Statement of intent

StuartGMC

We have ongoing discussion here regarding OP/Offset and investing (e.g. Cash ISAs) etc. Also, with MF date in sight, I need to modify the spreadsheet to allow inclusion of additional accounts.

So, I ran a few scenarios and presently the situation is thus:
Mortgage capital remaining £20493 (Rate is 4.49%)
Mortgage interest incurred (at present offset totals) £23.15 per month
Interest lost on the monies offsetting £25.86

Total "effective interest per month" £49.01 i.e. 1.51%

I ran a few scenarios with us moving £7200 into Cash ISA etc but this resulted in a cost of £86 per month. I know I'll lose the tax benefit by not putting £7200 away this year, but our preference is mortgage clearance. Once we are mortgage-free then we should have £20.7k available each year for saving and investing.

Of course, no spreadsheet is complete without a few graphs, and I've replotted that for the mortgage. With the change in October planning and switching some monies from monthly S&S ISA saving to the mortgage OP, it has lifted the balance curve a significant amount above the trend line since June 2006.

It'll be nice to watch this and the rotation of the trend line to a steeper angle as the cumulative increased OP impacts. The fit is good with R^2 of 1 and (with x as date) a regression line of
f(x)=12.63x-53778.71

(No doubt FB will be able to comment on this!)

jstyles

StuartGMC wrote: »

I'll be off to opticians PM today; 20:20 well I've had glasses since I was about 11 or 12 and had my dreams of being a pilot flattened by the first optician I saw!

Update: Back from optician; they double-checked all information and I saw the optician again. It seems the centralisation of the lenses is the cause of the problem. So, they will send them off to be remade. Not sure if these will be ready next weekend though, but reassuring that the issue was identifiable rather than my inability to wear varifocals.

Don't be put off from being a pilot too soon - thought it depends if you're going for PPL or CPL!

I was minus nine dioptres and got my pilot's license (though I'm now lapsed - family priorities, etc!) and everything was tickedy-boo, though I had to get a note from an eye surgeon confirming that my eyes were in good nick and stable. The CAA were fine with it. Don't give up!

Welshlassie

Wow Stuart you are so on top of things, very impressive. Keep it up.

Hope you get the varifocals sorted before Christmas.

setmefree2

StuartGMC wrote: »

Presently our total net position on cash (savings, current account), investments (S&S ISAs) and the mortgage mean we only owe the world £2532 !

That's so cool.:D

abouttimetoo

StuartGMC wrote: »

A quick interim update.

Our effective interest rate on the mortgage has peaked at 1.79% with the credit card bill payment going out of the account. It did process as a Faster Payment, so may choose to pay closer to the due date in Jan.... quote]


Hi Stuart, just a note of caution regarding faster payment as I've recently been caught out with this and did not receive a satisfactory and/or convincing arguement to convince me to make the payments later and rely on faster payment.

My goldfish card was recently taken over by Barclaycard, as such I had to change the on-line payment details and to 'test' the time scales I sent a payment before the full amount was due. It went through the same day, great I thought, so on this basis for the next bill I sent it on a Thursday (it was due the following Monday so I still thought I was sending it early). Anyway, it didn't turn up for 4 days and I had to make a payment over the phone so as not to incur interest (so I paid the bill in full twice grr). The sending and receiving bank both blamed each other and said it was in the small print that the payments could take between 1 and 4 days.

When I complained that it had sent same day first time so I based second payment on that previous experience I was told that some payments go via the fraud department for checking and that the floor limit for this is ever changing and they could do random checks also - basically some months it might go through same day, so months it might not.....

The upshot is I will send the payments 4 days in advance. It's not good enough really and I'm sure many people wouldn't be able to pay their bill in full twice as I did to avoid the interest.

The same scenario has also happened with my on-line mortgage overpayments, on rare occassions they go through same day and on others two days later. This one amazes me as both accounts are in my name and with the same bank:rolleyes:

abouttimetoo

Hi again

Stuart, I owe you an apology You kindly send me a copy of your spreadsheet but I hadn't realised it had gone into my spam folder so I had thought you had forgotten about me and not sent it (hangs head in disbelief)

Got it now so look forward to having a good old rummage.

Thanks again

Regards

StuartGMC

abouttimetoo wrote: »

Hi Stuart, just a note of caution regarding faster payment as I've recently been caught out

When I complained that it had sent same day first time so I based second payment on that previous experience I was told that some payments go via the fraud department for checking and that the floor limit for this is ever changing and they could do random checks also - basically some months it might go through same day, so months it might not.....

This one amazes me as both accounts are in my name and with the same bank:rolleyes:

ABTT, many thanks. My Current a/c and credit card are with the same bank too; so far (two payments) the amount has transferred that very same day but noting your experience I may wait some while longer then before reducing the payment date to be closer to the due date!

Stuart, I owe you an apology You kindly send me a copy of your spreadsheet but I hadn't realised it had gone into my spam folder so I had thought you had forgotten about me and not sent it (hangs head in disbelief)

ABTT, no problem at all; I'll now forgive you for not sending me feedback
Seriously though, spam filtering is a real necessity now. I use MailWasher for spam etc filtering, and as you would expect here on MSE, use a free e-mail client from Mozilla (Thunderbird) which is very good.

StuartGMC

I thought I was about to be able to tell you that I had the electricity and gas readings and consumption sorted out, following difficulties online... BG responded to forms and advised for the electricity on the new electronic meter that register 1 is day rate and register 2 is the night rate (0000-0700hrs) and I had been entering them online the wrong way round.

They worked out the period when offpeak wasn't working on the old meter at £21.37 and made it up to £25 as a goodwill gesture.

OK, popped out to look, and there is a little adhesive label for "2- 0000/0700" so it indicates that register 2 is the night rate, but, the 2 was flashing at 1755hrs and as I watched it incremented in reading... whereas register1 remained fix! I thought this was the case before, so now I am even more confused about the situation

A further e-mail sent off to try to resolve as the last thing I wanted was to have "most" consumption billed as offpeak and then find BG wanting to claim it back! I'll have to wait now to see how it affects the above calc on the offpeak consumption and hence difference in prices. :rolleyes:

It's going to be a bit difficult to work out our average consumption now though....

Finally, today is 17th so several things come together:

• our ISA S&S purchases go through (trickle feed but funnily enough, the Latin American fund is at 62% worth more of the invested value than the UK fund (60%), but ignore Russia (only worth 48.4% of invested value)
• interest on mortgage will be calculated today and added overnight, so I can get a year-end position
• credit card bill will be generated on 18th so can see the sit rep on that, and
• I'll be paid early due to Christmas (but it has to last to the 25 Jan...),

so should be able to get an accurate position at the weekend for end of 2008.

StuartGMC

Firstly, the primary facts as of today:
Mortgage remaining £20518.77
Offsetting 82.8%
Effective interest rate 1.02%
Required minimum payment per month £273, actual £650

Monthly interest during 2008:
17/01/08 -£81.78
18/02/08 -£75.98
17/03/08 -£61.52
17/04/08 -£61.41
19/05/08 -£52.95
17/06/08 -£49.83
17/07/08 -£51.47
18/08/08 -£53.95
19/09/08 -£53.11
17/10/08 -£42.93
17/11/08 -£40.51
17/12/08 -£24.96

I'm quite pleased with the reduction in interest charged since 1 Jan, which is a combination of offsetting and the lower interest rates.

Stocks & Shares ISAs value -46.62% (loss) vs. investment
Russia & Greater Russian -53.37%
UK Smaller Co -39.06%
Latin American -37.98%

I've been advised of my pay rise which will apply from 1 Jan 09, not had one since July 07. I'm quite happy about the increase when considering the economic climate and what position I could be in. I hope that once I know the actual net increase in salary I can simply save this increase. My pension contribution at 10% into the company scheme means it "adds" to the tax free income allowance, but I may trip into 40% tax until April, then back to 20%.

More later....

StuartGMC

....it's now later.

Our spreadsheet shows that today our net debt to the world is £569.75 :j
That will change though as the monies leave in the next few weeks, but it is very nice to see it at this amount.

All the shopping has been done bar some fresg veg so this will see us into January. It better do so, as it has distorted the average monthly groceries etc bill to £448.10 per month. Clothing and shoes remains at £228 whilst petrol is £242, and will slowly drop as I am still running the average cost basis from April.

Credit card bill is of course high this month; required to be paid by 12 Jan, so I opted for 7 Jan on the scheduled payment online in full. Faster Payments seem to be working but it's too risky yet to leave it to the deadline.

BG have asked that I submit readings so they can "keep an eye on it" regarding the register for normal and night electricity rate. At the moment I'm relaxed as we are not intending to switch providers, but, with the initial comments in the press about gas prices dropping in Spring 2009 I would like this resolved quickly. It will also mean I'll only have total kWh consumption data not the split when I do want to run the comparisons.

It's been more than busy at work this week with calls from US at 2130 running through to finishing items for them at 2230. Then the following day work for Malaysia which had me at work for 12hrs, then some 2.5hrs more once home until 2230, up 0430 to be in 0600 to finalise it Friday..... I must find time to realise Christmas is nearly upon us

Looking ahead to 2009, I find it very difficult to be able to put anything down as predictable and it seems this may hold until early 2010. I am toying with the idea of clearing the mortgage in October 2009 rather than February 2010, but this would reduce our emergency savings to a low value. However, they would build again quickly with no mortgage etc to pay. It obviously doesn't save us anything on interest as we'll be 100% offset other than a few life and redundancy insurance payments, but we would be mortgage-free...

I'll continue to mull these things and no doubt won't be able to make a firm decision until the January pay is in the current a/c.

Finally, let cat out of the house for the first time today.... promptly toured back garden then lept 6ft fence to the front and out! :eek:

So I had to leg it back through the house to collect him from a neighbour's garden. Needless to say, it's been a bit tense and we'll have to do so again tomorrow. Just wish we could be "certain" of him not straying too far until he knows his home patch outside and will return to it... :rolleyes:

Thanks for your interest in my ramblings, and your support. Very best wishes to you all for a peaceful and prosperous 2009.