Improving all the time

mark55man

good luck on your plans. I intend to pay off by 60 but I have very many fewer years to go, whilst only being marginally lower in my outstanding balance. therefore my journey will be a 5km blast rather than a marathon but with added complication of some CC debt that has been bundling along at 0% for a while.

will come along for the ride if that's OK. My challenge will probably be framed in coming mortgage neutral (ie having dedicated savings/investments equivalent to outstanding debt). I need to do this as at a fixed interest rate of 2% for 7 years its not costing me anything as I would expect to equal / gain more than that even with super conservative investments. But also I have a 10% OP limit which I can't exceed - so have to wait until fix is over in 2026 to finish the job off.

Enough about me, this is your thread, which I'm looking forward to, as your daily challenges are very inspiring

FloraandFauna

Thanks, Mark88! Good to have company. I really like your approach of balancing the savings, but at higher interest - if all went terribly wrong you could at least access the money rather than it being tied up in the house.

I'd like to try that, but buying this house last year wiped out all but £500 of my savings (that's including having to buy necessary things like curtains - single glazing in winter in a stone-built house isn't funny). I've been trying to build up since - at the same time as overpaying - and am now up to £1,600, but will not feel remotely comfortable until I have enough to cover boiler blowing up/roof blowing off, and an emergency jobless fund - so about £10 or £12k. Predictions are I should reach that in about 10 years at current rate... so some work to be done there! It would have built up quicker had my car not died earlier this year. I'm reliant on it to get to work, so with no savings left had to resort to a car loan. It's under £6k for 3 years, and total interest is only about £300 over that period, so is not bothering me as a bad decision, other than that's a monthly payment that could have been split between savings and OPs.

Just returned from big shop - for the first time at Alda, with a list that covers meals for the week. £25! That's a THIRD of what I would spend in Tosco for roughly the same stuff. Did also go into Tosco to see if any YS stuff about - spent another £24 on very discounted loo roll, and a lot of discounted meat. So overall, squeaked within budget for the week by about 30p, but ingredients for another 10 or so meals next week onwards. Lots of batch cooking in my immediate future.

Have also spaffed £140 on logs for the winter from our local butcher (we're proper rural here - people double up on roles). Wasn't intending to do it this early, so only £100 of that was already set aside, but this diary is really making me examine my put-it-off-until-the-last-moment approach to household planning. Having a shed full of logs now will hugely reduce my budget/comfort anxiety for the winter, and the bank a/c switch I did yesterday - combined with some TCB due - will hopefully cover the cost anyway.

mark55man

hardcore anti-MFW would go so far (in the current low interest climate) that each £ spent overpaying is a £ in the wrong direction (well the right sort of direction - better than spending it on rubbish), but very much a slower road. however, most of us - myself included - don't quite have that level of dispassion, or (reading between the lines) that scale of mortgage.

so for me its more about sticking within the mortgage rules, but also keeping the money allocated to something useful and not being tempted into spendthriftery :-). The fact it might do a bit better is a bonus but will need work

FloraandFauna

That's very thought-provoking, MrM.

I have seen some of the 'invest don't pay' posts and they do sound really passionate about it. A bit like leading all us poor horses to water and agonising when we don't drink.

I can see that it's logical - if your investments are going to bring in more than paying off your debt, it seems like a no-brainer over the long-term. But as a slow learner, I'm not in the right place to really take that in at present, plus I'm very risk averse. Maybe a few years down the line when I've cracked this first step - i.e. pay attention to finances, make your money work a bit harder etc. Lacking the amount of commonsense other people seem to possess, I am very doubtful about my own decisions and so tend to be really cautious before changing habits/approaches.

I need to understand the maths properly, which I don't at present. I can see what paying £100 does to my debt - £100 off and another £50-odd in avoided interest. I can't see how to invest that £100 to get the £50, and in the meantime the interest on the mortgage racks up... Maybe I need to see the equivalent to a mortgage calculator, only for savings.

It all feels a bit academic at present anyway - I'm not going to lock away any savings for longer than a year until I've filled my emergency pots, as chances are I will be needing them! Having said that, perhaps I should be dipping a cautious toe in - will think about diverting £25 a month or so into something long term. Small enough so that I won't miss the hoped for growth if something dismal happens to the investment vehicle.

mumof3.12kindebt

Welcome !

Sending lots of positivity and luck for your journey ahead

FloraandFauna

Thanks, mumof! That's an impressive signature you have - bet it took some determination, will go and see if you have a thread.

Today's results:

- clean/fix something every day - yes, all washing done, line-dried, back in and packed away; 1/2 batch cooking for next week done; weeding in the garden; picture hung; some random stuff tidied away/out of the spare room (still a box room since I moved in, which is shameful - must focus on this)
- throw something out every day - yes, some recycling ready to go with the rest, and some socks that were down to their last few threads holding the holes together, but have unaccountably failed to be thrown out despite being like that for a few years
- Tilly tidy every day - no, no activity in account (I spend on the CC to keep the cash in the current a/c earning interest, and then pay off in full after payday)
- check an existing, or investigate a new, freebie - yes, prolific and signed up for some freebie sites which may or may not be posting me anything. After the post above also checked out a few investment guides, but there doesn't seem to be anything that will guarantee more than the 5% offered by bank regular savers, so until I've maxed those out with savings I'll leave the longer term stuff alone.
- tick off one of those tasks at work - n/a
- tell the cats I love them - yes!

Bonus points: for not buying anything other than food/loo roll when out, despite being tempted by the colourful things in Aldo...

savingholmes

I sympathise about concern about those people who say invest rather than pay off the mortgage however there is a lot of peace of mind that can be gained by being mortgage free. I've got to get through a chunk of CC debt before I can seriously overpay mortgage but find the MFW board really uplifting.

FloraandFauna

Hi, SavingHolmes - you've articulated where I am at present. This mortgage debt is a psychological weight in the background. If I also had investments trying to get to a similar scale, I would simply have two psychological weights looming at me, plus a third layer of anxiety that they weren't matching each other.

It might not be the savviest economic choice to pay off this debt first, but it brings me satisfaction, contentment, ambition, goals, a feeling of achievement, a feeling of purpose... yes, I could make/save more money doing it differently. I could also make/save more money getting a weekend job, changing careers, selling up and living in a caravan, eating beans on toast - but it's not my life goal to make as much money as possible in the shortest possible time.

I wish you all the very best wishes in the world getting rid of your CC debt - it will feel amazing! Then you'll be on this board!

newgirly

Hi flora and fauna, I just wanted to pop in and say welcome and best of luck with your new diary

FloraandFauna

Today's results:

- clean/fix something every day - yes, bath done, drawer unstuck, clematis fished out of the hedge and tied up, sweet peas picked and smelling wonderful in a couple of rooms, utility and kitchen floors swept, and finished the batch-cooking for the next week or so
- throw something out every day - no, no item identified as being at the end of it's life
- Tilly tidy every day - no, no activity in account
- check an existing, or investigate a new, freebie - yes, prolific
- tick off one of those tasks at work - n/a
- tell the cats I love them - yes!

Bonus points: NSD today. Also - proud of myself for actually doing all the batch cooking and not just giving in and chucking the ingredients in the freezer instead.