Millionaire Challenge

lessonlearned

Karmacat wrote: »

LL, that sounds great! I'm with you on learning Spanish, its such a beautiful language. And if you have a smattering of another romance language, or even school age Latin, it will be even better.

Yes I just have smatterings of French, Spanish and Italian and I can vaguely Remeber a few isolated bits of Latin - from back in my dim and distant schooldays. Apparently I was fluent in Flemish when I was around 4 but ive forgotten most of it, although when my friends were speaking it I did catch a few words here and there.

I think I have a reasonable ear, it's just they speak so fast!!! Mind you they say that about us. :rotfl: I have bought future DIL a book on Derbyshire dialect and sayings for Christmas - I know she will love it.

It's funny but I notice that all our foreign visitors are always intrigued by English sayings and idioms. English is such a fantastic language, constantly changing and evolving.

One of my Belgian friends loved it last week when I kept calling him "Johnny Foreigner". And he still laughs and reminds me that when we were 15 I called him a peasant because he had never heard of the Rolling Stones. :rotfl:

Anyhoo I think ive found the right Spanish course, in Malaga, specially for over 50s with both lessons and cultural visits to places like the Alhambra in Granda, a Picasso museum etc. - although of course I can "do" Picasso, Miro, Gaudi and Dali when I go to Barcelona. Ive done them all before but DS2 needs educating!!!! And I'm happy to revisit.

They've not posted next years course dates yet but March or April would be good. Should be warming up nicely by then......so a quick burst of sun at the tail end of winter and a Spanish booster in time for the May wedding.

In the meantime I have my books and there's loads of online stuff.

Spent some time yesterday trawling Rightmove and have earmarked a few "maybes" to monitor. Town or country, house or bungalow.

I just can't decide.......

Hello to our newbies and fellow passengers on the "Millionaire Express":rotfl:

I definitely agree with looking at some of the simple living websites, cutting back, downsizing and simplifying.

My aunt - a very shrewd business woman - always used to say that a penny saved was as good as two pennies earned......

Don't forget you have to expend time and energy to earn money, you incur costs and pay tax.....so the more you can cut expenses and save money on a day to day basis the easier it is to amass some capital.

Then once you have got a bit of capital you then need to make it work for you.

If you are young today then the world is your oyster.

Kayalana99

Afternoon.

Got a booking confirmed from ageees ago I did mention it that I really really wanted it because of the venue so really happy about that!

My partners cousin who is 13 I think wants to get into photography so I have leant him my old camera...I know nothing might not come of it at this stage but it's nice to know that if it does that I've inspired it. He's got such an artist nature (should see his drawings) so I can see him getting into it...and lets face it there's not much of a market for paintings like there is for photography (you can sell painted pictures of course but I'm sure that's like wanting to be an actor...it can happen but you've got to really make it to succeed)

I wish I felt like the world was my oyster!! I suppose I've got a long road ahead I just have to be a bit patient...

Cutting back is still going really well, we've actually kept in budget so far although I've got to do something about my OH's birthday...he has arranged to go out for a meal but I wanted to do something with him over the weekend + present...just not going to work out without spending £150 odd.

+ Just to add I've just looked at my sales for Oct 14 and Oct 15, actually been around a 33% decrease in overall sales which is a bit rubbish. I think my prices are to high and the competition has increased so back down to £1.99, I've actually worked out it's not as bad as I thought profit margin although it's nice getting paid more per item I don't want to miss out on xmas sales because of getting to far down in listings..

Wish me luck I may go off the radar for next two months, two weddings (one early Nov and one late Dec so perfect dates really) and crazy xmas rush hopefully... £££

ms_night_ryder

Good luck Kaya! Bet it feels good inspiring someone. Remember you were saying you would need somebody to be your 2nd photographer sometimes, perhaps he's an apprentice in training.

Muhren

So I found this thread yesterday whilst looking for ways to boost my income and have read a lot of posts, probably too many! I love the idea of having a net worth of 1 million, although I think I will have to set my target a little lower. Is it okay if I join in?

Karmacat

Of course, Muhren! And several of us have targets that are lower - but you never know where they'll lead, and we're open to the possibilities
What route are you thinking of, for now?

Kayalana99

ms_night_ryder wrote: »

Good luck Kaya! Bet it feels good inspiring someone. Remember you were saying you would need somebody to be your 2nd photographer sometimes, perhaps he's an apprentice in training.

It has already crossed my mind. He is quite a mature teenager.

I've kind of given up with my OH...it was a lovely idea but I just don't think he has it...plus he's just not that bothered. I think he wants to because he likes the idea of us working together but the spark just isn't there.

Muhren

Thanks Karmacat!

I am 32 and single and have no depenants, so I'm going it alone.

As you can see from my sig I currently have quite a large amount of debt which all came about from compulsive gambling (so no more match betting for me unfortunately). My parents bailed me out so I am paying them back at the moment and renting my house out.

The good news is that I have a net worth of around 48k which is made up from equity in my house and shares at work. This is a conservative estimate as I don't know how much my house is worth at the moment so have just gone on the price I paid for it back in 2011. Zoopla has it valued at around 30k more but I don't think that is very acurate.

The route I plan to take is to carry on with the two share schemes that I have at work, whcih I am currently paying £550 into a month over the different setups. Once I move back into my house, which will hopefully be in March 2017 I won't be able to keep up those levels of contribution but I will have to revaluate that at the time. I don't know if I am going to try and put as much as I can in to shares or rein it back a bit and overpay my mortgage.

I had thought about cashing in the shares once they mature but I think that as the dividend payments are pretty good I will just keep hold of the shares but move them over to a stocks and shares ISA when I can.

Feel free to throw any advise at me you can!

Listerbelle

Muhren wrote: »

Thanks Karmacat!

I am 32 and single and have no depenants, so I'm going it alone.

As you can see from my sig I currently have quite a large amount of debt which all came about from compulsive gambling (so no more match betting for me unfortunately). My parents bailed me out so I am paying them back at the moment and renting my house out.

The good news is that I have a net worth of around 48k which is made up from equity in my house and shares at work. This is a conservative estimate as I don't know how much my house is worth at the moment so have just gone on the price I paid for it back in 2011. Zoopla has it valued at around 30k more but I don't think that is very acurate.

The route I plan to take is to carry on with the two share schemes that I have at work, whcih I am currently paying £550 into a month over the different setups. Once I move back into my house, which will hopefully be in March 2017 I won't be able to keep up those levels of contribution but I will have to revaluate that at the time. I don't know if I am going to try and put as much as I can in to shares or rein it back a bit and overpay my mortgage.

I had thought about cashing in the shares once they mature but I think that as the dividend payments are pretty good I will just keep hold of the shares but move them over to a stocks and shares ISA when I can.

Feel free to throw any advise at me you can!

Welcome!

Well done on seeing the light. Could you continue renting your house out for longer, to save even more money? Or alternatively live in the smallest room in your house and rent out the other bedrooms?

Enjoy the journey

Karmacat

Wow, Muhren, well done on pulling back from the gambling. And you kept a good net worth, even tho you have debt you're still paying off!

Renting out rooms to lodgers, as Listerbelle says, is a good way forward - they don't even have to be full week, there *are* some people who want Mon-Fri, or even the odd night of air bnb.

Do you have any hobbies you can make money from? Craft skills, design work, stuff like that? Whether you do or not, you've managed to get clear at a young age, keep it up and you'll go far.

Muhren

Thanks guys. As for renting a room out, it is something to consider that is for sure but I'm not sure it's somehing that I want to do.

I haven't really got any skills outside of work that I could use to make an extra income however I found out today that I have an interview in a couple of weeks for a different job within the company. It is for a bit more money and could potentially be closer to home. I currently have a 90 mile round trip each day.

A little bitmore background on me is that at the back end of 2011, start of 2012 I was off work with stress anxiety & depression. I am in a lot better place right now but the idea of starting a new job scares me. My confidence is still pretty non existent so I'm not that hopeful but I am trying to put myself out there so we will see what happens.