LJ's Mortgage free road to early retirement

beanielou

Great news on the resit Louise :j :j :j

wantabetterlife

Well done on the exams louise, i am sure that is a big relief, you will be earning the big bucks now
You are doing fab with the mortgage aswell, if i had a mortgage that low i would be thinking i was on the pigs back :j

setmefree2

to passing the exam :j:j

MG33

You are doing so well Louise and your thread is really inspiring! You seem to have the balance between overpaying and living just right.

Well done on passing your exam

LouiseJ

Thought I should pop in to update my progress or lack of.

Our 11 year old 2nd car finally popped its cloggs and had to be replaced so we have borrowed £7k back from the mortgage overpayments. Hopefully this car will last us at least 7 years and the other car (which is now our 2nd car) wont need replacing for at least another 2 years.

So mortgage stands at £37k which is quite a set back but has given me a renewed vigour to get it paid back down again (I almost made the under £30k mark last month)

I feel that having the option to borrow back from the overpayment pot is much better than finance or a loan and at least I can pay it back on my own terms.

Trying to stay positive and once again need to reign in the spending......:o

Lois_E

Never mind, LouiseJ.

If you need a car, then borrowing for a car is "good debt" according to Martin. And by borrowing back your OPs, you are getting a much much better rate of interest than you would get on car finance or any other kind of loan, and as you say, you get flexibility in how and when you pay it back.

Hang in there and keep going. You'll get back down below £30k eventually!

LouiseJ

Back again, hanging head in shame....again:o

Thinks have all gone a little out of control after the car situation, work is so damn hectic so I seem to just look forward to getting to the weekend and either heading off to a restaurant or reaching for a takeaway menu.

Spending is out of control and the Credit card is up to over £1500 (waiting for statement for correct figure)

I know that I can get to grips with this again but lately it just seems so difficult.

So, holidays are now over (I have another 2 weeks off though) but some major expenditure is due next week as my boys turn 16 and 18. After that I really need to focus big style.

I am also as fat as butter:o

Rant over.........I shall be back tomorrow with some figures.

golfiematt

i know the feeling, sometimes you need a break from worrying about every penny you spend just to refocus. Im sure you will be back on track eventually

LouiseJ

Thanks for that Golfiematt

I really do need to get back to basics and once again try to plan for when I return to work.

funnily enough I am questioning whether working full time has actually benefited us due to the extra spending on petrol and convenience buys (takeaways and ready make food). I am sure that we were supposed to be better off from working so much but I have seen no evidence of this?

Maybe I just need to be more organised?
Maybe I need to accept that I cannot do everything perfectly?

Whatever the answer we are getting nowhere fast (cue Smiths)

beanielou

Take care hun xx