FinancialBliss: My mortgage free journey…

I’ve been wanting to start one for a good while, but never really made the push / effort. Recently I’ve been a bit down in the dumps about the apparent lack of progress I’ve made this year with the mortgage.

However, I’m finding that thinking about this diary has focussed my mind and I’m actually in a very fortunate situation.

Not many people can manage a mortgage these days without two wages. Plus I’ve bought a car this year with a 12 month loan (we really needed a bigger / family car), and we’ve had two holidays and I’ve managed to make a small dent by way of over payments in the mortgage.

A bit of reflection and I feel much better!


One of the main reasons for a diary was a publicly stated goal. I’ll not be heart broken if I don’t meet this. On the other hand, I hope I won’t have to eat beans on toast via candle light for 5 years either:eek:

Another one was support from like minded people. On that note - have already got a few MFWs that are looking to be mortgage free in same time frame: kaz2904, karmacat (possibly?) and muppet81 – do I add these to my first post or shall we just keep it informal?

Thanks for listening,

FB.

Got paid yesterday and paid a token 25.00 off the mortgage - extra repayment - suspect that's all I'll be able to afford this month.

Going shopping this morning for shoes for big little 'un - will post a round up for the week later - it's been difficult to find the time this week.

FB.

A bit of a mixed bag here.

Work: It’s 9 years this week since I started with my current employer. I work in IT as a software developer; I never really expected to have stayed this long – took the job in 1998 during the pre year 2000 big rush, and not only got a good pay rise, I got a 10% IT scarcity allowance and various bonuses at points before and after 2000. Thought it would be just a stop gap job, expecting to move on after that, except I got promoted and I’m still there.

Shares: We’ve got Bradford and Bingley and Northern Rock shares – both conversion windfall freebies. Earlier in the year I switched from receiving a cash dividend to shares for both of the above, hoping that longer term they would be worth more than the cash. We’ve now got an additional 10 BB shares – total holding: 524.

We also got a letter from Northern Rock explaining about recent events and that various parties are interested in the company but it was early days. Nothing that I wasn’t already aware of, but it was a nice gesture, since the share holders are pretty much bottom in the pecking order after savers, creditors, etc. Total holding 1,000

Credit cards: Until this week had 3. Had a nationwide card which we haven’t used in a while and got a letter this week saying they’d closed the account. My main card is a Goldfish card. Had this about 10 years and like this for the loyalty scheme. Live within walking distance of a cineworld. Just redeemed some promotional points for 4 cinema tickets.

Other CC is an Asda card. Main use for this card is the 2p reduction on petrol offer, although it’s had a hammering this month as mrs bliss needed a replacement goldfish card – her chip was damaged – over use perhaps?:rotfl:

Always pay cards off in full and normally I’m up to date in Microsoft Money, but I’ve got a bit behind with keying them into money. Need to get a bit organised here, plus re-discover my desk.

Monthly savers: Just completed the first of a 2 year Lloyds TSB monthly saver. Got 137 and 170 (taxed and exempt) in interest. When the 2 years are up, I’ll probably throw the interest at the mortgage and look at something else to do with the capital. This is our emergency savings.

Swimming: Well not so much swimming but water confidence. The blisslings go to to a water confidence class and found out this week that it’s going up by 25%. Ok, only from 2.00 to 2.50 each, but when you say 25% it sounds a lot. Hope I’ not sounding mean here - I really don’t mind paying this at all.

Paid another 25.00 off the mortgage today – electronic transfer into mortgage account. Reason? We’ve received 485.50 in interest from our icesave account.


Why only 25.00 and not more? Well back in January, think January sales, mrs bliss was passing work in the car (then corsa) with a pram taking up the entire boot, two child seats with growing children and shopping spread all around on car floor. Got into car as it was lunch for a quick chat. Was totally amazed by how little space there was.

We’d previously discussed buying a family car, but I’d been in denial about needing a new one. After a quick look around, we got a nearly new Almera Tino (MPV class, but with 5 seats rather than 7) towards the end of January. Financed this with a 6k car loan over 12 months. Hindsight being an exact science, I soooo wish I’d cashed in 500 NRK shares – around the 12.00 mark at the time. Never mind!

Car loan is 515 per month – second biggest bill after the mortgage – due tomorrow and only 3 more left: November, December and January. :j

I’d budgeted over 12 months as this gave the least interest charged, and enabled us to pick up on our mortgage free quest quickly, rather than paying car over 2 or 3 years.

That would have been fine except a month or so later we found out that the car had been in a shunt / accident before we purchased it. Neither us nor dealer were aware of this.

Went through lots of hoops with dealer, head office, trading standards and the only option was to work with dealer towards a solution – they offered a like for like replacement. In the end we opted for a diesel replacement, best of the options presented – we got this on 1st October. However as the car was a better spec than the one we bought, we had to pay a supplement. So, we’ve now got a 2.2 diesel rather than a 1.8 petrol, but it also cost us 1,250. Was never expecting to pay this supplement, but over time should even out - car should hold value a bit better, plus should get better mpg.

So, I’ve got an unexpected additional amount on the credit card, which will need repaying next month, hence the token amount again from the savings interest rather than the full amount.

I’m currently paying 597 for the mortgage (more about that later). So, come January, the existing 597 plus 515 from car isn’t too short from my budgeted 1,250 a month on the mortgage – see post #2.

FB.