Avalok's Journal

[guitarplayer]

I got inspired by your post so yesterday DW and I tallied up the figures and we’re gonna wrap up ours as well this summer, thanks!

[avalok]

That's amazing! IIRC, you've been there a year this summer, and I believe you initially thought it might take longer than that before paying it off. We will have done it in four years; one year is mad haha!

Anyway, that's super cool. Will keep an eye out for the update to say you've done it

[guitarplayer]

Yep that's it. Mostly, for a long time I had thought that LISA was too good to pass on so we started building that a few years back and ended up with £10k of govt bonus on top of £40k deposit, then took a mortgage to use it. I think we will pay under £5k total for interest+other fees so it will have worked out how I intended.

In hindsight, we could have bought a place a few years back like you did and ride the property appreciation wave but well, the benefit of hindsight. Equally, purely monetarily we could have changed jobs to something more like we do now already a few years ago. But then again money is just small (if significant) part of it.

I like to think that hopefully I get at least some of the things not totally wrong. And I will definitely be very happy to have no debt again and see a cash inflow like never before!

[avalok]

Okay so, at the start of June we paid off the mortgage, an anticlimactic affair, sat in the bank waiting for the payment to be processed, and then we were done. In the time since it has felt like a weight has been lifted, though oftentimes I have not thought about it. I think it'll begin to sink in more as the months go by and we see the effects of much lower living costs. A major milestone done.

In May we started dismantling our kitchen. We'd been considering replacing it for at least a couple of years, but delayed to costs/time/commitment, etc. It was serviceable but increasingly knackered. I had hoped to sell it on for use in someone's shed or garage, but as we removed the units it became clear they were pretty shattered, some fell apart while we took them out. We got some quotes, gawked at the price, and are now going to fit it ourselves. This is currently on hold as we're waiting for some service pipes to be moved for us to fit the units, but our plan is for the new units to be fitted by the end of summer. for this to be sorted. I have felt a bit purposeless outside of work for a while now, sometimes it has felt like I've been doing other things outside work hours for the sake of it, or to be not-working so having this project to sink my teeth into has really helped. So far it has ticked a few boxes: DIY that doesn't feel beyond my reach; design and planning.

We ended up having a more expensive month as we cleared a backlog of things we'd put off to focus on the mortgage. I expect this to continue for a few months because of the kitchen.

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Capital: £18,297.17
Capital w/ home equity: £225,297.17
Average savings rate: 62.53%
Average savings rate TTM: 68.95%

[Mousse]

Okay so, at the start of June we paid off the mortgage, an anticlimactic affair, sat in the bank waiting for the payment to be processed, and then we were done. In the time since it has felt like a weight has been lifted, though oftentimes I have not thought about it. I think it'll begin to sink in more as the months go by and we see the effects of much lower living costs. A major milestone done.

Congratulations! I also found making the final payment kind of anticlimactic and it's only in the following months, building savings back up so quickly and being able to cash flow house improvements that it really became clear. I also discovered I was constantly running calculations at the back of my mind about when to fix/re-fix/for what term etc and it freed up a bunch of mental space I hadn't even realised I was using up. Congrats on the major milestone!

[avalok]

Thank you, yes the lack of thought that I now need to consider regarding our next fixed term and the trajectory for interest rates is really nice. Like you, I hadn't appreciated how much space this was taking up. Good to know you had a similar experience and that the following months brought what you were expecting.

Welcome to the forum btw!

[Western Red Cedar]

Congratulations Avalok! That is a major milestone and I imagine you'll continue to appreciate the psychological benefits down the road. Just more momentum for the snowball....

[grundomatic]

Congratulations! For us the months after were indeed more impactful in our minds. Having the largest expense gone and seeing the money pile up much quicker made it seem more real than simply sending in the final check.

[avalok]

It has been a while since I updated on here. Partly due to delaying it each month, partly because I stopped wanting to share certain things on here, but had little else to write about.

We learnt a lot doing the kitchen over the past year. I understand more now the value in a quality set of tools for a job, as well as doing thorough preparation work beforehand. For example, we fitted the units over where the old ones had been, but the floor was old dusty concrete, and quite uneven in parts. This exacerbated the task of getting the new units in, because we had to bodge-cover pits in the floor to provide a stable base for some of the feet. Had I used a levelling screed to give us a smooth surface to fit the units onto, it would have been considerably easier.

The whole experience was worthwhile; really pleased with how it has turned out and it has made us realize how much we could do ourselves in a fixer-upper, in future.

I've been reading, listening and thinking a lot about the Second World War for the past few months. Last year I took a book out the library that covered the planning for Operation Overlord and it set off an interest in understanding the progress of the war in various theatres. The scale of the whole thing never ceases to baffle me. I'm not normally one for biographies, but I have wondered if there are some lessons to be learnt from the lives of some of the big characters involved in the Allied effort. I had a bit of a reading-dearth last year, so it has been nice to find something to sink my teeth into.

The house feels great. We have been doing a lot of decluttering since the start of year. We already have a pretty lean home, but it is easy to pass over dealing with smaller things. Makes us realize that we could be in a much smaller space.





Capital: £60,056.74
Capital w/ home equity: £267,056.74
Average savings rate: 64.23%
Average savings rate TTM: 71.83%

[avalok]

Had my shoes resoled this month and have been amazed by the difference in comfort. I think I could have justified resoling them when purchased, but I managed to get >2 years out of them. It cost about as much to resole as it did to buy the boots used, so will be interesting to see how long these last.

We made a half-arsed attempt to turn an avocado stone into a plant while doing the kitchen last year. We were supposed to keep it moist in tissue paper, but both of us forgot about it in between sorting everything else out. It dried out on a sunny windowsill, amongst fittings and drill bits. At one point I think it was left in a newly fitted cupboard until noticed. Despite all the neglect it managed to germinate and is now proudly growing at an alarming rate on another windowsill (not forgotten). It's funny how you can mollycoddle these things to death, yet leave them and they thrive.

Took some time this bank holiday weekend to just sit and read for a while. It has been a long time since I have done that and it felt weird. I have been carrying around the fact that I haven't been reading as much as I'd like for a while, so it was nice to dedicate time to it.

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Capital: £64,034.58
Capital w/ home equity: £271,034.58
Average savings rate: 64.09%
Average savings rate TTM: 70.71%