Five Year Fix, Five Year Plan

Merlin's_Beard

One year since I completed! And apparently this is what I was expecting:

Merlin's_Beard said:

So with a five year fix comes a five year plan:

1. Rebuild emergency fund after buying

I pay for income protection that kicks in after 6 months. Emergency fund needs to cover that first six month period. Previously this would have been £10k - I need to recalculate this and then repair the damage from the extras a newbuild generates - floors, garden/lawn etc!

Mission accomplished on this one. EF rebuilt for the most part, have figured out what I need, working to top it up bit by bit.

2. Furnish a house and garden

I can't describe how excited I am to be able to have a) a small garden and b) a dining room table. And to be able to hang pictures on walls!

Hahahaha. I think I was thinking this would be mainly done by now? Because I was delusional? The house has barely been touched, but I do have my garden, and it is getting somewhere. Kitchen will be the first room in the house to get tackled so maybe a dining room table in the next six months?

3. Overpay mortgage

In my head, I want my balance to be under £200,000 at the end of my fix. Hopefully that should give me two things - a much wider choice at remortgage time, because I was limited by the amount I wanted to borrow. Hopefully it will help with the LTV side of things as well but I can't control the house price side of things.

I think the only place my mortgage gets under £200,000 is in my head now - this has been completely turned upside down by the student loan interest rate rocketing and diverting OPs towards that.

4. Increase pension payments

I don't want to work forever! My job has an aspect of physicality as well, so I'm self-insuring a bit against a point where maybe I physically can't do as much as well. Definitely aiming for FI, possibly RE if I can swing it. Currently 17% being paid into workplace pension and SIPP, would like to increase this.

I have done this! From this month my SIPP payments are going to be £100 higher per month than when I wrote this, and my work pension contributions have gone up a lot just because I've had two pay rises since pre-completion.

5. Start an S&S ISA

Even just £50/£100 a month to start with.

And on top of that pay for the rest of life...

Another one that has gone by the wayside at the minute, because of the payrises and falling into a HR tax bracket. At some point, this will happen, but not right now.

So I think the conclusion is that my very short term ASAP goals happened, my long term goals are still on track, and my medium term goals are completely all over the place because life changed and also I wildly underestimated the work and cost.

Financially over the last year:

(I'm ignoring whatever the house value is. It can do its thing without me poking it.)

YNAB says my net worth is £23.5k better than last August. About half of that is pension increase. I've knocked £3k off my student loan. I've taken £4.5k off the mortgage. I've rebuilt cash reserves.

This is all the right direction! Especially because that time period involves half paying for all floors, and fully paying for the garden.

I've also started spending again. There's still kind of a backpile of stuff that needs replacing or sorting because "I'll get to it after I've bought a house" but I'm getting through it. I'm trying to do my best to either a) buy sustainably and better quality and/or b) buy secondhand. Trying to do my best to be a bit more environmentally friendly even if it costs a bit more.

And I've started going to things again, which is very, very nice. I have a holiday booked, I have been to music and the  theatre and I have more planned later in the year.

KajiKita

If that was an end of year school report it would get an A*! 😊🤩
Impressive progress on all things financial (within the constraints and environment we are in) and tangible things for you and the house! Well done 👏😊

KK

selloptape

Fantastic roundup!

rtandon27

Lovely one year review!  It's so nice to see your progress ☺️ 

savingholmes

Fantastic progress. Things are going well. Nice to pick up some free bits from your volunteering too.

Merlin's_Beard

August roundup:

£861.72 saved. 

Emergency savings fund: £12100

Surveys this month: £55.13 - average, okay

Food spends: £205.23. That's fine.

Bookdate: a good month for books. Finished 3 - Rivers of London (fantastical contemporary police mystery, added the other 10(!) books to the want list this is not how this list gets smaller); Meditations by Marcus Aurelius as the classic - its meant to be profound philosophy but I just got the feeling he would have tried to sell me crypto; and A Memory Called Empire - a sci fi political thriller that was sort of sweet (and also added the sequel to the want list).

Bought either one or two, depending on how you look at it - the dodgy second being the kickstarter Good Omens graphic novel that I haven't been charged for yet.

savingholmes

I liked Marcus when I listened to him slowly over a period. Some of what he says is quite profound.

killerpeaty

I think we were all delusional when it comes to our first places. I wanted to be moved in by Christmas, it took about 3 years...

Loving the book reviews, you have inspired me to pick up a book from an author who used to be one of faves as a teen/early 20s. I remember finishing a book within a week every week, I can't remember the last time I read a full book

Merlin's_Beard

savingholmes said:

I liked Marcus when I listened to him slowly over a period. Some of what he says is quite profound.

I think the bit where he said that a lie was a sign of moral weakness was the moment I decided I didn't like him.

KajiKita

Merlin's_Beard said:

savingholmes said:

I liked Marcus when I listened to him slowly over a period. Some of what he says is quite profound.

I think the bit where he said that a lie was a sign of moral weakness was the moment I decided I didn't like him.

I think I would be with you on that …. Too blanket a statement.

KK