Millionaire Challenge

lessonlearned

I viewed two apartments yesterday with aView to buying one as a rental.

The complex is in a prime city centre location, attracts good rents and they seem to let out easily. The two flats I viewed were both ex rentals, they had been well looked after on the whole, just needed a bit of a refresh.

The big problem I thought was the disappointing level of maintenance to the communal areas, windows not cleaned, stained carpets in the corridors etc, some dead light bulbs. . I didn't think it boded well, it looks like the management company are skimping on cleaning and essential maintenance.

When I quizzed the EA she was very cagey, so obviously there are "issues", so I'm afraid I just walked away. Such a shame because with a bit of TLC the complex could have been fabulous. It's only five years old but already you can see some early signs of neglect.

evilqueen88

Hi everyone.
I'm just going back and catching up with where everyone is at. I am doing ok I believe in regards to my challenge. I have started my own little business making candles, wax melts and hiring Wedding centrepieces. I hope everyone is doing well. xxx EQ

Kayalana99

That's fab EQ sounds like you are doing well, candles was something I was tempted to get into a while back but never got round to it (I went through a crafty stage but don't have time for things) and weddings are Ka ching...in fact when I don't have a lot going on I advertise on the wedding facebook group ..I hope you are in this for your wedding hiring? (40-50k members!)

Brill on paying 3k of everything counts :-) I don't really know for the house but tbf I think 1% does sound about right? That would be £1800 for the last two years do think it would be shy of that but with boiler problems and decorating and bits and bobs garden ...yea I'd say so.

I'm still adoring my camera, I'm in awe. I feel like a new person, I spend hours trawling through photos and watching youtube videos... I just want to get started. I am looking into hiring a white back drop at a studio for an hour and will take my niece with me for some practice, hoping to take my Auntie in law and her family eventually for some family shots for my portfolio but don't want to jump in with 5 people ...so just my niece first and poss my sister with her lol. It's a shame my OH's Mum has a beautiful daughter but she doesn't want photos on facebook (she has perfectly valid reasons) otherwise I would be asking her instead but she's a right character always laughing and smiling she would be perfect to start on. My niece is quite shy but still lovely all same will just have to work a bit harder to get nice shots lol :-)

I love taking photos of my children but it's hard being the parent and taking the photos...my eldest is very energetic and I can't stop him running off with a camera swinging round.

I know business wise I can't do much for now, but that's fine because I will just keep exploring new techniques and building a portfolio for a couple years when I have time to start professionally. My birthday is this month and I asked my OH for a crystal ball....he was a bit taken back until I showed him what I wanted it for. (Google Crystal ball photography if interested)

Chucked my books at my accountant...was up at half 6 and worked 6 hours straight to get them done as my OH was off for bank hoilday but it's done and awaiting to hear back the news.

I should of waited but I have moved some money around, car insurance pot is now filled (due in June) and honey moon is £200 short, I have £1700 left in my business account so I am hoping the tax and accountant cost will come under that but if not I think the best bet is to spilt payments up even though I don't want to..... I do think it will be around the £1500 mark though which would work nicely.

I've also set in place a £100 a month from our income to go towards the house next year not coming out of the business, which I am hoping to raise an extra 5-6k from that. Just got to have a tight year...although come June we should have £200-300 spare a month that is after taking out spending money as well to save.

Biting my fingers waiting for the result...!

LL - Have you considered renting a 4-5 bed house to students/professionals separately? You could even get a property manger to help if it sounds a bit much to take on just you but lets just say I hear of the family tree it's good money..

minxy-x

LL sorry to hear about your recent loss.
You do sound an amazing and strong woman! I was going to write this and then I wasn't when you mentioned a stalker as you may think its me :rotfl:
However your knowledge and attitude make you the type of person I would want to spend the day with learning and being motivated! Have you every thought of that as a money making sideline a type of motivational mentor?

I am a little demotivated at the moment, we pulled out of the BTL house as the survey showed up lots of problems.
I may have mentioned before that I had a great (I thought) business idea, and it opened in my area, well its just happened again with another... The first is doing fantastically well, the 2nd is yet to open but lots of excitement and hype around it.
I am a believer that it all happens for a reason, but feeling a bit stuck, and I am not one that usually feels like this, I normally take my lemons and make lemonade.

I also keep giving myself a kick up the !!!! as we are in a very fortunate situation compared to many so I do see this and appreciate it.

Business is going well.
Looking for another BTL, nothing is coming up in the area we want (there is a huge housing shortage).
Saving like mad for our next business who knows what this shall be, we have a few ideas all include a commercial property and we want to purchase (not outright :eek:) the property, so need quite an amount for the deposit and any renovations.
We have looked into (briefly at the moment) flipping properties to make the money we are saving earn more than being sat in the bank, but need to look into this lots more.
Due to spend sometime with a friend planning something we can do together as a business, we want smallish start up costs and something ideally we could employ people to do after its established.

Good luck to all.

lessonlearned

Good afternoon all my fellow millionaires in waiting,

Hi Minxy

Well thanks for the vote of confidence.....although I don't see myself as amazing but it is so nice of you to say so.:D

No you were not the stalker.....:rotfl:

Sorry to hear you are feeling demotivated at the moment. Perhaps you need to take a step back, free your mind and give yourself some thinking time... Often all we need is a little break from things, even if it is just a metaphorical one. You have my permission ........;)

Well Ive not done much, I have rested and thankfully I'm finally over the flu. It was horrible, I wouldn't wish that one on my worst enemy.

It's mums funeral on Monday, will be glad when it's all over. I can't seem to focus on much else at the moment. dad is struggling but as he's 89 and very frail we can't really expect much else.

So this week end Im just pottering about and conserving my energy, just about to make a start renovating an old mirror, whilst cooking up a storm in the kitchen. Multi tasking as usual. :rotfl:

Over the next couple of weeks my dad has several hospital appts and I also need to start on mums estate. I ve run a quick eye over everything and it looks pretty straightforward and Ive had a word with her solicitor who thinks probate is not required so hopefully it shouldn't be too onerous.

Hopefully after that I can start paying attention to my own affairs and get back to some wealth accumulation. :rotfl:

Have a great week end.

EQ the candle making and wedding centre pieces sound like fun. Hope they go well for you. A friend of mine makes wedding tiaras as a little sideline.

Karmacat

Hello all

Wedding bits and bobs do seem to be a good sideline - one thread of a patchwork income

minxy - it sounds like you've got your finger on the pulse, and when you get an idea, you really need to *go* for it! Good luck on the next one.

LL - I agree with minxy, you'd be a great speaker or mentor - but of course, with your mum's funeral, and your dad being so frail, its natural that nothing else is on your horizon - there's been a long gap, and now its here, just look after yourself and your family as best you can, nothing else really matters in the long term. The mirror sounds like a fairly fun, short term project, so thats good. I hope it all goes okay on Monday, I'll be thinking of you.

Broken_Biscuits

cheers LL. Sounds like you are much more alert to potential problems in the home than i have been to date. I need to up my game!

reading back over my last post it seems i got my figures wrong... 'twas 3180 quid. Not just 3k. Nice to get your sums wrong and realise you are doing better than you thought!

bought the house 15 months ago and own above 35% now. Most likely will scale back the over payments when i hit 40%. We shall see. Over paying is a little addictive!

Kayalana99

Hope all went well LL? I have had you in mind this week.

I don't really have any updates other then my accountant did an amazing job and the house saving has begun with £500 start just wanted to check in xx

pipsqueak92

Definitely joining you on this one! I'm currently 22 and really want to work on increasing my savings which have decreased whilst I searched and started working!

I'm on 15k a year, and so far have about 13k in savings.
I have just started to split my money into rent/bills/savings to try and stop any random spending and save a bit more! Going to be hard for me to reach the 1 million!!

Good luck on your adventure! Any savings are better then nothing

Broken_Biscuits

probably down to the new job in January, but i havnt been that motivated this year. i think i may have taken sandwiches to work a couple of times so far in 2015. My expenditure on takeaways, restaurants, pubs and bars has increased to a huge degree aswell. On top of this, i used to keep regular records of how well i was doing financially in the down time at my old work. Ive not properly kept any records for about 3 to 4 months. Naughty, i know!

so today i thought i would have a proper audit of what's happening and compare to the last kept records i have from about 3-4 months ago. How ever bad it is we can call April the starting point for a more focused plan of attack and work on bringing back a much quicker route to financial independence.

I was a little surprised to see that my net worth had increased by just over £4500 in about 3 months. I guess 2 main factors apply here... 1. when i stop recording what im doing and think im overspending... Well my mindset is now set a certain way so that im still making the right financial decisions, saving more than the average brit and subconsciously putting money away even when i think im doing badly by my standards. 2. Everything is set up in a way, that im earning good returns even when i stop paying attention. House prices are rising, im getting a steady 6.4% on the money i have in p2p, 5% on the cash, solid double figure returns on pensions and the stocks and shares. once your mind and your accounts are set up in a certain way you go on autopilot for a while and everything still takes care of itself.

last year dec to dec i saved 42% of my net pay. I was going to push myself towards 50% but instead starting now April to April im aiming for 43%. the small 7% difference will allow me to continue, on a smaller scale, the "party" lifestyle i have adopted!!

next significant milestone financially would be being classed as PAW (from millionaire next door) i would say im 2 years away from that. Would happily delay reaching this target if i get a massive pay rise meaning the total required increases! We shall see

sorry if this post has come across a bit self promoting. Im off to meet friends tonight and outside an internet forum its poor manners to talk about these things it seems. So best to share my news here rather than be the bore at the dinner table talking money!!