new waiting game begins today in the fatrab household.

Mrs fatrab's house goes on the market today. We were round there yesterday just making sure that the place is presentable and we're pleasantly surprised at how well the last lodger has looked after things in general. I had a few car-loads of things to take to the local recycling centre but all in all it's good to go. Fingers crossed yet again....

In other news, I had been putting the feelers out for a small, cheap to run, SUV/crossover type vehicle. We'd narrowed it down to a choice of 2 models. After looking at several of each model in local garages, none of which were of an acceptable standard, I learned of a potentially suitable vehicle in a small independent garage in Glasgow. We toddled along to see it and it turned out to be exactly what we're after so without too much haggling or hassle, no high pressure sales talk or gimmicks, Mrs fatrab has bought it.

Unfortunately the weekend did not pass without a little hiccup. I had a friend-of-a-friend out to look at some overgrowth in the back garden with the intention of killing it off; we've got an 8ft high boundary wall and there's Ivy and a few other things growing over it. But on closer inspection the plants have grown into the brickwork to such an extent that the wall isn't safe. It has large coping stones on the top and if one of them was to fall god only knows what damage it could do. So we're going to clear away as much of the overgrowth as possible this weekend, kill off the Ivy etc as best possible then look at having the wall repaired/rebuilt. It's a shared wall between 3 properties but the damaged area seems to be localised to my garden only, even though the overgrowth originates from the property on the other side :mad:


I think this is going to cost a few quid to put right.

JoJoC

Pain about the costly wall issues, but you're in a good position to put it right now that you've got your finances by the reins. It's a good time of year to get it sorted too - means you can do some of the work when it's nice over the summer perhaps?

There's always something crops up, and I suppose it's what you do with it that's important. I have a funny feeling that my husband's car is going to go on the blink (a £500 runaround that's likely on its last legs) so that's our next focus - to make sure we have enough cash saved up to potentially replace that this year.