The Crossover Point

Zola.

Cheers, they all came from inside good personal finance books, mostly!

Zola.

Happy 2021 everyone...here we go again! I hope everyone had a great break. 2020 was a challenging and difficult year for everybody, but brighter days are coming!

This time last year I started the year with a mortgage balance of £107,200. Back then I was coming towards the end of a pretty high 3.09% fixed rate. In May last year, I went on to a 1.99% rate, fixed again for 5 years. The balance today is now £100,397, next month it will be into the five figures, which will be an encouraging moment. 

I plan to keep the monthly mortgage overpayments of £270 steady all this year (£800 all-in). This will chop the debt number down quite well over the next few years. 

I have upped the S&S ISA amount each month by another £50. This means £650 is going into ISA investments each month, to continue building that. Any side income I earn I plan to invest... if I can resist the temptation to buy power tools!!

I don't think we will be on an international holiday this year until all the vaccinations are done, so I plan to do some home improvement jobs around the house, like building a nice bbq patio area, etc. 

Grogged

Happy New Year.
Great to see the mortgage progress and in being so, so close to 5 figures!
Looks like you'll make some great progress this year on OP and ISA.
Any reason your not using/topping up a SIPP for the extra £50 to also get the tax advantages?
ATB, G.

Zola.

Thanks, @Grogged - Happy new year to you and yours!
I currently have 18% going into my work pension, 12% from me, 6% from work.. I am hopeful for some sort of pay rise this year which should increase that amount a little bit more... my wife puts in 14% but she may up hers soon also. 
I am focusing quite a bit on ISA investments with my wife, as that money would be available to draw on if we really needed it, or if we built up enough to get the mortgage out of our life... it helps me sleep at night knowing its available within a few days, even if I really want to let it grow for decades.

savingholmes

Sounds like you are doing really well. 

Zola.

I made a Sankey graphic for 2020, this shows more or less where all our money went for the year, according to my google sheet categories and figures. I love graphs like this, powerful visually. 

It is quite shocking to see how much goes on groceries and random things that I can't even account for..  I will seek to improve that this year. 

I bought a small whiteboard and fixed it to the wall in the kitchen, this will help to plan our shopping list and meal plans. We got into a bit of an oven rut this year for months there.. it can be hard to keep a 2 year old happy with meals!

The nursery figure I am only showing the net cost that comes out of our current account (ignoring the 243 tax-free bit taken out from our pay). With the nursery closed for months (and building up the tax-free savings in the account, that number is unusually low). 

Grogged

That's a pretty cool way to show your spending!

savingholmes

Great graphic

Zola.

The news has been fairly depressing as of late, I am trying to avoid it. It has quite the magnetic force pulling me back though, more regularly than I would like.

Recent stock market winds have pushed our ISAs up more this month, which is nice to see, for however long that will last   

S&S ISAs vs Mortgage Debt: 38.53% (+1.96%)
S&S ISAs & Cash Vs Mortgage Debt: 49.68% (+2.72%)
Combined Gap to Mortgage Balance: £50,515 (-£3066)

I am very happy to be (sort of) at the "halfway point" to being mortgage neutral. When I started tracking these three metrics back in September, our Assets vs Mortgage Debt was 40%. To go to almost 50% in five months feels good and I feel rather fortunate.

To be mortgage neutral, my original goal was for this to happen by 2025, I really have no idea if it could happen much sooner, or if the stock market is ready to fall apart again, all part of the rollercoaster I guess!!

debtfreeoneday

Just popping in here to say hi!  Will subscribe to follow. I remember hitting 5 figures of the mortgage. SO satisfying.