Thirty something dreaming of not paying mortgage

gallygirl

StrugglingYouth wrote: »

You also need to take into account inflation in your sums.

Looking that far ahead I don't think inflation is easy to factor in. I worked on the assumption that inflation would be equal to salary increases and growth, with another set of figures assuming growth at inflation plus 1%.



And yes, compounding is wonderful. Einstein who called it the 8th Wonder of the World He who understands it earns it, he who doesn't understand it pays it .

penners324

OP have you logged into your people's pension account? The standard fund is their mid range risk fund but they offer 3 funds I think. Easy to swap funds and transfer in any previous pensions (if it's the right thing to do).

I assume your company's payroll department sorted the increased contributions?

kaycastle

StrugglingYouth wrote: »

For FIRE blogs, I personally have listened to The Mad Fientist. Jacob interviews other people who are financially independent and retired early. So you get all that knowledge from the podcast. His own blog is very good as well.

If you are new to investing or there is stuff you dont yet understand about it I found Meaningful Money incredibly helpful as a resource.


Also, I added up your percentages of where your money goes. There is an unaccounted 1%. Your figures only add up to 99%.

You also need to take into account inflation in your sums.

You clearly understand the benefits of starting young with compound interest which is a giant bonus.

Hiya Thanks, I'll check those out.

I rounded the percentages on here so that will be why

I don't take into account inflation in my sums because its a bit hard to do so far ahead - so what I do is I massively overestimate what I need - I'm aiming for £16k per annum but taking away work related spending - I spend maybe £12k a year, if that. And I don't factor in interest or pay rises etc. so that it balances out with inflation/unexpected things like losing job at any point. Maybe seems silly but I thought it was easier than fretting over inflation/more granular change that I can't predict so well.

Once I get to about 35 I'm planning on relooking at what all the pots are/mortgage as I might shift to doing even more saving instead depending on what will get me the lowest financial freedom age.

@gallygirl - I can't wait for my pots to start getting big enough for interest to be exciting

@penners324 I have logged in frequently. Especially at the moment - waiting to check that payroll have definitely adjusted my contributions I haven't changed the fund though.

greent

theescapeartist is one which comes to mind. firegirl another (although she's in early/ planning stages with a small child (possibly 2)) - and then I look on who comments on their posts and look at those blogs - and find ones you like the style of writing of - some are not my 'thing' even if the content may be good - I struggle to follow those. There was a blog called Firestarter, but I think that one's sadly been taken down. x

kaycastle

Thanks greent. I think I would like firegirls blog for sure.

I found a list of best fire blogs and I could barely get into any of them. I prefer the ones full of guides and life experience articles but not ones full of endless maths as I do that enough at work and in own spreadsheet or those that are a bit unbelievable.

@strugglingyouth thank you for the suggestion but not quite what im after hehe I went to the home page for mad fientist and it just..ugh too much about money and finance for me. And feels so sterile.

I want to do FIRE but I don't want it to consume my life and thoughts.
It sounds typical but I like the ones I can most relate to now or see in my future. So although I would have time to travel more without work I'm not going to be one of those that goes off round the world endlessly in a converted ice cream van haha as that isn't my thing.

So I like family focused with a splash of travel and finance. And just reading about the journey there and what it's like.
Perhaps I should start my own blog

kaycastle

So the first 14% salary sacrifice has hit I'm eagerly waiting to see it in pension account...for some reason that doesn't seem to happen until a couple of weeks later usually.

I *think* I might have been slightly over taxed....!!!!!!. Feels like everything just produces more admin sometimes I can't be bothered with ringing HMRC at the moment - I'll deal with it at the end of the year I think.

I've worked out what my extra left over after fixed costs, savings and my £300 overpayment.

And I'm carefully tracking exactly how I spend the leftovers which will be a mixture of train to work, food and niceties - now I don't have gym payment its pretty much the same as it was with the tax savings.

We're going on a cheap holiday for a week in May but thats mostly already paid for and I do save on train cost that week as well yay.

Once back from holiday, and when we are free in June I'm going to do the 123 joint account.

Then once I've done that, I'm going to see whether we can set an ambitious goal of doing both kitchen and loft conversion within next 2 years so that we can make the most of LTV gains before the next remortgage, do all the big expensive work we will ever need to do. If we do that, I'll then have another extra £850 per month to put into savings for retirement and/or over payments

That would be so nice And will accelerate FIRE I think.

kaycastle

So I did recalculations today and did more updating of saving amounts and overpayments.

We can be mortgage free 2028 at the age of 36 And have done all the major building work on the house that we will ever need to do. It will be really nice as well the kids will still be quite young. But they'll be getting to the age where spending on travel is more worth it as they'll remember more.

I think the biggest unknown will be the cost of children. But I'm doing massively high salary sacrifice for pension now so that if I need to lower it for children years we will still achieve goal and be more than fine for retirement. I've also only factored in inflation related pay rises. And I also know we won't be the kind of parents that buy thousands of toys or spend a fortune on baby things so we will be okay I think.

Ebay has been a bit slower last couple of weeks as we've been quite busy and it is a little bit boring But after our holiday we will pick it back up again. Still made almost £1000 each for ourselves and parents in a few weeks so I'm really happy with that.

twinklie

The thing is with children you never know what you are going to get. I have two children with additional needs, which brings things I never factored into the equation. So I think you are very wise to assume you don’t know how much things will cost.

I’m so envious. I’d be mortgage free now by your figures if I was you! Alas, we only bought our house last year. So I will be in my 50s, however, I appreciate that’s still a much better position than some and for that I feel lucky.

kaycastle

Hello,

So first post in a while I had a lovely time away and did lots of walking and eating. It was so good. First proper break in a while. Work was quite crazy past couple weeks of being back but then I have another 2 week UK holiday in June.

Being out in nature so much did give me a bit of perspective. I think I try to take on too much sometimes and I don't do enough walking. Although I did injure myself while away so I have to wait to do more walking for a couple of more weeks :j

I was thinking of taking on freelance work in June and it would have been a nice bit of money but have completely changed my mind. My work is quite demanding so I need all the mind break I can get. And I can't buy back time...and half of it would be taxed anyway! And the more relaxed and high performing I am in my actual job the bigger my pay rise and bonus next year. I had only said I would think about it but when I gave my firm answer of "no" and explained it was because of minimising stress to my "friend" , she still hasn't replied after 2 weeks just to say no problem....and she is one of those people who bang on about "wellbeing" all the time. Some people just can't stand not getting their own way it seems.

So my new focuses are:

- Dealing with the cat who is pooping and digging up my vegetable patch. Its destroyed half of my plants and left it absolutely stinking. I want to call it many things but not sure whether this forum will block me saying them!!
- Selling the coin collection so my parents and I can have some more monies
- Looking after our lovely home together
- Eating healthily and drinking less alcohol
- Walking lots when I can actually do that again

hmm the list seems to be getting longer woops

Money things:

-Mortgage is almost under £210,000! :T :T And I'm saving lots for a lump sum payment at the remortgaging point. My current estimated mortgage free date is in 2028
-Also in my pension last month almost £700 went in from my upped contributions. Compared to less than £200 before.

amycool

Sounds good. There's far too much emphasis on earning money rather than enjoying your life in this country. A while back I mentioned borrowing a dog via a website that matches up owners and borrowers and so many people said "why don't you charge and then you'd make some money?" Because I wanted to do it for fun! I can understand when money is tight looking for any way to increase your incomings, but if you're fairly secure and comfortable, happiness beats money every time.

Certainly for when you have kids, often there's an inverse correlation between money spent on a day out and the amount of enjoyment!

Hope you're well enough to walk soon. X