40 and free

KeepingOnTrack

Right, here we go!

I’ve been lurking for a fair few weeks reading through some of the fantastic diaries of fellow MFW’s; it’s inspired me to start a diary of my own in the hope that it will motivate me enough to actually stick with it and be mortgage free before I’m 40 (8+1/2yrs away yet!) It’s fairly ambitious but now that I’ve crunched the numbers I’ve discovered it is faintly achievable, although I do need to become much more MSE when popping out for lunch/dinner :rotfl:

So, talking of numbers, this is where things currently stand:

33 Years + 5 months left
Balance: £221,578
MFW date: April 2028

My goal for this mortgage year-end in April is to have it down to sub-£210,000. My maths skills are nowhere near good enough in comparison to some of you forumites so I will need to keep an eye on how much this is reducing on a monthly basis, but I’ve currently set up to OP by 1500 per month. We will see how this goes as I’m not sure how sustainable this is long-term...

I’m 6 months into a 5yr fix of 2.14% and my OP allowance is 10% every year of the original loan amount, which is handy as over the years I will be paying more off the capital as opposed to interest.

I’m lucky in that although the amount outstanding is fairly significant I have a job of above average wage with overtime available at the moment and no (expensive) hobbies...or children for that matter! Unless you count my 2 cats

So thanks for popping by and if it looks like I’m slacking then please give me a kick. After all, I’m here to try to keep myself accountable. Looking forward to following all of your MFW journeys!

J

CosmoCat

Hello and welcome! I'm sure you can do it! I'll be watching with interest.

BVic28

Looking forward to following your MFW journey!

KeepingOnTrack

Thanks CosmoCat and BVic28. I will be following your journeys too. We can do this!

cat04

Good luck with your journey towards mortgage freedom! I too had an original MF date as my 40th birthday, but due to additional borrowing for an extension and now doing this on my own I don't stand much chance of paying off £46,600 by February :rotfl:
Am now aiming for a challenging target of my 45th birthday, not sure it's achievable but going to give it my best shot!
Looking forward to your updates on how you're doing...and that regular OP amount :eek: I can but dream...:D

KeepingOnTrack

Thank you cat04. It’s great to have a target to aim for - same as you, I’m not sure how achievable it will turn out to be for me either, but if we don’t try then we certainly won’t get there!

I had read someone’s MFW diary (I forget whose, sorry::o) and they divided their mortgage up into 1% chunks and built a house out of blocks. They would then paint the blocks as they paid off each % of their mortgage. I absolutely loved the idea but I’m far from artistic, so I’ve spent a bit of time calculating and drawing this up onto a piece of a4. A bit shoddy at the moment but it will do for now just to give me a visual of how far I’m getting along :rotfl:

The remaining amount after my last payment+OP was £221,578 and the 2nd ‘brick’ on my house was £221,480. I had a little spare from my car budget from last month so decided to use some of this to bring it down to this amount.

Checked with my bank as to how to do this and it turns out I can just OP any small amount via online banking. Perfect, I love how easy they’ve made it to just chip away, especially as I don’t think my regular OP will be sustainable...

Anyway. Doing the mental maths last night I calculated it was £98 to get me there, so I sent a payment. Checked this morning and it’s only bought it down to £221,493. I assume I’ve not factored in the interest? Looks like it may be a lot more complex than I hoped! I’ll dig the calculator out for next time. A bit frustrating as I really want to colour in another ‘brick’ on the countdown house but it will keep until next month won’t it?

J

LeighofMar

Congrats on setting a target and starting your own MF diary. I love the idea of the blocks. I read somewhere that someone had a jar full of marbles that, one marble for every $1000.00 that was the mortgage, and whenever they paid off $1000.00, they took a marble out of the jar. I thought that was interesting for us visual people. My visual aid is boring. I just break out the amortization schedule that I got at closing and highlight it with a yellow marker whenever I make another payment. But what a thrill it gives me anyway

Cornish_mum

Welcome and good luck. We have a similar mortgage and time scale but are a decade older! I sure some one else will be along later to mention pensions but do make sure you think about that too. Best of luck CM

KeepingOnTrack

Leigh - my blocks are currently on paper, so I am currently also highlighting as I go! It gives me a little thrill too

Cornish Mum - thank you, I will be following your diary with interest then as we have very similar paths. With regards to pensions, I’m lucky enough to be in a DB scheme so I’m pretty much set on that front. It was a toss up originally between paying more into the pension or overpaying on the mortgage, but as the potential mortgage interest saved would be around 70k over the course of a decade I have decided to focus my efforts on these OPs rather than putting more away into the pension. Not 100% sure if that’s the correct move but it makes sense to me at the moment. Pensions aren’t my strongest point, but looking at my ‘estimated benefits’ at retirement age I am on track for what I want to achieve at the moment.

Just a quick check in to say that its been a pretty thrifty week, with the only spends being:

The weekly food shop (in a new supermarket as I picked up a £10 off voucher in a newspaper)
£2 on some chips yesterday as I hadn’t quite bought enough food in to keep me warm during the evening.

Also, having just popped on to double check my remaining balance I discovered...its gone UP by £25!!:eek:

Now, having just calculated the daily interest At around £12 I am assuming this is why it is increasing. But usually the interest is calculated at the time I make my monthly payment and then deducted from this amount. I’m not used to seeing my ‘amount owed’ increasing. Is this normal? Have sent a message to the bank to see if they can explain. I know I would be paying the daily interest anyway, but I don’t like seeing the amount increasing daily before my very eyes. Oh the psychology of debt, hey?

J