MFi3 & before I am 40 + my MB journey

JonnyBravo

Little_Mama wrote: »

Good luck Tall Girl.

I too am 40 in 2010 and would love to pay off the mortgage by then but I'd have to win the lottery seeing as we've still got £116K to clear......:rolleyes: ho hum.

Still I want to have made a significant reduction and all your diaries always give me good ideas and spur me on.

All the best
LM

Well I'm 40 in 2010 and I too would love to be mortage free in 2010 but it aint happening even more and our debt makes these debts seem trifling! (gulp).
I'm hopeful for 2014 as we're on schedule currently for Dec 2015 but I'd hope to step things up a bit.

(Oh and I bet you're not really tall TG..... not what I'd call tall anyhow :cool: )

TallGirl

Good luck.Whats your expensive hobbies BTW?

We both play golf and belong to the club next door. I absolutely love it but it does make for expensive holidays. Also new clubs are expensive but luckily I don't buy that often. DH does however buy a lot but I can usually sell the old ones on Ebay.

(Oh and I bet you're not really tall TG..... not what I'd call tall anyhow :cool: )

I am 6.2 not sure if that counts as tall

Thanks for all the comments and encouragements.

cazmanian_minx

Good luck :beer: Looking forward to reading about your journey.

Caz

JonnyBravo

TallGirl wrote: »

We both play golf .......


I am 6.2 not sure if that counts as tall

Thanks for all the comments and encouragements.

6'2" eh? Long levers good for distance when driving....


but no..... 6'2" aint tall.... not bad for a lass though

Tall is 6'10" :eek:

TallGirl

Right had a think about what I want to achieve in 2008. I have already broken my two New Years Resolutions so will need to think about something more long term. In 2007 I have managed to reduce the mortgage by £19,500 mainly thanks to a £5k inheritance so I don’t think we can pay as much of this year. DH does need his teeth fixing but I can definitely reduce it by another £12k. We do want to be able to go on holiday and were thinking about having the bathrooms done so will have to wait and see. I find using the money to pay off the mortgage rather than having them in the offset accounts works best for me, less temptation. As you can hear I am a big fan of online banking and log on at least once a day.

In terms of other goals for 2008 I need to find out if I am sticking with this job or looking for something else. I used to work for a local authority and absolutely loved it. I was there over 7 years and worked with some people who later became very good friends. I then got head-hunted by a private company and although my salary has increased by 25% and I have now got a company car I am not sure this is really for me. I have been here 2 years and have good and bad days. The problem is I work from home and it needs a lot of self motivation and drive to do well and enjoy it.

If I went back into local authority I would be paid a lot less and there are not a lot of jobs around at the moment. Most are low paid fixed contracts and even part-time. Will have to think hard about that one.

I then come to the big question that has been bothering me for a while. Do we have children or not. Time is running out I am 37 and can’t kid myself I can leave it any longer. DH is 8 years older than me and is just as undecided as I am with regards to kids. I know there is never a good time to have them and that they are expensive but I think it is important to make the decision at some point. I know this is a diary about paying off my mortgage but I think it would help if I can ramble on bit about this issue of children.

DH and I had a chat about it the other night and here are the main issues
· Work
If I have a child I will not be able to work fulltime in my current job and I might not even be able to work part-time. In actual fact I might not have a job at all as all the other jobs are based at HQ 4 hours away and I can’t really move.
· Risk if disabilities
BIL broke up with his GF just after she fell pregnant and they had a daughter with Cerebral Palsy, deafness and very bad eyesight. DH is petrified of having a disabled child and does not think he could cope. He knows you cannot just hand them back if they are not perfect but I think his fear is so great he would rather not have any. I know you can get tested for Downs and other things but that does not seem enough to reassure him
· Change of life style
Do I want to change to way I live. Playing golf when I want to, going on holiday having money to spend when I want. Guess having children is a step into the unknown
· Can we even have children
Who says we can even have any if we tried

Right promise that is it – stopping now. Too much rambling and need to udate the MFi3 Chart my inbox is nearly full.

catshark88

TallGirl I really empathise as I was similarly unsure what to do. I am the same age as you and live in the same area of the country. In the end it felt like my body took over and told my head to stop thinking about it and get on with it. I was really unsure though if I had done the right thing, right through my pregnancy.

To me, the difficulty was that before you have a kid, you think about all the pros and cons but you have not yet met your own child. One has to think about giving up a lot that you know you enjoy (golf, peace and quiet, whatever) but on the plus side there is only an unknown person that you think you might or might not like as much as your current position. For me, when DS was born, because I fell so in love with him, I didn't mind what I had previously seen as the downsides. I didn't even see them as restrictions 'cos I now WANTED to live the changed way.

Only you can know, deep down if you want a baby. That want is the important bit, lifestyles and finances can be sorted.

There is so much that can be tested for these days. Have a look on the Portland Hospital website, they have a lot of info.

Best of luck.

skint_spice

Just on a brief visit from DFW land but just read your thread and would like to say congrats on what you've achieved so far and all the best for 2008.

As regards the kids issue - they aren't compulsory and aren't for everyone (much as I love mine). Whatever you decide just make sure it's right for you. x

Little_Mama

Hi TG,
There's never a 'right' time to have kiddies.
OH and I were still deliberating like you, weighing up good full-time jobs, salaries, company cars etc, when a momentary lapse brought along our 1st DS.
There's lots of tests that can be done too.
Funnily enough, there is still enough money to go round, even though you can't imagine being one salary down...and in our case, mine was the larger salary at the time.
Good luck in whatever you decide to do.
LM

TallGirl

Thank you so much for your thoughts and comments I am so glad it is not just me who feel confused about the whole to have or have not when it come to children. I particular agree with Catshark I think you hit the nail on the head with the idea that we are swapping something we know for this unknown thing/person we have not met yet. I think us women are so used o organising, planning, looking after our careers etc that we are not used to having to do a leap out into the unknown. I have not spoken to DH more about this topic but writting about and reading your lovely replies have been great. As Little Mama say and Skint Spice children aren't for everyone which i also true just not sure if it is true for me.

TallGirl

Just thought I would tell you about how I saved money on our clock radio. Yesterday I had to unplug our Roberts Clock Radio which is great because it has a calendar so it knows when it is the weekend. Anyway when I tried to plug it back in it would not work. No display no radio just dead. Looked on the internet a new Roberts one is £27 which is quite steep really but it saves a lot of agro and we dont have to reset for the weekend.

Then I spotted that you can now get them as DAB Radios which would make sense in the long run and they were about £50 to £100. John Lewis are selling them and I have £70 worth of Pigsbacks vouchers to spend so off to buy one Sunday morning.

Got up late and missed the Captains Drive in at the golf club. No big deal but would have been nice to wish them luck for the year. Had breakfast and just about to set off when DH says what a shame the old one doesn't work. Yes I said just try it one more time - he plugs it in and presto it works.

Then I thought well I won't know how to programme it now as I have lost the intructions. Good old google found them and I have just printed them all out.

So saved £50 to £100 on not having to buy a clock radio and are now not tempted to go spending in John Lewis. Quite a good result I think.