Keep calm and carry on....

SuperSecretSquirrel

I called our lender, asked for an up to date balance and redemption cost (as I did quite regularly as they had no online balance checking facility), then said "ok that's great, thanks... I'd like to settle in full please". I don't think this happens all too often to them, the lady on the other end of the phone was genuinely surprised. I paid right there and then on the call (it must have been by card) and she confirmed that the funds had been received and congratulated us on becoming mortgage free. I genuinely felt that she was very happy for us, and I think she may have been slightly more excited than I was even It was a lovely interaction with what up until then had been a faceless institution

Then there's the official letter to look forward to a few days later. Of course I know we're mortgage free, it's not something I forget, but whenever I dig into our paperwork drawer and stumble across that letter, it never fails to bring a smile to my face

South_coast

Thanks both 😀 I definitely want to talk to someone and share the moment with another person, that way I'll know it's definitely happened! I'll check with them about the standard payment on the day as well - don't want to have to wait until 01/06 just because of pesky weekends and Bank Holidays!

Chiglepig

My lender honours the redemption figure for up to 5 days - if you pay by cheque they will accept it based on the date on the cheque (not sure how far you could push that  ) so interest isn't addedif they receive payment.

kaycastle

@South_coast
Omg I'm so excited for you...I keep refreshing for your mortgage free announcement. This is so exciting!
What are your plans after?

Staffordia

I rang for my redemption figure and used my debit card to pay it off there and then.  I actually had to do two transactions as the figure was high. The BS rep was really nice and congratulated me on being mortgage free.   

South_coast

Will definitely be doing it by debit card then, that will be its second airing this year 🤣 (not had a chequebook for about 8 years Chiglepig)!

kaycastle said:

I keep refreshing for your mortgage free announcement. This is so exciting!
What are your plans after?

Don't spend the next month refreshing kaycastle, there won't be any exciting movement until 28/05. It'll just be little nibbles from free money earnings until then 😀

What's next? Well....
1. New car deposit £3,800 - by 03/22
2. Car insurance £800 - by 03/22 (hopefully it won't be anything like this, but it'll be a different car so a complete unknown - and someone could always drive into me again in the meantime 🤦‍♀️)
3. LISA £4,000 - by 04/22
4. Holidays 2022 £1,000
5. Gifts 2022 £400
6. Flat refurb £20,000 😳 
(and that's a total finger-in-the-air estimate, as I have done no research and am happily continuing in my blissful ignorance!)

Then working towards FIRE....

I have a target date in mind for completing phase 6, but it's semi-ridiculous so can't bring myself to post it.

However, I've decided that from this payday I am going to swap round the way I budget to give myself the best chance of achieving it. Normally, I get my wage slip, deduct the amount for the direct debits, deduct the amounts for my three monthly pots (petrol/groceries/personal) and then OP (soon to be re-named "save" 😀) everything else. Instead, I've decided I'm going to deduct the direct debits, OP/save a fixed amount and then live off the rest. This is going to leave me a little short for groceries/personal every month, so my free money efforts each month will be directed towards topping these up - so good vibes needed please, or I might go hungry 🤣! Seriously though, it should be fine. I eat pretty cheaply anyway and if I can continue laying off the booze as much as possible I could end up with cash to spare at the end of the month. Will see how it goes anyway, if I don't give it a go I'll never know!

kaycastle

I shall patiently wait, I'm very excited. You'll be the first diarist I've actively followed and been around for their mortgage freedom. You need to describe in great detail what it feels like to feed my daydreams haha   

South_coast

In the meantime, Asda have started selling their frozen fruit salad again (they'd taken it off their website as well as off the shelves, so I thought it was gone forever), so I have been shopping for that like a woman possessed this week in case they stop again - 6kgs so far 🤣. Hopefully this will also demonstrate to them that there is lots of demand and keep them selling it 👍

I've also received a very pessimistic pension statement from the provider that old-old-job was with. It's grown £5.8k in the last 12 months, but they're only predicting £6k more of growth between now and 2048 🤷‍♀️? I know a good chunk of last year's growth is just it making back what it lost at the beginning of last year (although it's a good deal more now than it started 2020 on) so it won't do that every year, but to assume it'll take another 27 years to achieve the same amount seems a bit bonkers. Anyway, as long as I remain employed at the same wage I'll have the pensions where I want them by the time I'm 45 (I'm not including growth in my calcs, just going on contributions) so I'll give a big "whatever 🤷‍♀️" to that and focus on the FIRE side instead. 

Cheery_Daff

I don't know much about pensions but that does seem rather pessimistic!!

South_coast

kaycastle said:

You need to describe in great detail what it feels like to feed my daydreams haha   

I shall brush off my childhood love of creative writing 😀!