Hello and welcome to this first installment of The Journey. This will be an ongoing series of posts where I will give updates on how the challenge is going, what I’ve been up to, and where I will be going next. So let’s dive in with a brief overview of what The Five Year Mortgage is:
Simply put, The Five Year Mortgage is a personal challenge to pay off my 30-year mortgage in 5 years. But! I plan for it to be far more than that! I will build a whole community around this challenge – somewhere to share tips, tricks, and stories of my own journey and the journey of others.
Who am I anyway?
I’m Iain, that’s right – Iain with two ‘i’s. I’ve been on this planet for 33 years and I live in the beautiful country of Scotland. All the money I make currently is by working as a Front-end Product Engineer in Edinburgh. I live with my partner and we have two kids, 3 and 7. I recently took out a mortgage to buy my first house and I have made two monthly payments towards it. Those are the facts, but the most important thing to know about me is that I am fully dedicated to the point where I cannot fail to pay off my mortgage within five years.
What am I starting with?
As I start out on this journey – May 2022 – my mortgage balance is £139,431 with the last payment date being scheduled for some time in 2052. I currently earn £34k a year salary with no other income at the moment. I have some money invested in cryptocurrency – which is in a steady decline right now. My savings are not worth mentioning. I have my family. I have a car. I have a motorbike. I have my teeth. I have my health. And I have a personal statement – more on this in a future post!
What’s the plan, Stan?
At the time of writing … I have no great detailed plan. I’ve got ideas for sure, but they are just ideas right now. This is what makes this challenge exciting – how boring would it be to know exactly what you were going to do every day? But don’t assume I don’t know where I’m going to end up – because I most certainly do – I’m just not sure how I’m getting there yet.
Do you want a bit more detail? Well, I’m sorry but I can’t tell you – I really don’t know! But if you follow this blog then you will be sure to find out.
Next steps
So what’s the plan before the next monthly update? I’ll implement a two-pronged approach for the immediate future, consisting of this blog and cryptocurrency. This blog will take up a fair chunk of my time as I craft my writing skill and learn how blogging works. Cryptocurrency is something I’m fairly new to, but, with the recent downturn, it’s starting to feel ripe for the picking to me. I’ll be watching the market closely.
And there we have it – my plan – or lack thereof. I hope you join me on this journey so we can learn and grow together.
Until next time
Iain McClafferty – The Five Year Mortgage
