Learn to control money but do not allow it to control you

savingwannabe

Firewalker you can invest in a writing course. Actually your writing is wonderful anyway. I have never asked what kind of writing would you like to pursue? your academic writing clearly doesn't need any work. Maybe you could go on a creative writing course for fiction if that is what you fancy doing.

Or go on a well deserved holiday to get some 'me' time, you will return refreshed. Am kind of drowning in marking that is all that springs to mind at the moment still you may realise these are things you definitely do not want and that is a move forward. Someone else will think of something better i am sure.

Good luck, sw.

InaPickle

A writing course is not a bad idea, but if you are not yet sure, just let the money build up for a while until you get some inspiration. The lightening bolt will come!

se999

FW - not sure what you mean by savings into capital. I think from the post you're talking about the 'do not touch till the future pot'. How long term/short term is 'future'? If you are talking about pensionable age, there are tax advantages of putting extra into pensions. If you're not sure, putting the cash into the ISA cash free wrappers, means that even if the rates aren't brilliant, the interest is tax free, and you can access it you just lose the tax free wrapper. The old classic way was simply by overpaying on the mortgage, so reducing your debts quicker increases the capital element of the house you own. It depends also on how accessible you want this money. People used to be able to overpay on the mortgage, and then remortgage easily if they wanted to access the cash, but with banks tightening up lending, it's not as easy now. Lots of info on the savings bits of mse

I watched an interview ages ago with the man who wrote the 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad' book, and one thing he said was people see their house as their biggest asset, but actually it's an asset just sitting there with lots of capital tied up in it. After that I got into the rent-a-room scheme, and houseswapping and hospitality exchanging, so at least the house was contributing and start to contribute to the overall family wealth. I do think the current UK housing market is changing people's attitude to buying/renting.

Otherwise there's the using it to start a business?

But this is all monetary talk, investing cash to help you stay happy & healthy , is going to hopefully help you have a longer happier life

MrsMoo2U

I will leave the savings into capital to somebody else as I am a bit behind the doors on that one.

Investing in you. Well you mentioned that you want to do a trip across America on a bike. Why wait until America for the bike. How about investing in lessons and maybe even a bike for you to use here to get used to the feel of it in time for the big trip. If that is your dream then is that not worth investing in for yourself?

Firewalker

se999 wrote: »

savings into capital. I think from the post you're talking about the 'do not touch till the future pot'.

Hi Se, 'savings into capital', first. Most people have savings in some form - savings accounts, ISAs etc. This however, is ;dead' money - the only people who make money from our savings are the banks. Capital, on the other hand, is money that works for you and makes more money; capital is investments - but these come in many forms and shapes. One thing I am not likely to do is shares; but bar this any thing goes, really. Needs loads of study, however.

As to houses - it is really worse. Houses, according to the author of RDPD, are liabilities (because they take money out of your pocket). Necessity but still a liability.

Thanks for the input - it does make me think.

Firewalker

Firewalker

SW, Pickle and Cheri, all great ideas - in fact I can do both. Let see what the New Year brings.

Firewalker

Keeping_Motivated

Hi Firewalker

Find the % pots of your wages talk interesting but I was just wondering about the finer details. Do you work out the figures after tax has been deducted or what your annual salary is?

Also the 24% to pay off debt does that include your mortgage or only 'extra' debt or does you mortgage come out of the 'everything else' pot?

So for example I have no what I call extra debt but I do have what I call necessary (to me) debt which are the car and mortgage and the 24% just about covers these two things for us so if we had extra debt then we would need another % pot.... ha ha am I actually making any sense at all...I know what I mean thank goodness.

So for example if someones take home pay was

£2500 per month

£250 - Do not touch pot
£600 - Debt Pot (Or mortgage pot?)
£175 - We are worth it pot
£1475 - everything else pot (ie bills, food, petrol, birthdays, xmas etc?)

Is that right?

Firewalker

Keeping Motivated, yes the proportions are calculated after tax. Also, we have two parts of our income - monthly (regular) and other (OH's contracts; my occasional stuff and I get very little bit of royalties). So the proportions (until all the debt is gone) are only on the regular montly income.

In our case, the 24% is a loan - so all else is covered by the 59%. But there has to be flexibility here - people can vary the proportions to match their situation. My choice is to be very strict with the 10% pot and the 'we are so worth it pot' - in the case of the latter it is important to have enough to be able to do something sensible but it does not have to be a significant proportion.

Also, I see the 10% as very crucial - as mentioned in the post to Se I don;t see this as savings but as future investment. It can be touched for investments but not spend on on-going stuff.

Shall see - need to crack this investment lark.

Firewalker

Firewalker

Today I did my first ‘I am worth it’ thing; which was also an entirely new experience. I had acrylic nails done. For some time now my nails have been splitting and generally looking really shabby. Have tried many things – the nail hardening things from the chemist; keeping them short; using varnish regularly. All complete waste of time – for the last couple of years have had this peeling nails that not only look bad but also catch everything more delicate I might happen to put on myself. This has been getting me down. Today I just popped into a nail studio and had them done. Still not sure how do I feel about it but hey, it is a new experience. Not very sure what happens next either – do these things fall off; do I have to go back to have them off; do I cut them; do I varnish them…The girl who did them spoke no English and I am not exaggerating.

Otherwise, I have not been writing so much here because of being exceptionally busy. Pre-Christmas business, I suppose but at the same time not related to any preparations for Christmas. We are ready – there are two presents for Little Boy, a present for OH (by accident rather than by design) and there will be a big family present; and that is it. The rest will be cooking which I have grown to love, watching old movies and writing but only when I really want to (which I hope is not going to be all the time because I need rest).

Last night was Little Boys Christmas play. Wonderful it was and he had a speaking part. It was great to be there and enjoy it and see how excited the children were.

And the thought for today is:

“We cannot change anything until we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses.” - Carl Jung

Firewalker

Firewalker

Today, apart from running around and doing household things, I was thinking about the importance of little things; and that most of us do ignore little things most of the time.

I do find it interesting that we have come to associate ‘little’ with ‘not important’. This is why we tend not to pay attention to little things. How many people notice when they spend several pennies here and there? Or take a bite of something, and then of something else? How many people you know have failed to notice little changes in their partners? Or for that matter in their own behavior? I would say many…I for once have done all these things.

During the last year or so I have come to realise that little things are actually the ones that matter enormously. They matter when it comes to spending – there is nothing wrong with spending money but it has to be conscious spending. What we often end up doing is we spend without realizing it; true we spend small amounts but done over and over again this is what gets us in trouble. I don’t know about you but I know that lack of awareness of spending small sums got me in the predicament I am in. And of course one of the first things I had to do is to start watching the ‘small’ spending – after that all is well and we have more than enough.

‘Small’ matters immensely when we think about creating abundance – by saving and investing. In fact, I have come to believe that many people fail to create abundance for themselves and their families because they believe that to start they need serious amounts of money. But remember, putting aside £1.80 per day can make you financially free; this can take longer or shorter time depending on how aggressively you invest. But putting aside small amounts add up to substantial sums – in other words, if we miss ‘small’ we will never start; building sustainable abundance, however, demands patience and prolonged small effort.

‘Small’ is often overlooked when starting (or growing) businesses as well. Most of us try to think about making thousands and miss the fact that making thousands actually means to make many times several pounds.

What little things have you missed during the last two weeks?

And the thought for today is:

“Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Firewalker