Twenty-something's aim to be mortgage free

Competsoph

That's great that you've managed to reduce your spending by so much. I have a very low spend also, probably £800 for the month however I rent so everything is included in that.

I have a significant amount of savings in excess of my house deposit and consider this valuable for any emergency or spends I want to make. That said this is over £15,000 which would probably cover me for more than 6 months. I'm unsure whether I should use this to pay off some more of my mortgage but in the grand scheme of things it doesn't make a huge difference. 

ruby_eskimo

wh_em said:

@ruby_eskimo it’s all my outgoings (inc bills) except for the mortgage. I thought it would be a better representation as we haven’t paid it for 2 months!
I’m glad you have over a month of emergency fund, that’s a nice secure feeling to have!

My income insurance was really difficult to get because I have had mental health issues in the past and I obviously have to disclose that to them. Only after 15 years since the last “episode” can I get insurance that doesn’t have constraints. I do wonder if ANY policy covers you for pandemics!!

When you go back and look at your savings now, minus the investments it's really amazing.  Guess it just goes to show that you realise what's essential and what's not when you're in lock-down.  

My DH has epilepsy and despite not having a seizure for about 10 years, he's still classed as a severe risk for any kind of insurance so I know how you feel.  If only insurance companies were less risk adverse

wh_em

@Competsoph £800 is so good! Do you just rent a room? 
If I were you I wouldn't touch the £15,000 for now - there are so many costs involved with buying property that you'll probably use at least £2k of that and that's before stamp duty!! I wish I had saved up more than my deposit but I did my best and luckily Mrs wh_em had far more to put in than I did! Its so impressive that you've got £15k on TOP of your deposit, amazing!

wh_em

@ruby_eskimo absolutely! We went almost 3 months without a takeaway despite the fact that we're in the city so most of them were still available to us! I think the lack of diesel was my main one though - It was on track to be about £300 pm so definitely a saving there.

Mrs wh_em has epilepsy too! She's just had to renew her driving licence...something I didn't know she would have to do so often. She got hit quite hard by the diagnosis, I think she was about 15/16 at the time and she still regularly struggles with anxiety around it, despite not having a seizure for 5 years I would be interested to know how your DH gets along with it, does he take medication?

ruby_eskimo

@wh_em I used to spend that much on driving for work each month but then swapped to a job in London and now spend even more to get the train!  Oh well, glad you're boosting your savings.

That is so strange!  I had a friend who started having seizures at about 20 and had her license revoked.  Eventually she managed to get it back a few years later because they didn't think it was epilepsy but just a one off thing but she's constantly worried that it might happen again.  DH was diagnosed at 6 months old, so he's used to it by now, although he gets frustrated sometimes when he feels "off" or he can't remember things.  He doesn't drive because he has no need to - he gets the bus to work and the bus stop is directly opposite our house, or I drive him around.  Yes he takes medication which keeps it under control and there's always the worry that it will stop working one day, but it keeps him pretty chilled out most of the time as it has anti-depressant effects too.  

wh_em

@ruby_eskimo
Interesting that his medication works as an anti-depressant too. He must be on a different one to Mrs wh_em or the side effects are different as I think hers make her even more anxious! Thank you for your insight, it's all still very new to me and I'm learning as I go along. 

Ooof! I have considered getting a job in London at some point but I'm not sure if I can bear the train. I love my car and I love driving!

ruby_eskimo

@wh_em That's ok, it can be a strange world to navigate and I'm still learning 14 years after I met him!  

I drove 550 miles + a week, every week for 5 years and had just had enough.  Don't get me wrong I love a long drive but when part of your job is driving around between sites and then you have an hours drive home, sometimes you just want to get home.  The train commute gives me a chance to catch up on sleep in the morning or reading or doing personal admin so I'm not actually wasting the time...hopefully.

wh_em

Hi all,
I've had a real quiet few days. I've done absolutely nothing productive around the house as I'm still trying to get lots of NSDs under my belt. I visited my parents again on Friday and had lunch with them and my two brothers. We sat in the garden and chatted for hours - it was lovely and I didn't come back with any boxes of cr*p this time!

Yesterday Mrs wh_em and I pottered in the garden for a few hours in the morning. Then I discovered that we are finally in the catchment for delivery of Mcdonald's! I have to say McDonald's is a guilty pleasure of mine and I haven't had it in over 3 months so I was very excited to order some yesterday. I even shared some of my nuggets with the cat.

Nothing much in the way of financials to update today, payday tomorrow. And I've officially had my notice through for the end of furlough. My last payday should be the 14th July so fingers crossed everyone that I have a job by then! Right now my industry is very much a sit and wait, see what happens kind of scenario. So there's nothing for me to do right now but just relax and try and enjoy these last two weeks as if its a nice little holiday.

wh_em

Hi all!

Payday today! Two more paydays to go until furlough with company A has finished. I attended a training session over Zoom with my "old" colleagues which was really nice. They are all furloughed by company B, so even though I will be finishing furlough payments in 2 weeks they will still be going with it*. There's word that we might be back to work with company B in August on a staggered basis, WFH some days but not others. I'm not pinning my hopes on anything because in March when everything was shutting down the information changed hourly! I also think its going to be a case of all of a sudden everything starts up again and there will be job offers left, right and centre!

It was great to have the training, despite the fact I didn't understand any of it! It was just reassuring seeing the old team again and knowing that they still want to work with me after all this. I think I let my imagination get the better of me sometimes, I think I just assume that people think the worst of me. Its a bad habit that I need to break.

So, all that being said: no mortgage OPs will be happening this week or for the foreseeable future. I've set aside £100 for my LISA DD that comes out tomorrow. And set aside money for bills but the rest went straight into my emergency fund. It's very much batten down the hatches from now until whenever the next job starts. I was looking at the credit card bills for this month and although I've got money set aside to pay them in full (thanks YNAB!) I'm wondering if I should only pay the minimum and keep that cash in reserve. I have settled for paying off the AMEX as it was only £400 and I will look to holding off on the Tesco one for now.

Have a good one x


* Just to explain if it wasn't previously clear. I left company A on 28th Feb and started with company B on 9th March. The cut off for furlough was the 28th Feb so I couldn't receive it from company B but I asked to be rehired and furloughed by company A which they kindly agreed to! But now company A is restarting all their projects they want everyone unfurloughed. I SHOULD be rehired by company B when they restart, just annoying that all the companies/projects aren't doing it at the same time!

wh_em

End of the month financials:

Aims for Dec 2020/April 2021
1. Emergency fund - £961.41/£4000
2. Mortgage OPs - £141/£1000
3. Family member loan - £100/£1000
4. Mrs wh_em loan - £0/£7500
5. LISA contributions - £142/£4000

Honestly when I lay out all out like this it seems very bleak...but I need to give myself a break, we're in the middle of a pandemic!

Managed to put aside £258 into my investments/Retirement & OPs category this month. Which doesn't include any contributions into my pension direct from my payslip. When life goes back to normal I think I'd like to maintain a minimum of 20% savings rate into this category - hopefully 30% though.