Babystep 6

ruby_eskimo

Welcome to the MFW world and well done on paying so much debt off so quickly. I also have followed Dave Ramsey from time to time and occassionally listen to his podcast until I get too fed up with some of the ridiculous questions and his brusque manner!

I would also agree that probably saving more towards the emergency fund / any type of savings is more of a priority at the moment in the uncertain times.  Looking forward to seeing how your MF journey goes.

savingholmes

Good to see you posting again. If you are good at not touching the money I would build your EF given that you think both your jobs are insecure. Well done for getting it up to the level you have. 

BabyStepper

ruby_eskimo said:

I also have followed Dave Ramsey from time to time and occassionally listen to his podcast until I get too fed up with some of the ridiculous questions and his brusque manner!

This gave me a laugh! You're so right, he can really be quite rude, shouting at how stupid we all are! For some reason I can't explain, I really responded to that approach and his plan was a significant help in getting me out of debt and gaining a handle on personal finance. I don't listen to him much any more though, just duck in now and then. 

Anyway, a few things to report. The EF is now £2,900. I'm aiming for £3,600 by the end of August but we'll see how things go. I'm planning to open an NS&I account this week and move my EF into there. It has a much better interest rate than the account it's sat in now. I can only contribute in £500 chunks so I'll keep my current EF savings account open, keep saving into it and transfer over when I can.  Wierdly, interest is not paid into the NS&I account but will go to our current account. As far as I'm aware it can be recycled back in as part of the £500 deposits so I'll do that. That's the plan and now I've said it here I have to do it! 

I still have £500 in the car fund and will likely book my MOT for August. The car is quite old and I'm still responsible for making sure it's road worthy, even with the MOT extension. 

Just realising as I write that I've been pretty much frozen with worry about the virus situation and what's going to happen. I am prone to anxiety around money, but the emergency fund is helping a lot. Beginning to realise that things need to keep moving forward, with or without a second wave, mass unemployment, whatever. Just need to keep going. 

I've been putting off the mortgage overpayments but it's time to get cracking with that too. I have a small invoice due at the end of this week and am going to use £50 of it to overpay. I'll be phoning them tomorrow to get my questions answered about how it all works. If I'm not back here next weekend telling you I've done it can someone please come along and give me a kick? (Or tell me I'm stupid, that seems to work!)

I've also been paying 15% of my wage into my pension. This has been happening for a few months and I don't really miss the cash. Running baby steps 3,4 and 6 together is possibly ambitious but the mortgage will be token payments until the EF is filled up. I'm really just trying to establish new routines. 

As always, thank you all for the support and encouragement. Much appreciated.   

DancingInTheRain

Good to see you back, sounds like everything is going well.
Look forward to seeing the update on the mortgage overpayment 🙂

BabyStepper

Thank you, DancingInTheRain. I'm looking forward to coming back and telling you all I've done it! I'm also trying to decide how to keep track of my mortgage progress. I don't really want to keep tally of the total amount, it really is too huge to get my head round. I was thinking about maybe tracking the daily interest rate going down, or something. Not sure.    

BabyStepper

DancingInTheRain...I just noticed your signature, did your debt free date really happen yesterday?? CONGRATULATIONS!!

DancingInTheRain

Yes it did, all feels slightly surreal at the moment though 🙂 x

ruby_eskimo

I won't tell you you're stupid but I will be cheering you on if you've made an overpayment

Well done @DancingInTheRain that was a lot to pay off in a year, congratulations!

enthusiasticsaver

Well done on the savings in the EF and starting up your pension again.  Things are uncertain for a lot of people at the moment so totally agree that token overpayments are probably the way to go now until your big EF is sorted.
Dave Ramseys' you tube podcast comes  up on my feed now so I occasionally watch them.  He does talk lots of sense but  still annoys me sometime.  
Our EF is still in Marcus but I need to check out N,S and I rates as a lot of people are saying that is the best place for now. 

BabyStepper

Hi enthusiasticsaver, thanks for dropping by.  I also have DR popping up on my youtube feed and I've gone right off him. No-one's aspiring to be a millionarie any more, we're just trying to get by without losing our income or going bust. Wish I could change my username and diary title, I'll maybe look into it. I set up my NS&I account yesterday. There was a 4 minute wait to get onto the site but other than that, it was straightforward. Apparently the cash I put in will show as 'pending' until the 5th of August but will start earning interest from yesterday. And they'll likely send me a form asking for ID. All easy enough, I thought.

And I still haven't phoned TSB yet. Must do it today, must do it today...