Hurrah, my MFW quest has started

abouttimetoo

I'm due to make this month's OP on Friday but as I won't be around to do it I've set my internet banking to do it. I've also input the OP into my spreadsheet and noticed that this month's OP will be quite a milestone for me - I normally only report my figures from the date I started OP'ing rather than from when I took the mortgage, so, taking the actual start date of the mortgage this month's OP will take me just into the £20+ paid off, £20,051.02 to be exact :j

I'll update properly at the weekend when the OP has actually been paid

Hope you are all having a good month

Queen-Bee_2

You must be looking forward to writing that update ATT. Well done on the milestone!!
QB

setmefree2

Fantastic milestone QB :T:T:T:T

abouttimetoo

Hi all :wave:

I've just send FB my update for the 1st chart on the MFiT T2 challenge, this will be our very 1st update and I'm really excited to see how we've all done. FB says we need to collectively reduce our mortgages by £750k a quarter to stay on track

For this particular challenge I'm only doing my IO part and my start point 12/12/09 (when the challenge began was £85k with a target of reducing this to £45k by 12/12/12). So, my first update shows that i've reduced my mortgage by £1358 since Dec 09 down to £83,642. Whilst this is pretty good it is still only 3% of target achieved and I know I have a long way to go.

Other money news then, unfortunately I've had a problem with my car and to pay a £145 repair bill last week.

My next two big outlays will be spending money for a weeks holiday early May and also repaying £6,000 of stooze, also in May. At present, I don't have that amount to hand due to my habit of dabbling in shares so I need to build that up in the next three months which will mean making Overpayments of less than planned but then after May I'll be able to ramp it back up.

I've also opened a Vantage account with LTSB as there was an attractive interest rate.

I've just had my gas and electricity bills in. My electric bill was £40 for the quarter and this is actually the most expensive quarterley bill I've ever had but then I can't complain at just over £3 per week. I'm also a £40 in credit with them so I need to ring and ask them to reduce my DD, apparently you need 'special permission' to reduce your DD below £10 per month so we'll see how that goes.

I don't have my gas bill to hand but off the top of my head it was £140 so quite expensive but we have had a very hard and cold winter and one thing I won't skimp on is being warm!

Hope you are all doing well with your plans

abouttimetoo

Hi all

I can see that I updated my signature 1st April but I didn't do a post update


So... where am I then.

• I made an OP of £500 in March taking OP's this year to £1800
• Requested the £65.65 back from Topcash which relates to my car insurance renewal. TBH it paid out at least a month ago and I didn't get around to requesting it - not very MSE ay!
• I got a new tenant for my BTL last month so that is ticking over nicely but I'm definately thinking of selling this year. In fact I'd already arranged an estate agent to visit just as the new tenant appeared so I have postponed the estate agent and will re-arrange it when he leaves which could be 3 months or 6 months
• I opened another Vantage account with LTSB to get the 4% interest rate
• I'm due to pay back a £6k stooze next month and this money makes up some of the balance I have in my two vantage accounts (you can only have a maximum of £7k to get the best interest)
• I've cashed in a sharesave at work as the original option price is higher than the current price. I'm going to use that money to buy the shares at todays prices
• Opened a new £250 per month sharesave
• I need to organise filling my share ISA allowance

So, things are ticking over nicely but it's never fast enough is it:rotfl:

abouttimetoo

My March OP took my total o/s balance to £169,127 so it's lovely to see it start with '169' rather than '170', I really love seeing those sort of milestones.

The other thing that is on my mind at the moment is the method I'm using to reduce the mortgage balance. My interest rate is whatever base rate is so it's 0.5%; I've always chosen to make OP's to the mortgage - even though I know i could get a better savings interest rate - as I prefer to see the balance reduce rather than savings grow however, I'm now thinking of amending this approach.

The reason for this is that there are a couple of quite significant products out there at the moment e.g. Newcastle Building Society is doing a cash ISA for 5 years with a guaranteed interest rate of 9% but with a potential of a 44% return depending on how the footsie performs, Leeds BS is doing a similiar one with in excess of 10%. TBH I thought I'd been misinformed at first but no, it looks like it's for real although I must confess I don't understand how they can afford to pay so much?

So, I'm thinking about making smaller OP's and putting the rest into a cash ISA which I've never done before as I've always used my allowance for my shares but I can still put some of my shares in the ISA can't I. I need to do some sums and have a think about this.

I'm going on holiday next month and I suspect I will need quite a bit of spending money as there are lots of sightseeing trips I want to do:o

abouttimetoo

I seem to be having a postathon tonight :rotfl:



My other update is around stoozing;

• I'm due to repay £6k next month
• The 10k that I borrowed for shares is due to be repaid in June. I don't have the amount to pay back as I didn't sell the shares as planned but decided to keep them for a while. In order to pay back the £10k then I'm in the fortunate position of being able to borrow the money temporarily from my parents and then I will re-apply for a new stooze and repay them
• My slow stooze 0% credit card is ticking over fine and doesn't need to be repaid until the end of the year

I'm a bit sick of this stoozing actually and will be very happy when they've all been repaid!

abouttimetoo

I think this will be my final post of the evening... The MFiT T2 challenge is now well underway and I've made OP's to this challenge of £2345.56 and although I'm behind where I should be at this point it's only month three of a three year challenge and I'm not too concerned.

Although I've also done the yearly challenges I'm really enjoying being part of the MFiT T2 challenge as I've always followed the original challenge run by Dithering Dad and Tall Girl and wished I could be part of it so it's great to be part of this one and hear how others are doing

Hope you are all doing great

setmefree2

abouttimetoo wrote: »

My March OP took my total o/s balance to £169,127 so it's lovely to see it start with '169' rather than '170', I really love seeing those sort of milestones.

Nice one :T:T:T

abouttimetoo

Hi all

I've made an OP of £500 this month so that takes my OP's this year to £2300 and that puts me at 24% of this years target.

My MFiT T2 numbers are £2845.56 so far. I've just been catching up with the original MFiT thread - didn't they all do amazing, collectively they paid £1.9 million over three years and 13 of them became mortgage free, they are such an inspiration :T

Since I last posted I've opened up two Vantage accounts where they pay 4% on balances of £7k; at present I have one full and the other half full although this won't last as the £6 stooze will be repaid next month.

I'm then changing my tactics a little and will continue to make £500 pm OP's with an additional amount into the Vantage (not worked out how much yet) as the interest received is higher than the mortgage rate but I do like seeing the balance going down too so will have this split approach.

I've got a really expensive month coming up with a holiday abroad and I've just paid £300 council tax for the three month peridod that my BTL was empty.

Other news then, I've received a 2.5% pay rise which started with effect from this month's salary so that was nice to get. I'm also expecting to receive a small bonus amount in May or June of approx £150 but every little helps.

The £65.65 from Topcash is now in my account and I've accrude another £18 as I took out my holiday insurance through it too

I've spent a couple of hours this evening tussling with my shares as well, if only I had kept good records 10 years ago it would be much easier to see whats what

The 'front' figure has changed again for my o/s mortgage and now starts with aa 168 - yay.