New year, new goal

RS89

Been away for a while so thought I’d update the diary. The bathroom works ended up being really bad. Structural work needed due to rotten joists costing total 18k all in and to top it off looking unlikely insurance will pay out. The farce with them warrants a whole other thread. 

So that has put a major spanner in the works and set us back a lot. All of the money from selling the car etc has gone on that and emergency savings fund taken a big dent. 

We had also pre committed a holiday over Easter which also needed to be paid for. Urrghhhh!

now focusing on trying to get the good ship back on an even keel and get back on track. 

RS89

Update now 5 months later. 

No decision from the insurance company still. Maybe that’s a good sign or maybe a bad sign, who knows. 

We’ve managed to build back up some emergency savings so that’s good. 

However I’ve also been clobbered by an unexpected tax bill, so that’s bad. 

Not been the best money saving! 

On the plus side did get a pay rise at work which was above inflation so that’s very helpful. 

The mortgage free plan by the end of this fix rate is still possible but it’s a very narrow path. 

Currently the mortgage stands at £259k and the goal is to pay that off by December 26. With current monthly overpayments that means I’ll need to pay a lump sum of £183k then, of which I have currently saved about 45k. So £140k to go… 

Plan to pay the 140 is:
Long term bonus at work - 65k post tax
save about 2k a month. 

Pray for no more unexpected bills. 

We keep going…

RS89

November 23 update. Mortgage balance sitting at about 253k. Managed to not buy anything in the Black Friday sales which I suppose is money saving. 

But with Christmas round the corner things are going to be spendy. We have cut back somewhat this year in the spirit of really going for this goal. 

Also increased the monthly mortgage overpayment by  another £35 which will chip away a bit more at it. 

Still on the narrow track. We keep going. 

beanielou

Keeping going is good 

RS89

Jan 24 update. Mortgage balance now sitting at 251k. Hard to believe we chopped 22k off in 1 year! On top of that the savings balance is also looking healthy at roughly 60k and investment performance is also improving too. 

Big milestone coming in Feb when a long term incentive plan from work will pay out which will make a big dent in the mortgage balance. 

So we’re still on the narrow path to being mortgage free by Dec 2026. 

Struggling with massive wanderlust which isn’t money saving but we have to strike a balance between frugality and living! 

RS89

I’ve been experimenting with an app called “you need a budget”. It enables you to set up multiple different pots of spending and tracks your transactions accordingly. Lots swear by it but I haven’t found it revelatory yet… it seems to confirm what I’m doing is working. I do like their concept of “age of money” though which is identifying how “old” the money you are paying bills with is as a measure of cash flow. 

I probably won’t renew it though. 

This months mortgage payment will take the balance under the psychological threshold of 250k. With a starting balance 8 years ago of £395k… that’s huge progress. 

We did cave to the wanderlust and have 2 major long haul trips booked this year. Not money saving and the mortgage free goal would be radically more feasible if we didn’t do that but you only live once and we don’t spend on other luxuries. Its mortgage and holidays. 

Next update will be mid Feb post the LTIP. If the vest is good that will be a nice chunk gone. 

Archerychick

Awesome work!

I’ve just read your diary for the first time. I did not take out anywhere near the size of mortgage as you, but I am being aggressive in paying it off. It will be gone in 21 months, which is around 10 years early. 

My fixed rate is 1.49% so not quite as good as yours and whilst I can overpay what I like; I can get much more interest by saving instead. So I have actually several savings accounts (some fixed, some it in my ISA, some instant access for all sorts of reasons), it’s allocated in my finance package so it’s not spent, I don’t see it as accessible money now to be honest and when I get to the end of my fix this will be around £20k in total that will pay off the balance in full.

I also have a spreadsheet that I minus these savings from the mortgage balance so I can see the balance going down which is nice to see each month! 

Whilst I have other savings, the other benefit is that if something significant came up with the house or car etc I do have that saved money to access if I didn’t have another option. I really can’t see any of this happening with my other finances but you never know 

RS89

February update. LTIP vested much lower than expected, about 2/3 of what I thought it would. In real terms that doesn’t mean much this year but since LTIPs are on 3 year rolling average performance conditions it means that probably next year and the year after will also come in short unless business performance improves dramatically and fast. 

So overall, I need to find an extra c20k over the next 36 months to still meet my goal. 

Not quite sure how we will do that since the plan we had involved everything lining up… 

RS89

March update. Today the mortgage sits at about £246k but more importantly the savings pot to pay it off is near £60k. 

This might seem like a large gap and it is but there is a plan which is back weighted. The regular savers keep saving, the over payments keep chipping away and so far we both still have our jobs so the share awards will vest and do the rest. 

However my employer did just announce job cuts. I’m not sure I’m on the block but I’m relieved that the strategy is to OP a small amount and to be saving the rest to pay it down when the fix rate ends. Means if my circumstances change then that money is there.

For now going to enjoy the Easter weekend, we have a mini break planned and there is chocolate that needs eating.  

Aimingforthegoodlife

Good luck with the mortgage plan and hopefully your job is totally safe!