Turning Straw into Gold: Creating Long Term Security & A Solid Home

MillQueen

@Rhyddid2026, I will keep my eyes open for good ones to recommend back to you. I really like the ones about cleaning (honeyjubu is my favourite) but I haven't yet found any new financial favourites. The repetitive feeling must be showing you have learnt a lot and you now know all the stuff those experts are saying 😀.

Well, after earlier saying I never socialise, I have now been invited out with a friend at the end of May. We will be going to a botanical garden, which I imagine will only be about £10 to get into and maybe £15 for fuel cost of driving there. If I can take a sandwich in my bag, I can just get a cuppa when we inevitably go to a cafe.

I will try to keep the cost of the whole day at £30 or under, that feels do-able.

In other news, I am thinking of swapping my investments from HSBC to Trading 212. I opened a stocks and shares ISA with HSBC (it's a global ETF) just because I already have an account with them, so it was easier. But it looks like Trading 212 will be better in terms of fees, since I will just be holding rather than frequently trading.

Rhyddid2026

I got a 212 account last year, when they were offering £40 of have a look to see if they still have that deal before you transfer. That's the only money I've put in to it at the moment, have to get the big and costly debts down first, but it's nice to know I have a S&S ISA and can add to it any time. I sometimes just log on and have a look, trying to get it to seem less scary.

MillQueen

Was it easy to set up, @Rhyddid2026? You're probably right to wait if you have debts with higher interest, as I think the general wisdom is to get higher interest debts down first isn't it, before investing and just prioritise having an emergency fund whilst you overpay debts as much as you can. That's sensible. Otherwise you will be earning small amounts of interest on investments while spending big amounts on interest on debts.

I have a tendency to want to do everything at once though, so I was impatient to begin the investing and watch it grow, alongside paying off debts, as I thought it would be interesting. My debts are not too scary in their interest (both loans are currently 6.2%), so it seems ok to invest a bit each month, as well as overpaying. However, so far what I have gained on the investments has not matched the interest on the loans, as world events have lowered any gains. My postgrad loan interest actually goes down a bit in September to 6%, which has excited me. I am planning to reduce my over-payments on the student loan slightly in September in order to focus on over-paying my bank loan instead, which will at that point be slightly higher interest.

If I keep my mortgage I'm anticipating it will go up at renewal next year, which is a bit depressing, as I had hoped to be able to reduce the term by a couple of years, so it could be 25 years at renewal instead of 27.

Rhyddid2026

It must have been easy if I did it 😂

Same, my mortgage needs renewing next year, but I'm hoping if I can get my house revalued it will have gone up a bit and I can get a better deal because of the reduced LTV. Fingers crossed!

MillQueen

Yes, hopefully the universe has good things in store for our mortgage rates next year. I have been obsessively keeping watch over the rates since they started going up again. Made a little chart of the different LTV percentages. My next milestone will be reaching 85% LTV once I reach £212,500, but that's a long way off, unless the valuation goes up quickly, which I don't think it will due to the area I live in.

Today's calculations have been about how long it will realistically take me to pay off the postgrad loan and the personal loan, and the answer is 3 years if I overpay each by £100 a month. That's achievable without doing much differently than what I do now, so the choice is whether to stress myself out trying to pay them down faster, or just let those run with the £100 overpayment and focus any other money on things I need.

MillQueen

Managed another no spend day yesterday. I got some exercise and I am trying to drink a big 2 litre bottle of water with a sachet of electrolytes in it every day this week, to see if I can have more energy and less brain fog, as for some reason I am always feeling tired even after I have slept.

I'm in work today and I have made a request about whether I can still have the time to do the training opportunity they refused to let me do, even if they won't pay for it. I thought I might as well ask, then I can just pay to do the training myself if I can have the time. I am not sure whether they will let me.

Still feeling dejected and lost my spark at work. I had a letter with my mortgage annual statement from the last year (the first year of my mortgage) and I paid £14,376……. £11,164 of that was interest 😵. For some reason that figure is only for 11 months of payments though. The 12 month total is higher. Depressing interest!

vampirotoothus

Hi if you do want to open a 212 account there is a link on Tezza's page, which is worth £100 so may be worth checking out. V x

MillQueen

Thanks @vampirotoothus, I appreciate when you pop in with useful suggestions.

I will make use of Tezza’s link when I am ready to swap, probably when I’ve got more in the account, as it’s currently small and easy.

MillQueen

I have put myself on an eyeliner buying ban, as I have nearly finished the one I have been using, and I was thinking I needed to buy another the same, but then I noticed I actually have four different ones already in my makeup bag of daily items. They may not be my preferred type but they are perfectly use-able and ought to be used before I waste a tenner on buying another. Then I looked in my larger makeup box, and there are also loads more of them there too... probably several years worth of eyeliner already in my house 😂.

I am going to see how I get on using those up. I tend to go through one every few months.

MillQueen

Looks like I am finishing the month £185 into my overdraft. I had hoped to pay it all off, but nearly there. It's a few hundred better than it was, and should be fixable by the end of next month.