Twenty-something's aim to be mortgage free

kaycastle

Heya, wow it sounds like a lot has happened for you this year. But sounds like you are doing well which is good. COVID seems to have changed a lot of peoples directions in life. 

ruby_eskimo

Sorry to hear about all the upheaval that's going on in your life but it sounds like the changes are for the best.  Wishing you the best with the sale and hope you can get it all sorted smoothly.  

wh_em

Hi all,
I'm toying with the idea of continuing to update this post seeing as the flat hasn't sold yet and some things I've mentioned on here are still relevant! The last three months have been a bit crazy again but today has been a good day. I've been given a pay rise! So I've been faffing about with figures and been back in contact with a mortgage advisor I approached earlier this month to let him know my circumstances have changed. I've asked him about what I might be able to do in regards to taking on the current mortgage by myself and moving it to another property in the future. Since my earnings have gone up I'm somewhat hopeful that this could be in reach! Which might mean no early repayment charge!

Just a few things to update everyone on: our flat is currently on the market, a few offers but not close enough to what we (I) would like. I've been decluttering and selling a few bits, although most of the stuff in this flat is my ex's so I can't get rid of anything! I've managed to sell a few bits that were solely mine and in the process I've bought myself a new bike! I want to get a bit fitter and at the same time maybe start working for deliveroo in the evenings to earn a little bit on the side. I'm going full steam ahead trying to raise every last penny for a bigger deposit to make my life easier when I come to buy again! Wish me luck

wh_em

wh_em

Aims for Dec 2020/April 2021
1. Emergency fund -   £2000/£4000 No change
2. Mortgage OPs - £152.53   £221.53/£1000 I did a sneaky OP because i wanted to test how much of an effect it had on the early repayment fee...turns out it's still bleak!! 
3. Family member loan -  £1000/£1000 complete! 
4. Mrs wh_em loan - £765.01    £1461.34/£7500 - I did consider repaying the loan once the flat was sold but I'd rather just get it done as soon as possible so I know whatever is left in the flat will be my deposit for the next place! Trying to get this down by £500pm.
5. LISA contributions -  £2165   £4000/£4000 - I quickly finished filling this one this month in time for the end of the financial year. I didn't want to miss out on the full bonus as it can't be carried over and I'd lose out on an extra £1k each year into my pension every time I neglect to put £4k in.

South_coast

I would say definitely keep updating if you still want to, even if it's just to keep the mindset going. I don't think anyone's MF journeys go completely smoothly x

P.S. Well done on the pay rise 😀😀😀

wh_em

Hi all

Lots of good things happening at the moment i have been tentatively offered a job in Berlin which will start end of this year/beginning of next! Nothing confirmed yet.

My friend I worked with a few years ago when I was new to my industry called me out of the blue and asked if I might be interested in joining her. Wowweee! The job would be for 6-12months but by the sounds of it will involve lots of perks and obviously..being in Berlin will be one of them. I’ve always wanted to work in a different country. Ideally I’d like to do a job or two in America some day but Berlin will do for now

Another amazing thing, it all sort of happened so fast: I’ve had an offer accepted on a flat! After they kept me waiting for almost a week they finally accepted  I think the EA was trying to get me to crank up my offer but I stayed firm with “best and final, I can’t go any higher” and it paid off! I had started to admit defeat and almost “let go” of the idea of getting that property so it was quite nice news when they accepted my offer! I think the me from two years ago would have given in and gone as high as I possibly could just out of sheer panic . I’m glad I didn’t!

The sale on my current flat is in full swing which is good. My ex is handling most of it which I like. I had built up a fair bit of resentment in our relationship because it often felt like I did everything. It’s nice to take a back seat, maybe there is an element of not allowing myself to take a back seat - so I won’t cast too much blame on my ex for not doing enough. 

I’m trying not to look too far ahead as it makes me panic about all the things I “should” be doing. It’s no good for me! So step by step I’ll get wherever I need to be going.

I’ve been doing a tremendous amount of work on myself in the last 6 months. I’ve continued seeing a therapist who has been lovely and helpful for me to bounce ideas off of. I’ve also been doing some work on my “attachment style” not sure if anyone else knows much about it. Well after doing lots of research (I tend to get obsessed with one particular subject and consume everything possible!) I’ve found myself to be a fearful avoidant person - I can see evvidence of this in all of my past relationships and even friendships. Since discovering this though I’ve made lots of progress to move to a more secure place. And honestly it’s amazing how much of a difference it’s made to my well-being. You’d think that the progress would only show in my relationships with people but my relationship to myself has really improved. 

I’m kinder to myself, more patient, find myself to be far more easy going and even when I do get anxious or scared (see flat sale comments above) I can easily sooth myself properly. I think before I would just suppress all of my emotions right down and think that was fixing them only for them to explode out of me at a later date. Now, I deal with them in a much healthier way. I feel more confident, happy and just generally secure. I’ll keep at it, I want to be the best version of myself

have a good one x

South_coast

Wow, lots going on - and all of it good 😀! It all sounds excellent!

wh_em

Forgot to put down the final results of the targets I set myself, didn't I?

Aims for Dec 2020/April 2021
1. Emergency fund -   £2000  £200/£4000 - upsettingly I had to raid my emergency fund for something that wasn't really an emergency, I just got a bit lazy about setting aside money for big annual spends (council tax etc). I'm building it back up as a priority.
2. Mortgage OPs -  £221.53/£1000 - no change. I missed my Dec 2020 target of £1000 in OPs, just because my circumstances changed. When I get a new mortgage on my next place I will start this again.
3. Family member loan -  £1000/£1000 complete! 
4. Mrs wh_em loan - £1461.34  £7500/£7500 - this has been settled - excellent stuff
5. LISA contributions - £4000/£4000 - end of the financial year has come and gone and I filled my LISA as planned.

I will be setting some new ones for Dec 2021/April 2022

wh_em

Aims for Dec 2021/April 2022

1. Emergency fund - £5000
2. Mortgage OPs - £500, I don't think my new mortgage is going to start until June/July this year so just going to start with a target of £500 which I can change later.
3. LISA contributions - £4000
4. Increase pension contributions to 15% again - I had to reduce mine to 5% in October after the break up, just to relieve some pressure on myself. 
5. S&S ISA contributions £4000 - I think this is a fairly modest target. I would like to put more into my ISA but I expect I will be paying for lots of renovations on the new place so I don't want to leave myself in a predicament.

The same as last year, I'm still going to be focussing mainly on filling up my pension as I'd like to get the balance on it high enough that I know even if I never contribute another penny to it the growth on it before my retirement date will be enough. Once I've hit that point then I will focus harder on the mortgage and also using up my ISA allowance in a bid to retire earlier than expected

wh_em

Morning all

Payday today! 

Yesterday I was feeling pretty guilty about burning through my emergency fund and was trying to figure out how I can be more strict with myself. So I have set up a standing order of £260 each week to go to my NS&I account - this is where I'm going to keep my emergency fund. Although it takes almost a week to get the money back out I'm going to put £10k in there and £2k in an easy access account. This makes it more difficult for me to "dip in" and steal money from it - which I have got into a nasty habit of doing. I really need a proper emergency fund and I can't keep getting all excited about saving money for renovations or putting more money into my S&S ISA without getting this sorted FIRST.

£260 a week each payday should get me to £13,000 in a years time - I think I'll stop when I get to £12,000. I've just looked at my average spend a month and it's about £2,000. So a nice £12,000 emergency fund should keep me going for 6 months. £2000 a month sounds incredibly high but that includes any annual bills such as car insurance, service charge, pet insurance - all stuff that would still need to be paid for.

I think once I get to £6000 I will change the standing order so it's £500 a month rather than £1040 a month - it will take longer to build it but I think once I've cleared the £6000 mark (3 month fund) I will feel like I'm in a better position. I need to remind myself of the panic I had last year when Covid hit and I lost my job and was told I wasn't entitled to furlough.

It's different now - my industry has put so much in place to ensure we can continue running so now whenever there is a lockdown our jobs aren't affected (thank the universe). But who's to say something else might not come along and shut everything down again in a matter of weeks? Last March I think I had about £2000 in savings, we had spent all our money on renovations, we had just moved house a week or two before lockdown, had no food (because we had run everything down before the move) - the panic was real! I'm thankful that I got furloughed in the end and that I could ask my dad for a small loan to pay our service charge but I might not be that lucky again.

So from now on, head down - save that emergency fund!! I'm going to amend my goal to reflect this. Of course I will still also be trying to fill my LISA as I'm conscious that I'll miss out on my free £1k if I don't and that LISA is going to be a nice little bonus come retirement age.

Have a good one