SLLM (Single Lady Large Mortgage)

LadyWithAPlan

Sistergold said:

Well done @LadyWithAPlan for committing and going through with dry January. Oh the feral diy course is done and wow you are starting the plumbing and carpentry courses? By the end of this you will be an all rounder! Once you get into diy you wonder why you never did it hey? Learning all this makes life much easier! The beauty of it is that you can make the place exactly the way you want rather than trying to explain and hope someone will be able to catch onto your vision of things! Well done! 

It  is all your fault if I end up in an 'escape to a chateau' type diy adventure.
Yes they are level 1 - so 10 weeks each but thought better to do  2 evenings as gets me moving - carpentry is useful - shelves, skirting boards  and I want to build a shelf in the kitchen for more workshop space. I have a new workstation arriving  2mrw so a desk with shelves and doors but felt confident enough to try to figure out why my filing cabinet got stuck this eve - and I fixed it!

I quite enjoy dry January actually - I have often done 6 weeks as well heading up to easter - but I have to watch the sugar as the more I don't drink alcohol the more I crave sweets etc and vica versa. Eating a lot of apples and oranges right now.

Have you joined me yet on your fitness regime? It is hard fitting it around your day - at least I am finding it hard.

Sistergold

@LadyWithAPlan, I have been postponing joining you on the fitness regime but I am psyching myself up so I can start this coming Monday. I have been rebooting my body metabolism though by fasting during the day which I try to do first half of each January. It just helps me break any unhealthy food ‘addictions’ picked up during the year but I find it difficult to exercise aswell during that period of fasting. Now that the fast is complete I can start the exercise but. Will try to now do intermittent fasting AND exercise! 

LadyWithAPlan

Sistergold said:

@LadyWithAPlan, I have been postponing joining you on the fitness regime but I am psyching myself up so I can start this coming Monday. I have been rebooting my body metabolism though by fasting during the day which I try to do first half of each January. It just helps me break any unhealthy food ‘addictions’ picked up during the year but I find it difficult to exercise aswell during that period of fasting. Now that the fast is complete I can start the exercise but. Will try to now do intermittent fasting AND exercise! 

Glad to have you on board  and well done on getting back on track!   I was very pleased to get back in the gym again - you always feel so good when you are done - I weigh train and also aim to do a 30 min swim each day for cardio after weights as its great for the mind and the body plus swimming doesn't strain joints in the same way unlike running etc - my knees never liked too much running.
I completely understand breaking excessive  food habits we get into in Dec - I am off the sweets and cakes  and dry January etc but I come from a body building background where they aim to eat protein 5 times a day - for me personally fasting just messes up your metabolism as opposed to resetting it. I am very precious about my fast metabolism. 
 Intermittent fasting can be good if it works for you but mainly it works cos you just eat less calories over a day.  Just be aware of and maybe move the timings of your exercising  and meals  as you might also get too tired

Sistergold

Thanks for the tips regards timings, @LadyWithAPlan, you are right you can end up being too tired to exercise with fasting. Lucky you have the background of weight training and so you can do it right with regards to your eating and exercise. Fingers crossed I will get it right. Fasting aside I do restrict carbs(eat the wholesome ones to a limited extent) and eat a good amount of protein. I have generally followed a low carb diet for years as carbs make me tired but I must confess I fell off the wagon so to speak during covid. Fasting will not be more than two days a week in general. I also love swimming, have not been swimming for a long time now. If ever I join the gym I will join the leisure centre which has a swimming pool. 

Sistergold

Financial report.
Tomorrow will be mortage and overpayment day, I am looking forward to that as that will mean one more payment gone. 

Yesterday I went to do 5 viewings. I have been on the fence about buying a property due to the dicey economy but on the other hand my building fund has just been growing and not earning much interest as I have been thinking I will soon use it etc. During covid we enjoyed the house being this size so am wondering if it actually needs to be made any bigger. There is also the issue of builders and building materials costing too much thus making extending not as attractive at present. I have been thinking of buying a buy to let here in London but the economy makes me have second thoughts about putting all the said money in one property. I then decided it might be better to buy one or two properties out of London. Of all the 5 houses I viewed 3 were well dressed up and cleaned up to look like not much need to be done ‘BUT’ in reality the houses had not been invested into for years. It makes me wonder how most people squeeze the last life out of a house and sell it at the highest price as if it’s all up to date. Most people don’t really want to spend money on their house and yet want to get the highest increase on the house. 

Back to the house viewing, one house was a no no, as it looked like someone had tried to renovate but botched it, probably had watched too many shows on how you can do it yourself and found it harder than it looked, felt overwhelmed and decided to leave it and so decided to sell. All the bedrooms of this house were also very small. This was a vacant property. 

One property was a probabte sale, vacant and needs complete renovation. Garage had asbestos roof and I wonder where else asbestos will be? 

All houses did need renovating, I felt they were overpriced for the state they were in. I think most sellers are not quite to grips with what a reasonable price will be in this climate. The house that I liked most had come back into the market apparently a buyer just went silent and then pulled out 2 weeks after offer. I think the buyer developed cold feet and decided that it was too expensive/ had offered too much?

I have decided I am going to put in very cheeky offers which in my humble opinion are fair for the work that will need to be done. I am not desperate to buy but if offers should be accepted I will go on and buy. First house is advertised for offers over £250k and plan to offer £220 but will not pay more than the £250k if I should decide to proceed. The second house is advertised at £220k but will offer £190k and will not want to pay more than £200k. 

My budget is to get 2 properties to the value of not more than £500k. One property for now will also be fine if that’s all that I get an offer accepted. Will give feed back next week as to how the offer process would have gone. If none work out I will have to arrange new viewings in the coming weeks. Arranging viewings was easy and to me it’s an indication that things have indeed cooled a bit. Estate agents are not as difficult as they were a while back. 

Hope everyone is okay? Have a wonderful week all. Xx 

slm6002

As lovely as it would be to have another income from another property or 2, would you not like to keep the money in the bank and then pay off a good chunk off your current mortgage?  Just curious

LeighofMar

slm6002 said:

As lovely as it would be to have another income from another property or 2, would you not like to keep the money in the bank and then pay off a good chunk off your current mortgage?  Just curious.

I thought the same. At least to get to your 320k target quicker with money to spare? 

Sistergold

 Very good suggestion, @slm6002 and @LeighofMar. I want to have money tied up in different ways. The money tied up in the house I live in I will not try to release as it’s where I live. The house I live in I will not want to use as collateral as I am single and I will not want to put a place I live in at risk. So in as much as I want to pay the mortgage off I also want to have money elsewhere. If I should want to start a business I want to be able to borrow against or release money by selling of the the buy to lets. I feel it’s too early in my single life journey to tie up all my funds in the house I live in. So, I want to steadily bring down the mortgage so much such that at some point I could decide to just pay it off. I will not though overpay by £100k or more in one go unless it’s now to pay it off completely and even then it’s not something I will want to do now as I want to diversify a bit 🤷‍♀️. For now the strategy is to steadily/modestly overpay while saving larger amounts to invest elsewhere and hopefully after some years it will all add up. Don’t put many eggs in any one basket. 

slm6002

Thank you for letting us know your thoughts.  I knew you would have a reason   I guess I am just not as ambitious (always been that way) and I am happy to just get 1 house in my own name.  I hope you didn't mind me asking

Sistergold

slm6002 said:

Thank you for letting us know your thoughts.  I knew you would have a reason   I guess I am just not as ambitious (always been that way) and I am happy to just get 1 house in my own name.  I hope you didn't mind me asking

Oh no ask away! I don’t mind at all. We are here to rub minds! I will never mind a question. 🥰☺️