34 months countdown - MF before 40!

101 Posts

Hi all 👋
I’m a long time user of MSE forums but have set up a new user ID for my MFW journey. I’ve been a lurker on this board for a long time as I love reading all the diaries! Such great inspiration!
To hold myself to account, I want to start documenting my journey!
So I’ve had a tough few years to be honest. Found out my husband was having an affair with a twenty year old bimbo when our daughter was 6 months old. Pretty much crushed me to be honest. Very long story short but we are now divorced and own our own separate homes. I’m therefore the proud solo owner of my mortgage. I work in fashion so Covid has really worried me as there have been lots of redundancies and being the only household adult, I would have no back up income if I lost my job! I therefore decided now is the time to really push on and become MF!
Fortunately my financial position is pretty good (thanks to my grandparents who left me an inheritance, my high salary and generous guilt maintenance from my ex). It currently looks as follows:
- Net monthly income: £4,950
- Mortgage gross balance: £85,000
- Mortgage offset account balance: £43,000
My goal is to be mortgage free before I’m 40 which gives me 34 months to pay off £42,000.
My current mortgage payment is £600 a month and I am only being charged £75 a month interest due to the high savings balance in my mortgage offset saver account. I am aiming to overpay £1,000 a month into my offset account which should hopefully mean my offset balance will exceed my mortgage balance by my 40th birthday!
My biggest challenge is managing my spending (clothes being a major problem given where I work!) so I have set up YNAB and am aiming to have 150 NSDs in 2021! Any other tips for controlling spending will be gratefully received!
Will post a full monthly budget in the next few days!
😄
I’m a long time user of MSE forums but have set up a new user ID for my MFW journey. I’ve been a lurker on this board for a long time as I love reading all the diaries! Such great inspiration!
To hold myself to account, I want to start documenting my journey!
So I’ve had a tough few years to be honest. Found out my husband was having an affair with a twenty year old bimbo when our daughter was 6 months old. Pretty much crushed me to be honest. Very long story short but we are now divorced and own our own separate homes. I’m therefore the proud solo owner of my mortgage. I work in fashion so Covid has really worried me as there have been lots of redundancies and being the only household adult, I would have no back up income if I lost my job! I therefore decided now is the time to really push on and become MF!
Fortunately my financial position is pretty good (thanks to my grandparents who left me an inheritance, my high salary and generous guilt maintenance from my ex). It currently looks as follows:
- Net monthly income: £4,950
- Mortgage gross balance: £85,000
- Mortgage offset account balance: £43,000
My goal is to be mortgage free before I’m 40 which gives me 34 months to pay off £42,000.
My current mortgage payment is £600 a month and I am only being charged £75 a month interest due to the high savings balance in my mortgage offset saver account. I am aiming to overpay £1,000 a month into my offset account which should hopefully mean my offset balance will exceed my mortgage balance by my 40th birthday!
My biggest challenge is managing my spending (clothes being a major problem given where I work!) so I have set up YNAB and am aiming to have 150 NSDs in 2021! Any other tips for controlling spending will be gratefully received!
Will post a full monthly budget in the next few days!
😄
MFW
1 Nov 2020 @ £42,204 to go in 34 months! (£1,241 a month)
1 September 2021 @ £17,500 to go in 24 months (£729 a month)
MFW 2021 #3 - £24,148/ £17,500 🙌
1 Nov 2020 @ £42,204 to go in 34 months! (£1,241 a month)
1 September 2021 @ £17,500 to go in 24 months (£729 a month)
MFW 2021 #3 - £24,148/ £17,500 🙌
6
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Thank you for the spending ideas. I am definitely going to do that with the budget for December and also investigate Monzo. At the moment I have 2 current accounts, 1 instant savings and 1 offset saver so I use these to separate money as needed which does help me not to touch bill money.
1 Nov 2020 @ £42,204 to go in 34 months! (£1,241 a month)
1 September 2021 @ £17,500 to go in 24 months (£729 a month)
MFW 2021 #3 - £24,148/ £17,500 🙌
Mortgage Repaid on 20 April 2021
Click here to visit my Mortgage Free Wannabe Diary
Thank you! I find it's hard being single as you have no-one to talk about these things with, or to help keep you accountable. I am hoping to use this diary to hold myself to account
1 Nov 2020 @ £42,204 to go in 34 months! (£1,241 a month)
1 September 2021 @ £17,500 to go in 24 months (£729 a month)
MFW 2021 #3 - £24,148/ £17,500 🙌
Posting my December budget here to ensure that I stick to it as much as possible!! Will compare my budget to actuals in early January
I am pretty happy with this as my first monthly budget as I think there is no excuse for me not sticking to it (if anything it's generous - I know I am so lucky to have such a good job) and it will help me to start to shave money off areas in future months. Whilst I want to clear my mortgage, I do have a very intense and high pressure full time job so I want to ensure that I receive the benefit of the stress of this by being able to do nice things with my daughter and treat my friends and family. On that note, I don't actually drink very much so my £100 Christmas alcohol is to ensure I can have a bottle of Baileys and Posh Gin to share with my parents (my single person bubble) over the festive period.
My electric bill is quite high because I have a fully electric car which I currently charge at home (and this explains why no petrol budgeted). Annoyingly I am not receiving the benefit of my electric car as I am WFH so can't use my free workplace chargers (which was the main reason I bought an electric car to make my 30 mile commute free!).
The holiday payment is for a UK caravan holiday with my daughter next summer
and this is the last payment.
My daughter only gets her pocket money if she is good and helps around the house/goes to bed nicely so I don't always pay the full £20!
Random Amazon purchases tend to be bits and bobs like vitamins, printer paper, books etc. I know I should cut it down but I wanted to see how I get on with the £100 first.
I'm going to try not to buy any clothes this month but have given myself a budget so that I don't feel restricted. It's soooo hard working around lots of lovely clothes but I am WFH and not really going anywhere so need to remember this when I get the urge to buy!
1 Nov 2020 @ £42,204 to go in 34 months! (£1,241 a month)
1 September 2021 @ £17,500 to go in 24 months (£729 a month)
MFW 2021 #3 - £24,148/ £17,500 🙌
On a separate note l haven't heard the word bimbo in years 😂 blast from the past!
Mortgage Repaid on 20 April 2021
Click here to visit my Mortgage Free Wannabe Diary
1 Nov 2020 @ £42,204 to go in 34 months! (£1,241 a month)
1 September 2021 @ £17,500 to go in 24 months (£729 a month)
MFW 2021 #3 - £24,148/ £17,500 🙌
I think there are lots of areas to shave off my budget but I wanted to see how Month 1 goes before committing anything in writing lol. I can get disheartened easily so didn’t want missing my first month budget to put me off the journey!
Thanks for commenting 😀
1 Nov 2020 @ £42,204 to go in 34 months! (£1,241 a month)
1 September 2021 @ £17,500 to go in 24 months (£729 a month)
MFW 2021 #3 - £24,148/ £17,500 🙌
My MFW challenge (which I have just started talking about on my 5 year debt free diary - only a few months to go to my DF date) is to bring my end date in from 2027 to 2024 (stretch target 2023). This is complicated, as I can't literally overpay as I am on a 7 year fix and have limited OP options - so I am going to create a matching investment pot which will be my "Mortgage Neutral" fund or kind of like your offset. At the point my mortgage is paid off then retirement comes into play for me, and I know you are decades away it does creep up quickly
Playing with spreadsheets indicates that over the 3-4 year time period, assuming different (but realistic) growth rates makes very little difference to the MFW timescale (maybe 1 month), so I will be quite cautious with that fund and had I been allowed to, may well have decided to just follow the OP course. I think I mention that as you do get some (including myself sometimes) advising that overly focussing on early mortgage repayment is not optimum - but over such a short timescale, I would just go for it and then worry about other financial aspects later
anyway good luck and keep posting
2022 Achievements: Mortgage Neutral, Net Debt Free, EF filled, Retirement Planned, More Unfit, Heavier
2023 Targets (as of 1/1/23): Steps-23K/2500K - Weight - 0lbs/24 - Savings-#57-MFW £400/£10800 - #17-365x1p 1p/£667.95
2023 Achievements (as of 1/1/23): 5km (treadmill)-51'39" - 2km C2 Erg -9'54 - R-Day 272 Days - PMA Save/Earn - £135
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