Mortgage Free in 5 - 10 years

savingholmes

Pots definitely help - as it reduces the pressure on individual months.

LadyWithAPlan

savingholmes said:

Pots definitely help - as it reduces the pressure on individual months.

Indeed .. I live by my saving pots  and its quite fun putting x away per month so when the bills or the big purchse finally comes you know you have strived to achieve peace whilst buying it

LegoHead

Big update. Was made redundant yesterday and I think I was unfairly dismissed so will be pursuing a claim through tribunal.

Financially my plan is to reduce outgoings to a bare minimum. I cancelled all my savings standing orders, cinema, youtube premium, cleaning and all the stuff I dont really need right now. 

Have a lodger for now so net outgoing is £732. Will be paid end of next week and end of next month. This should give me about £7000+. Have savings of over £11000 right now and this is exactly the situation i wanted this pot for. So glad I saved it.

Will be job hunting first thing next week and also looking at starting up on the freelancing websites as an interim to see if I can cover basic costs.

Looks like mortgage free may now be 10 years!

My only controversial part of my plan is to start putting all my other spends which will mostly be just food and fuel (about £200-£300 a month) onto my credit card and pay the minimum off each month. Not sure if I have a 0% interest on purchases deal still. Is this a bad idea? On paper it is the best way to keep my cash flow safe and maximise how long the money will last.

Archerychick

Oh gosh, I’m sorry to hear about your redundancy. I’ve only just come across your diary which I’ve read today. You have done an awesome amount of work to get to where you are today, and have your emergency savings for things just like this. 

Focus on dusting off your CV, and getting a new role but whilst it is terrifying you do have a solid amount of funds to fall back on and hopefully just a small temporary blip!

Your mortgage rate is brilliant, and for quite some time yet so try not to worry about this  

South_coast

You're doing all the right things, you'll get through this fine. I'd definitely check that the credit card is 0% before starting to use it, but if it is then that sounds like a good plan. I wouldn't use it if it's not interest-free though, you've got a good chunk of cash to see you through, no point holding on to that and racking up debt at 20+%

Good luck with the job search 🤞

LadyWithAPlan

So sorry to hear this but at least you have pretty decent savings so you could easily go for 8 months or more.  

Maybe look at it as a forced but positive reset - and use the time to think what you choose to have as a next career move - maybe self employed or as a contractor is the way  forward 

savingholmes

Sorry to hear your news. So glad you are debt free other than the mortgage, have savings and a lodger - all of that should help a lot. Good luck with your next career move. Cashflows is good but unless you are on a 0% deal I'd avoid using the CC if you can help it.

LegoHead

thanks all. I used to be a contractor before this job for a very short period, was earning good money too, but then covid stopped all that I ended up taking a permanent role. Not sure where to find the details on the 0%. I only just got the card last year as I got it for when travelling with work. The funny thing is I was made redundant because I refused to travel due to health issues :-) 

Going to not think too much about anything until the end of the month now and then will start actively job hunting. Need a bit of a reset after the stress of the last couple of weeks.

savingholmes

The refusing to travel due to health issues - perhaps speak to ACAS to see if you have a disability claim too...

LegoHead

savingholmes said:

The refusing to travel due to health issues - perhaps speak to ACAS to see if you have a disability claim too...

Thanks, spoke to ACAS prior along with a Solicitor and my home insurance legal cover. They say I have a very good case for unfair dismissal with many arguments for but mainly it being a sham redundancy. If I am lucky they will pay my mortgage off if I win an unfair dismissal case. Probably not, but I can dream. I mainly want to go after them as they bully all of their staff in general and I got on well with everyone at the company even the management prior to this... It would be a nice example for all the staff still there that if I can win this case against them they will think twice before bullying someone else.

They recently started telling staff they cant go to the toilet or even wash their hands when it is close to lunchtime or end of shift. They also threaten them all with the sack if the refuse to do overtime. For people struggling with finances what choice do they have? Will update in a couple of weeks when I know the next steps. Obviously will not be allowed to post company name unless it all becomes public after tribunal.