Hurrah, my MFW quest has started

Rob71

Hey ATT... just read your thread - quite inspirational, and good progress so far!

Hope the shares do well and you can use them (and in time the BTL) to knock a seriously large chunk off of the mortgages...

Without being too nosey (OK, I'm being reeeeaaally nosey!:p) what are your monthly payments to your mortgages before you OP? I'm just trying to gauge other peoples monthly commitments - you mentioned about 50% of your net income, does this still stand? (just looking for ballpark % before and after OPs, not real numbers!)

I'm trying to work out the best OP strategy for me (so far, I've just whimped out and dropped my term from 20 years to 12 to enforce some discipline!), I'm considering OPs on my monthly amount as well, and Stuart kindly supplied his "mother of all spreadsheets";) a while back which I've duly !!!!!!!ised to fit in more with my circumstances...

Soz for being so nosey - PM if you prefer not to answer publicly - but any info would be gratefully received!

Best of luck with the new year/challenge!

If I ever manage to stop procrastinating, I'll get myself joined up to a challenge too... :rotfl:

gallygirl

abouttimetoo wrote: »

1. Spent £1500 on-line on clothes this week

abouttimetoo wrote: »

• This means total OP's this year of £5470.26 which is only 78% of my original target but I understand the reasons why

Eh, yes I think we're all with you on that one :rotfl:. I spent £215 2 weeks ago (1/2 price Alexon sale & also knocked £35 off total with gift voucher :eek:), justified it by thinking 'at least it wasn't £1500 like ATT' :rotfl:

Rob71 wrote: »

If I ever manage to stop procrastinating, I'll get myself joined up to a challenge too... :rotfl:

You know you want to Rob. As Mrs Doyle would say 'go an go an go an go an'

abouttimetoo

Rob71 wrote: »

Hey ATT... just read your thread - quite inspirational, and good progress so far!

Hope the shares do well and you can use them (and in time the BTL) to knock a seriously large chunk off of the mortgages...

Without being too nosey (OK, I'm being reeeeaaally nosey!:p) what are your monthly payments to your mortgages before you OP? I'm just trying to gauge other peoples monthly commitments - you mentioned about 50% of your net income, does this still stand? (just looking for ballpark % before and after OPs, not real numbers!)

I'm trying to work out the best OP strategy for me (so far, I've just whimped out and dropped my term from 20 years to 12 to enforce some discipline!), I'm considering OPs on my monthly amount as well, and Stuart kindly supplied his "mother of all spreadsheets";) a while back which I've duly !!!!!!!ised to fit in more with my circumstances...

Soz for being so nosey - PM if you prefer not to answer publicly - but any info would be gratefully received!

Best of luck with the new year/challenge!

If I ever manage to stop procrastinating, I'll get myself joined up to a challenge too... :rotfl:

Hi Rob71 thanks for your post, not too mention reading the whole of my post, I can only imagine that there was nothing on TV that you fancied :rolleyes:

I've just spent a while doing a post as your % question is very dear to my heart as I know I've really fallen down on this one this year, however, I then felll foul of being timed out and lost my post :eek:
Not to worry, I'll do it again as i had planned to post this sort of analysis anyway

Regards ATT

abouttimetoo

Hi Rob71

I've not had time yet to post my full analysis so here's a couple of high level figures in the meantime

• 2008 ( I started Op'ing April 08)
  • average % of salary to mortgage before OP 38%
  • average % of salary including OP to mortgage 54%
• 2009
  • average % of salary to mortgage before OP 17%
  • average % of salary including OP to mortgage 35%

2009 looks rubbish compared to 2008 (particularly as one of my 2009 aims was to really bump up % of salary to mortgage) but this is beause I got sidetracked with buying some shares, dipping into stooze money to change car and then re-building stooze fund. This is why I want to post a more detailed analysis; I'm going to spend some time while i'm off over Christmas looking at my finances as I feel that whilst I've been merrily OP'ing I've lost sight of what impact my actions have (or haven't more like!) had on my MFW date

abouttimetoo

Hmm, some unexpected car repairs have set me back £215 today :eek:

abouttimetoo

abouttimetoo wrote: »

Hmm, some unexpected car repairs have set me back £215 today :eek:

Just an update on the car repairs, before the repairs I'd had a flat battery three times in two weeks and had been re-started twice by Green Flag and once by AA At first I thought that it was as a result of the car not having been used much plus the cold/snowy weather but then it turned out it needed a new battery. When it got to the garage for repairs it then turned out that some 'pulley tension' thingy also needed replacing. I'm pleased to report no problems starting it since the new battery and repairs despite much cold and snowy weather!

abouttimetoo

abouttimetoo wrote: »

Well, I had hoped to be giving you a clothes spend update but due to various delivery problems, (out of stock, wrong size and even wrong garment!) I still haven't been able to work out where I am yet. I have done lots of returns though - phew - and so far have returned over £500. In addition I always forget about a Christmas fund I pay into so have got £240 coming from that I hadn't banked on. I've now got one more delivery due then I should know what the final damage is.

Well, I'm embarrassed to say that I still don't know what I've spent, I know this sounds bad but it's actually as a result of my trying to be more MSE - honest guv :rolleyes::o. What I mean to say is that I got some further 12.5% discount vouchers I could use and then some of the things I had bought went into the M&S 50% off sale so I sent quite a few things back and re-ordered them again at the sale price. All this means I still have no idea of the final cost. My last delivery (hmm, where have you heard that before) is due next week then I really need at least an hour to sit down and work through the many debits and refunds and further debits my credit card has had! I can honestly say I've never had something so much outside of my financial control as this :eek:

PS I noticed a new MFW'er has been known to spend £5000 a year on craft items, phew - that's making my clothes expenditure look not too bad :rotfl:

PPS Just realised my PS might sound a bit mean - don't mean it to, just glad someone else might get a bit of heat, hmm, that doesn't sound right either, think I'd better stop digging :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

abouttimetoo

Right all, be warned, I'm in a multiple post mood as I've finally found the time to do some spreadsheet analysis and thinking about what I achieved in 2009......

After messing around with graphs (thanks again FB for the advice on how to post images) I've decided to represent some of the information in table format. I've also decided to not just stop at 2009 but go back to the start of my mortgage which was Jan 2007.

Apologies in advance if any of the graphs or tables send you cross eyed :rotfl:

abouttimetoo

On the surface it looks like 2009 has been a good year for me in terms of capital reduction, however, that is until you see that I have made £5731.30 less mortgage payments than I did in 2008, particularly as I didn't even start overpaying/being MFW until April 08.

So, it seems safe to say that most of my success is down to the reduced interest rate I have been paying rather than ramping up the overpayments as I had planned to do at the start of 2009.

I haven't kept a definitive list (note to self for the future!) of the other things I have been spending my money on to account for the shortfall so here are a few of the key reasons that I have not paid more into my mortgage than I did in 2008!

1. Changed my car in December 2007. I did this via dipping into my stooze pot e.g. 'borrowing' £4,000 from it that I then needed to repay to my pot
2. Spent £5,561.76 on shares (raided savings and again also dipped into stooze pot to do this!). I did then sell some of them at a 77% profit and then kept some of them back. The profit I made went back into the stooze pot
3. Filled my full £7,200 Share ISA entitlement, I figured this was the only silver lining to be had whereby the share prices were so low I could stash far more of them in my ISA than I normally would have been able to
4. Had skiing holiday
5. Went to Europe for a few days in July
6. Wild shopping spree (final cost unknown - see earlier posts!)

I think this just about covers the large additional expenditure I had in 2009 but I will add to the list if I remember any more.

All in all, whilst I'm far from happy at paying less into my mortgage in 09 as opposed to 08 it was a calculated risk that I took in terms of over-reliance on the reduced interest rate accounting for much of the capital reduction so allow me to change car and dabble in some shares



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abouttimetoo

Looking at the table below I think it's also reflective/further evidence of how little of my salary compared to 2008 has been going to the mortgage either as a normal monthly payment or as an OP. Not trying to make excuses but think it's also fair to point out that I got a promotion with a good pay rise in May 08 (hence me really kick-starting MFW) and a bonus in March 08 - I think this explains higher proportion of salary to mortgage in January and February and less in March




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