Lolu's Mortgage Free odyssey

savingholmes

That is such a lovely turnaround. Great news!

killerpeaty

Ooooooooh sounds like a brilliant job for you! I'm so pleased. What will you do with your holiday until you start?

Glad you feel so good around him, he sounds like a keeper!

savingholmes

Hope you are ok

misslolu

I'm doing okay @savingholmes not much to report at the moment. @killerpeaty he's been really decent so far, lovely and supportive when I talk about some of my fears and worries about starting the new job.

I've been at work for a week now and tbh it's been a huge culture shock. I've been working in a startup environment for the past year, so coming back to a more corporate environment has felt super weird. I'm still getting to grips with the company and the project i'll be working on so hopefully i'll be more confident a bit later on.

I really need to get back onto my financial goals and put them down on paper, so i'll be back in a few days for that.

killerpeaty

Lolu! I've been wondering how you are getting on. A new workplace is always very strange and exhausting so I'm not surprised. Keep your head up, you'll get to grips with it soon.

misslolu

Thanks @killerpeaty. I've been struggling a bit with focus but I've also felt a bit overwhelmed. This role is definitely a bit more senior than I'm used to and I'm worried that I may simply not be good enough. I know it's my imposter syndrome talking, but I've had my confidence knocked a bit with the redundancy. I really just need to get my head down, but it feels like I'm sabotaging myself. 

powerspowers

I hear you on imposter syndrome!! I’ve admitted it to more senior colleagues a few times and every single one of them has said they feel the same at times xx

savingholmes

Most people have imposter syndrome. Break what you need to down into chunks so it is less overwhelming. I always find the first few weeks in a new job utterly overwhelming.

misslolu

Thanks for the encouragement, i'm definitely feeling a lot better about everything, even if I do still feel a bit adrift from my team. I go into the office weekly so I can catch up with them in person and they're definitely easier to get information from. I'm used to a more IM-type crowd who are constantly sending messages and responding to small issues rather than having to set up formal meetings to get 2 little bits of information.

First salary has come in, so i'm super excited about that and i've realised i've still not gotten my goals up for the year, so will do that in the next post.

misslolu

My goals for the year pretty simple since I got my property last year. Most of them are related to building up my finances and starting to think about retirement and getting things in place for that.

House
I'm quite lucky that I didn't need to do much to my house when I got it, most of my money has been spent furnishing rather than decorating. Now I just need to do the final bits that mean I don't need to spend any more money apart from repairs as and when they happen.

• Finishing touches in the living room including a dining table, chairs and possibly upgrading some doors.
• Taking off the wallpaper in my study and possibly painting the walls.
• Upgrading my desk to better fit my study
• Making a decision on breaking into my countertops to fit a dishwasher
• Finding a bedside table
• Getting a cleaner that's hopefully starting next week.
• Medicine cabinet/mirror for bathroom

Finances
Now I have my property, I can really start thinking about putting my money into good places where it can grow. Also planning for potential big-ticket items in the future like wedding + childcare. I'm about to move into my 30s so while I know it's not a rush, unfortunately, I have some health conditions that mean I may find it difficult to conceive. I would hate for money to be a reason why I can't start trying right away in case things do go wrong.

• Overpay mortgage till I get to 85%. I'm on a really high rate so I really want to remortgage as soon as my window opens. I need to pay £6667 if my house is valued at its purchase price and a bit less if it's valued more. Obviously, it's not something I can control so i'm aiming for my current price. That means I need to overpay £3500ish before May when my fix ends but January is when I can remortgage so aiming for that. I need to overpay at least £250 a month so need to get my butt in gear and figure out how to put this in my budget since surveys won't make that up.  Just made my £250 overpayment for the month, total mortgage is now £189,167 and I need to get to £182,750.
• My pension is super low at the moment because I've not always had such good-paying jobs. I'm now salary sacrificing to get it back on track but it's only at 6%. I've told myself that for every £25 my monthly payment goes down, i'll increase my pension contributions by .5%
• Savings & investments- My redundancy meant I could cover a full year of service charge and a month of no salary and still end up ahead of where I was before the redundancy and I now have the 4 months of expenses I wanted. Now i'm having a bit of a difficult time deciding where to put the rest. I need to build up my investments but i'm feeling quite risk-averse at the moment. I may double or triple my current investment contributions (only £120 a month) and pop the rest in PB until I fill them up in a few years time. Hopefully, I would have needed to spend some of the money on my anticipated big purchases by then.
• Student loan - technically I probably don't have to think about this for another year or two, but I'm at a point where it's going to be paid off in the next 3 to 4 years because of my redundancy (they don't give it back) and higher salary now. It's still over 10 K but I am really considering paying it off when it gets down to 18 months or one year. I don't have an official pot for this, but I guess it's something to keep in mind while saving.

Other
I was meant to learn how to drive but Covid meant my test was postponed from April 2020 to December 2021 unfortunately in that time my instructor retired and obviously I've moved house now. My theory also expired which is annoying but I did find it quite easy, so don't mind doing it again. I'd like to find an instructor and do my test before June. Obviously tests are as rare as hens teeth at the moment so it really depends on availability.