2742 days until Retirement

Lrimas · 28 August 2016 at 10:21AM

Budget day is done and I have earmarked another £1748.13 for savings. Another £626.83 was paid into my pension as well making my total savings for the month £2374.96. This is in permanent pay increase of £95 per year or £7.92 per month for the rest of my life!

I wish that I could increase the amount I pay into my pension but I am worried about running out of money between 45 and 55 (or 57/58) when my pension money becomes available. Right now I'm paying the minimum to get full company contribution but I might start to increase this once my personal savings start to bypass the amount I have saved in pension.

I have also decided to break my main goal into 3 smaller goals to give me smaller targets to aim for (and emotional victories along the way).

Goal 1: Become Mortgage (and money promised to Nieces/Nephews) neutral for my half of the mortgage.
This will ensure that no matter what happens, I will always be able to make my mortgage payment.
Need (my half mortgage): £150 935.54
Need (nieces & nephews): £12 000
Need (total): £162 935.54
Saved: £70 056.12
Percentage done: 43%

Goal 2: Become semi-financial independent.
In other words, have enough money to sustain me if I leave my job, but I have to continue to make a second income via matched betting/etc. Another way to look at it is that I'll be saving 100% of my income at this stage. Scary.

Goal 3: Become financially independent

Goal 4: Retire

Lrimas · 30 August 2016 at 4:56PM

Imagining having to spend an extra year working is a lot easier when you are sitting on holiday than it is back at work.

Work sucks and if I had a way out today I would have taken it. Nothing serious happened but it was so stressful.

Because of this I am going to try to cut £400 from our shared budget (thus cutting my expenses by £200).

The mistake I made previously was to try to do it all at once which would have been to much of a shock. Instead I'm going to try to do £100 per year over 4 years.

This year it is the grocery buffer that is going. I budget £100 on top of pur redicilous grocery budget to cover extras when I've told my partner that there is no more money. No more. He should stick to the budget or pay for it with his own money.

Lrimas · 5 September 2016 at 9:16PM

My dietbet paid out and I made just over £300 over 6 months. I also lost about 10kg

. I left enough in my account to start another game, but think I will take a month or two break first.

Matched betting is also going well. I'm using a slightly different system where I am laying the same amount as I'm betting. I also don't lay anything under £6. The purists at matched betting will never approve, but I always try to get the best result for the least amount of effort and this seems to work well. Results are never guaranteed (sometimes I win a lot and sometimes I loose a little) but over the long run it should even out.

I'm also doing much better in my second bingo offer (at gala bingo playing lucky numbers). I'm up £60 with a lot of games left to play out. Once these are done I'll withdraw my winnings and move to the next bingo site.

Finally I have subscribed to our work shareplan for £1k. We get 20% discount on the shareprice (it is taxed though) so my plan is to add a little each year. Not too much as it is outside a tax wrapper and I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket.

Lrimas · 7 September 2016 at 8:21PM

I had a very rough day at work today. Somebody raised a complaint to my manager that I am resistand to change because I blocked an initiative.

They are right, I did block the initiative but I had good reasons and send an email explaining my reasons. I only received one reply that only challenged one of my points.

I'm rather annoyed. How petty do you have to be to raise a complaint and turn something into a personal attack instead of challenging the issue. My first thought was: "I'm not paid enough to deal with this crap", but the problem is that I probably am

.

Anyway, enough sulking. Action plan:
1) Convince manager that I had reasons for blocking the initiative and that I communicated this out - done.
2) Put together an email explaining that I'm not blocking the initiative forever, I just want the issues addressed before I give permission - in progress
3) Complain to my boss that it is my job to make decisions and I can't have people second guessing me for no reason. If I'm wrong that's a different story ( I am wrong from time to time and I'm happy to be challenged ) - unsure . I'm not sure how my boss will take this, but I am annoyed at her for not standing up for me.
4) Find out who it was. My boss wouldn't tell me which is redicilous. If you are going to complain about someone you should be brave enough to stand up to them - in progress
5) Confront them.

I really dislike confrontation but I also can't work in an environment like this. I came really close to resigning today, but I don't think I should let one person spoil the last few years of my career...

Edit: who am I kidding. I'm not going to confront them or my manager. In a week or two I'll have forgotten about this and I'll be dealing with the next drama.

Moneyfordreams · 8 September 2016 at 11:13AM

Yep, there will be something else next week to worry about. My mother always say "nothing last forever"

Things that I lost sleep over 6 months ago are now insignificant..

Hope things improve for you

Lrimas · 9 September 2016 at 9:51AM

Thanks Moneyfordreams. I have to admit that I'm starting to feel a lot better. It helps that I'm very fortunate in the rest of my life and I have to admit that the past few days have been pleasant at work. We are working on a fairly interesting project with nice people and there tends to be a lot of banter. I still get a sinking feeling in my stomach each time I see my manager or the person who complained about me (I'm fairly sure of who it was now), but I think it will pass soon.

Lrimas · 11 September 2016 at 8:12PM

Two small updates:

Car's MOT was due yesterday. Had to replace two tyres and front break pads. All in just £210 which I'm more than happy about.

Matched betting is also going well. I'm £400 up for the months thanks to a VERY lucrative weekend (there were sooo many offers for Man U vs Man C) and also due to figuring out how to play the bingo offers.

I'm getting a bit worried about my accounts so I've implemented a rule that I'm not allowed to withdraw money from bookies, I have to play it out. Hopefully this will keep me profitible for them (I might have to reconsider if I get a big win, but for now it hasn't been more than £100).

Good luck with next week mfw!

Lrimas · 13 September 2016 at 8:53PM

I lost my first betting account today

(BoyleSports). I was expecting it to happen soon, but not with an account where I was still playing through the sign up offer.

That said I was redicilously lucky (or unlucky as it killed my account) with them, winning all of the matches and making £100 from their casino bonus. I don't really blame them.

[Deleted User] · 14 September 2016 at 11:41AM

Dabbled in matched betting a few years ago but for whatever reason didn't stick at it. However now that my stoozing looks like it may die off by the end of the year due to high interest current accounts being/likely to be severely cut I started matched betting again. Even just harvesting initial offers [and there are a lot of them never mind the reloads] it's just so easy

I have considered your method above but not tried it yet. Would save laying hundreds and the exchange

Cheers

Lrimas · 14 September 2016 at 1:53PM

Jeepjunkie, I have to admit that I'm not sure if my theory is good anymore. Right now my "Profit/loss for last 30 days" at the exchange is just over £800. If I had stuck with it my bankroll would be £800 less than it is now.:eek:

I ordered a bike today through our cycle to work scheme. My partner is going to convert it to an electric bike and then I'll use it to cycle to work (I'm 15 miles away, which is a bit too far for me to do normally. I don't want to get to work all sweaty and I still want to go running with my dogs after work). I should save a bit of money (not much as I have a VERY economic car) especially if I charge it at work.

My stepbet also paid out: $15 extra. I think I make about £20 per month (stepbet, bounts & pact) simply for walking :beer:

2742 days until Retirement

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