1 brick at a time

MovingForwards

Life has a way of making sure we're kept on our toes. Get through those, it's another achievement and more learned from it.

longway2go

Thank you.

Hi Grogged, yeap he focus is on the BTL once we are back on 2 wages. It's just taking a bit of time to get all the relevant parties lined up.  . Be nice to get it ticked off tbh. 

longway2go

An update on this neglected diary.

We are thankfully back on 2 incomes and have done lots of work on the BTL but still gave some more to do.  My pension contributions have been increased massively to 10% but need to do the same for OH. (My fund hit my 100k target recently and I reduced the management costs). 

We did have a strong EF but this was recently obliterated by deciding to remortgage and pay fees to fix a rate of 0.89%. I do feel exposed atm so need to build it up but very glad we fixed when we did as I know it will save us lots in the long term and has lowered our monthly commitment. Fees were 5062.

My aim for the 3 year mortgage challenge was to get the mortgage to 130k which seemed like a pipe dream when I set it. It's 135, 818 and if I get it to 135,000 which I will do with planned payments I will be happy given the circumstances we gave all been through.

My aims, 
Build EF
Further work on BTL and increase rental income as this has been 2 low for a considerable time
Up OH pension
Think about the right investment /mortgage OP strategy and find the sweet spot for us
Think about work on our house and start to plan 

longway2go

Also just a reminder that I have split my house into  rooms and will 'own' each when we have paid of 16k of mortgage.  The following rooms and balance targets are:
Living room at 144k - ours 🙂
Kitchen at 128k 
Conservatory at 112k
Bathroom at 96k
Bedroom 1 at 80k
Bedroom 2 at 64k
Bedroom 3 at 46k
Porch and landing at 32k
Drive and garage at 16k
Back garden 0!!!

About 7k away from owning our second room :-) 

savingholmes

Ouch to the ERC. How long have you fixed for?

Nice to see you back posting - wondered what had happened to you. Have a fab Xmas and New Year

longway2go

We have fixed for 5 years and did the calcs. It was a big fee but when I worked it out it was saving around 18k ish so even though its been hard to pay the fee I know overall its best.

Ahhh thank you, I had been focusing on building an EF, pension contributions and doing work on our BTL (we still need to more on this) but must admit always get drawn back to mtg OPs as its just the long term security and feeling it will give to my family.

Today I have made an OP of 469.50, which is above the committed amount. Tbh though I need to have a think about what I see as an OP as I restructured the loan over a longer period to reduce my commited payment. I did originally plan to pay the same amount each month regardless but that hasn't happened every month. So I need to relook at figures and decide what I am going to commit every month and then what I percieve as an OP. Hope that makes sense, it's a bit of a ramble, but will have a think and confirm back.

My next big target is under 130k, in my mind this feels like a massive achievement and not long after that 128k will see me owning my kitchen. I must admit I have seen some very nice kitchen refits and do crave similar to that and making it into a better family space so we will see, it's all about getting the right balance isn't it. 

Merry Christmas SH and anyone else reading my rambles. 

savingholmes

Spending £5K to save £18K sounds like a great investment. I think automatic OPs are likely to work best for me. I keep playing with calculator to see how much I'd need to pay to knock another 6 months or a few years off the mortgage. The answer is - a lot!! Hopefully over time we will both get there. Need to balance that with some fun £ too.

longway2go

Hope everyone had a good Christmas.

We have had a whirlwind of a few days but it has been lovely.

I have been having a think and the current plan for each month is:
Std mtg payment £452
Mtg OP to keep to 15 yrs £350
Other ie EF/BTL/Invest/House  £400
(this is the amount that would reduce the term to 10 years but as interest is so low and my EF is so lacking I thought this would give a good balance.) 

I am hoping that's the right balance but what I have learnt is doing something is better than not doing anything as I don't know which is the best route. No matter what progress is progress. 
 

savingholmes

Progress not perfection - definitely the right approach. Good luck with it all