The Long and Winding Road

t2rry

End of the month Mortgage Check:

Mortgage total:  was £394,000, now £367,985

LTV: was 75%. now 50%

Interest per day: was £21+, now £18.60

Time remaining: was 32 years now 29 years 2 months

mark55man

That's impressive.  You will find yourself tinkering with how you report it progress, absolute (ie as above) and relative - ie how much you have done in last 3/6/12 months).  Up to you but each measure gives you a different perspective.

I can tell you though, from someone at the other end of the Mortgage journey, the future you in 29 years 2 months will be thanking you and so so grateful for you thinking of her.  Plus the more you can push that target now, the more and the earlier the future you will be thanking the now you   

savingholmes

I agree with this - as long as you also keep an eye on pension provision and/or tax free savings via ISAs etc - so that not all your £ is tied up in a single asset.

t2rry

Great advice - agree I was already thinking about how best to track, I think that'll come to me when I get more into it.

Otherwise I'm absolutely keeping an eye on pension and tax free savings too, I'm actively adding to a SIPP each year, over and above my workplace pension (DB) to keep me under 40% tax threshold as well as a S&S ISA to build a bridge between target retirement age and state pension age.  We'll likely set up a SIPP for OH in the coming years too as he starts to reach 40% bracket.

I've been contributing a set sum to the ISA monthly for about 18 months now, so still a newbie but enjoying learning - I missed a couple months to stockpile for short term expenses and had intended on continuing that with the extension in planning, but honestly I like the reassurance of having some go in regularly so I've restarted it just at a lower amount so I'm keeping all pots growing and it will push me to find other means to keep the extension pot growing too as I won't want to even consider touching the ISA (we have a fair few other savings pots, dotted around for best interest rates whilst ensuring neither of us exceed the £1k PSA)

Just spent far too long sorting OHs phone bill out - he had been paying off a handset still which is 0% but also meant he was tied into a plan cost that I knew we could beat.  Anyway, it's done now and we've paid off the device for £175 whilst reducing the monthly outgoing from £42 to £8 per month, I figure the difference between the £8 and £20 something data plan was an effective interest rate that we've freed ourselves from.  5 months for the savings to have paid off the device anyway and from there on we're just saving the £35 per month difference clear, always nice to increase monthly disposable income (which means increasing the 'savings' line on my budget spreadsheet!).  

savingholmes

Sounds like you are doing really well.

LadyWithAPlan

 Sounds like you are focused and have a great plan 

As an additional metric maybe would you want to track the end date for your mortgage as opposed to years (as time will keep passing anyway ) eg. Mortgage was due to be paid off July 2050 now Aug 2047 etc 

are you signed up for airtime rewards ? 

Vanguard has a great low cost SIPP for your husband 

t2rry

LadyWithAPlan said:

 Sounds like you are focused and have a great plan 

As an additional metric maybe would you want to track the end date for your mortgage as opposed to years (as time will keep passing anyway ) eg. Mortgage was due to be paid off July 2050 now Aug 2047 etc 

are you signed up for airtime rewards ? 

Vanguard has a great low cost SIPP for your husband 

end date metric is a great idea, I think I'll apply that once we've taken out our additional extension borrowing as I'll be concentrating on paying that part down asap first.

Airtime rewards I've heard of, never thought I'd signed up, or if I had I didn't think it did anything, I'm not sure why, I think maybe I thought it was only for debit cards and we don't spend much on debit cards (cashback credit card) but its credit too so I just downloaded it and it turns out I had set it up in 2019 (it does ring a bell) and it had about £40 earned (cards all expired in 2020/2021!!) , which looks like it is lost due to my account having been inactive, but at least I know now so thanks for mentioning!  I've sent a ticket off asking if there's a way to release these as even that is 4 months of my phone bill!!  

Anyway we're up and running with it now, hopefully it'll do it's thing again!

Vanguard is where my SIPP is so likely I'd go with the same for OH so makes me feel assured I've made a good pick there!! 

t2rry

Following on re: airtime rewards, they've reinstated my balance!  What a nice little bonus!

savingholmes

Woohoo - great result on the £40!

Tiredbutdetermined

I love your multiple ways of measuring progress.

great win on the airtime rewards reinstatement. That prompts me to look at mine as I have both my debit cards registered with them. One never tracks and the other is hit and miss so I am losing out on a lot of extra rewards