Mortgage Free: The final countdown

edinburgher

3 months off will be wonderful, enjoy 😀

mark55man

Thank you @edinburgher - Its a practice retirement -

sabbaticals are normally a mid career option, but I couldn't afford it then.  I guess its like a step ladder into retirement rather than jumping in at the deep end.  I may regret not going 100% but I don't think so and my OH needs to work her job over winter so I may as well top up the coffers.  My job is one where there is always something to do and a wide team able to do it so we can be quite flexible

savingholmes

I can see why with your imminent trip you are holding on to cash. How lovely to be about to have 3 months off.

mark55man

Monthly report back at the end of March -

Highlight  £650 paid into Reg Savers for OP in Jan 26 - (Yes I know I said I would start OP for real but I just can't resist the reg savers at nearly 5% net interest return over mortgage cost) - so I'm heading back to doing them rather than actual OP.  That didn't last long I know

Start position  - 31/12/23 - Mortgage £52.9K - Reg Savers  = £0/£16.5K 

Month 01 - 31/01/24 - Mortgage £51.5K - OP/Reg = £0/£16.5K - Cash Neutral Savings £47.3K
Month 02 - 29/02/24 - Mortgage £50.0K - OP/Reg = £0/£16.5K - Cash Neutral Savings £50.9K
Month 03 - 31/03/24 - Mortgage £48.7K - OP/Reg = £650/£16.5K - Cash Neutral Savings £52.3K

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

For those wondering my Cash Neutral savings will take a battering as I do my sabbatical but the mortgage is factored in and I should be able to get to 31/01/26 with an OP fund equal to the balance.  My EF might be a little low, but at that point I will be happy to dig into my pension big style

savingholmes

Well your plans seems to be coming on well. How are you enjoying your time off?

mark55man

My OH has been somewhat struck down with a Viral thing - nothing more than that, but still pretty terrible - so been pottering rather than enjoying

Humboldt

Morning @mark55man I hope that you do not mind me popping by.  Just wanted to say that I hope that your OH is feeling better.  Not the best of starts to your time off, but at least you are in a position to be able to help whilst they recover. 

mark55man

getting there slowly thank you -not great but it is what it is and what it is is nothing serious, just needing rest

mark55man

Just a heads up Mortgage Balance £43K.  Savings down to £26K being consumed by my sabbatical which I will end in November. 

When back working I will then focus on using salary to further build pension.  Also as I will only be a basic rate tax payer this tax year the tax rebate advantage of pension will be less then previously so I may think about starting ISAs for my OP pot (remember my actual for real OP possibilities are limited so won't actually OP to the Building Society).  Even so ISAs aren't quite as effective from a National Insurance PoV as pension contributions if your company offers and you can afford to salary sacrifice. One advantage of age is that I can access pension money immediately and relatively flexibly albeit subject to complicated rules.

My fixed rate of 2.1% ends late 2025 so my target will be to have matched the mortgage balance £20K at that point.  Will let you know how I go when I get to November

Tiredbutdetermined

Hope you are enjoying your sabbatical.  
I find your journey really inspiring, I can't wait to be at your stage of things.  I do like the idea of offset OP and I would love to be able to get to the stage of being able to balance that. I am lucky that I can overpay by 10% per annum and it seems to have gone from my original mortgage balance not my reduced balance when I renegotiated.