Mortgage Free: The final countdown

mark55man

Thanks CM - my pleasure - just as long as you don't contrive to string too many bad months in a row together

savingholmes

Exciting to have trip to look forward to. Are you clear on how you will spend your time post retirement? Was it campaigning and things or did I imagine that?

mark55man

Hello SF - clear enough thank you - certainly for year 1 then I will ponder for a decade or so - mainly doing the bits I didn't get so far to in my diary targets - weight, steps and decluttering, and of course YS and NSD gathering even when travelling (mainly UK)
--

My Dec 23 mortgage will be £52K owing.  My target is to have matched this with cash savings by end Dec 23

Report back for start December 23. targets are £42K Cash - £10K Pension TFLS (Tax Free Lump sum)  - I have slightly rebalanced these as they were out of kilter.  Targets

* Cash - £38.5K/£42K  -  £3.5K to go 

* Pension TFLS - £6.1K/£10K  -  £3.9K to go

So £44.6K out of £52K target at 31/12/23 - Leaving £7.4K to go

Forecasting I think I will get to £40K Cash and £9.5K TFLS - so maybe £2.5 short of target - but I can live with that as I have 5 months spare before R day

savingholmes

Congratulations 🎉 it's getting closer 

mark55man

My end Dec 23 mortgage will be £52K owing.  My target is to have matched this with cash savings by end Dec 23

Report back for End December 23. targets are £42K Cash - £10K Pension TFLS (Tax Free Lump sum)  - I have slightly rebalanced these as they were out of kilter.  Targets

* Cash - £36.5K/£42K  -  £5.5K to go - Have been using more cash/savings up than planned

* Pension TFLS - £9.2K/£10K  -  £0.8K to go

So £45.7K out of £52K target at 31/12/23 - Leaving £6.3K to go

So summary of year my MN Pot ended up a little over 10% short of my target which was to have the whole £52K matched by accessible cash .  But ailing cars, supporting my young adults, and planning 2024 events (big birthday and big anniversary) made the end of the year a little expensive.  

I will continue reporting back in 2024 - my mortgage will decrease from £52K at end Dec 23 by £1.5K a month so even if I did nothing savings/spending wise (I would be balanced by April), but I think that the end of February might be a reasonable target for my balance and savings.

START OF YEAR : Initial Balance: £29K (Cash £11K TFLS £18K)
END OF YEAR : Final Balance: £45.7K (Cash £36.5K TFLS £9,2K)

So total of £16.7K MN Savings this year + £18K normal mortgage payments. Investments rejuggled into cash for safety via crystallising some of my pension Tax Free lump sums).  Where I have slightly missed target is loosening spending in the last Quarter if the year.  But unavoidable so noting it, but not beating myself up too much.

 See you all in 2024

savingholmes

Huge achievement in a year. Looking forward to seeing what you do next - but take a moment to celebrate how far you've come too.

mark55man

Thank you @savingholmes - still hanging in there.  Hoping to get it over the line soon enough

mark55man

WARNING - DIARY PIVOT ALERT

This diary started as a plan to match my mortgage against dedicated part of my pension pot - Mortgage Neutral
THEN I changed to match my mortgage against actual cash savings (higher interest rate than OP) - Cash Neutral
NOW I am looking to move this to actually being MF ahead of my fixed rate ending - MORTGAGE FREE 

My mortgage was £52K with 34 months to go and is decreasing through normal repayments at £1.5K per month.  My fixed rate interest (2.09) ends after 23 months leaving 11 at Standard Variable Rate SVR which I would wish to avoid.  So my new target is to minimise (ideally to 0) the amount of SVR I incur.  11 months at £1.5K is  £16500 which is just over £650 p/m OP between now and end of the fixed period.

My new target therefore is actual, paid off against the balance, OP averaging £650 until end 2025.  I suspect it will take me a while to get going so I will fall below that in the first few months.  I will include in this OP any income over and above normal salary (eg ebay selling / surveys / overtime / bonuses). I can't clear the mortgage early as there are redemption penalties - not swinging but best avoided, until l the end of the fixed rate.

I won't include any non mortgage savings (eg regular savings) in my OP totals - I will keep these separate until actually paid off the mortgage

I will try not to use any cash neutral money already saved in my 2023 phase as although that was the original point of it, I think the less of it I spend the more I will have for other less fun things.

Starting position

31/12/23 - Mortgage £52.9K - OP = £0/£16.5K - Cash Neutral Savings £47.3K
31/01/24 - Mortgage £51.5K - OP = £0/£16.5K - Cash Neutral Savings £47.3K

savingholmes

Good luck with your new challenge.

mark55man

Monthly report back at the start of March - £0 OP. 

Start position  - 31/12/23 - Mortgage £52.9K - OP = £0/£16.5K - Cash Neutral Savings £47.3K

Month 01 - 31/01/24 - Mortgage £51.5K - OP = £0/£16.5K - Cash Neutral Savings £47.3K
Month 02 - 29/02/24 - Mortgage £50.0K - OP = £0/£16.5K - Cash Neutral Savings £50.9K

Target Position -  31/01/26 - Mortgage £16.5K - OP = £16.5K/£16.5K - Cash Neutral Savings (TBD but > £0K)

So not quite got myself organised to actually OP - change is hard. I'm 3 weeks away from taking around 3 months off so I guess I'm being cautious to keep cash handy although in reality I think 50K will last a year including normal repayments