Ditching It

SpendingPennies

Thanks @powerspowers for the good wishes. Resolutions are going well so far today. Home made vegetable soup is bubbling away in the soup maker.

SpendingPennies

Hi @mark55man it must feel SO good being towards the end of your MF journey. Do you have plans for when you become mortgage free? 

SpendingPennies

Thanks @waterplate today should be a NSD. I am going to see how many I can manage throughout the month. We have various pets, none of them help our money saving goals 😩

mark55man

Yes my plan is pretty much get the envelope from the building society with my deeds in (if that's how it works these days) and then reuse it to hand in my resignation and start my life as a pensioner (target early 60s, which is only a few years away).  I may consider going part time for a bit just to be safe and check out my planning

I was so dumb back in the day that having reset to 25 when I moved in the late nineties - when I remortgaged a few years later I still let them persuade me to revert to 25 years. So in a universe where I wasn't quite so foolish I would already be mortgage free.  And in a universe where I was wise, I would have been so for a few years already!.

Although it would have been very frustrating to have retired and then have been locked down, but that's scant consolation

SpendingPennies

@mark55man early retirement sounds like a great plan, I would hope to be able to do similar, either stop working or else move to a part-time position, possibly one with less responsibility. Have to say we are in the same boat, we took on a new 25 year mortgage when we’d already been paying mortgages for 20 years. I’ve no idea how we managed to get ourselves into this situation, but am very keen to get out of it as soon as possible. I hope your final payment date comes round very soon for you. 

mark55man

thank you SP (if I may be familiar) - I couldn't agree more, and good luck on your journey.  I have got one big push left at work, and after that I'll be looking to pass on my wisdom to anyone who thinks I have been wise.

you do need to get a balance between OPs off the mortgage, and giving your money time to grow, but more importantly to have enough of an investment horizon that you can cope with the ups and downs.   My MFW diary (early stages, monthly updates) explains there can be tax advantages - especially if you are older or a higher rate taxpayer.  But for many its just the certainty of ownership that is the driver - I'm too late for that TBH so for me its making my pennies work best for me, and if I can manage to get UK Gov and my employer to help a bit, then so much the better  

SpendingPennies

On track for a week of NSD this week. I’ve actually been impressed with my ability to,step away from any kind of internet shopping. My new slippers with arch support arrived and I no longer have a sore foot, so I am going to forgive myself for last weeks spend. 

As we creep towards pay day in 2 weeks time, there is not much money saving activity to report. Bank account balance is reasonably healthy, although as my old school reports used to say, could do better. Finally got confirmation today that our second current account has been set up. So I’m going to go through our budget again to work out how much to pay into the new monthly spends account. Decisions decisions. 

Day 8 of my Veganuary challenge and if I’m honest I don’t feel any healthier and not sure I’ve lost any weight either. But I am at least enjoying my food, and feeling somewhat virtuous 😇

SpendingPennies

Loving @twinklie’ssuggestion of how to work out how much you house you own. Using an estimated valuation of £600k property value, with approx 180k remaining on the budget we own approx 70%. We have 10 rooms excluding hallways and a small lobby, so using that analogy we own 7 of them, the bank owns 3. That’s a great motivator to buy the remaining 3 rooms as soon as poss. 

twinklie

SpendingPennies said:

Loving @twinklie’ssuggestion of how to work out how much you house you own. Using an estimated valuation of £600k property value, with approx 180k remaining on the budget we own approx 70%. We have 10 rooms excluding hallways and a small lobby, so using that analogy we own 7 of them, the bank owns 3. That’s a great motivator to buy the remaining 3 rooms as soon as poss. 

On my list I also have the roof and loft as a room, front garden and driveway, back garden and the outside store/shed we have. I find it  really exciting when I own a new room. 

SpendingPennies

twinklie said:

On my list I also have the roof and loft as a room, front garden and driveway, back garden and the outside store/shed we have. I find it  really exciting when I own a new room. 

@twinklie that is brilliant, although I am not sure my maths is up to that challenge 😂
We used to own a property abroad, where the value of a property was based on the size of the build and or the plot. So for example if your property was say 100m2 and locally properties were €300 per m2, your house would be worth €30,000. This made things very simple when valuing a property or a mortgage. I might have to get a tape measure out and work out how big our house is, and then what percentage we own.