Millionaire Challenge

Kayalana99

We always seem to cross posts LL.

Go for it, life is way to short not to take risks as you say what is there to lose? I wish my Dad would live more he works to much, my Grandad does for sure.

slowlyfading

Just popping in to say I love reading this thread and all the enthusiasm throughout the posts

My aim this year is to make £3,000 online, through various mediums. I know it's not a lot compared to others, but if I manage it I'll be so amazed looking forward to picking up some tips from this thread!

lessonlearned

Kay. I understand your angst about the £5k.

Sometimes having a lump sum can be more problematical than just having the normal monthly incomings. As you say it can feel like a responsibility. You feel you want to make the most of it. And clearing debts with it can seem like such a wasted opportunity.

May I make a suggestion......feel free to ignore my ideas.

If it were me I would definitely pay off the money you owe your dad first. Then £2k into the business if it will help your business to grow. I'm not so sure I would pay £2k off mortgage - it's not urgent is it. Mortgage rates are still fairly low at the moment so you wouldn't save much in interest.

How about putting the £2k into the highest easy access account you can find and then drip feeding that into a regular savings account to earn even more interest.

That way you'll have a cushion for emergencies (or any golden opportunities that might come your way). Then, if you don't need it, and you have built up a bit of savings, then you could always pay a dollop off the mortgage later.

You might even be able to use it to start a second sideline business.

I have done this two years running, just drip fed some of my lump sum savings from one account to a regular savings account to maximise interest. Neither account is locked so you would still have access to your money.

Re your dad and grandad. Does work fulfill them and make them happy.......some people genuinely like to work hard. For them it's fun. Some people really get such a kick out of working that they don't see it as "work".

One of my builder friends is like that. He is 67 and is supposed to be retired. He is currently project managing my sisters extension. He loves it.

I feel sorry for my dad too but for different reasons. He was always been very hardworking but he always bemoaned the fact that he never got his "lucky break". He did, but he just couldn't spot them or if he did see an opportunity he wouldn't step out of his comfort zone, or he would be cynical about things and focus on the negatives. Over the years he has let some wonderful opportunities slip through his fingers due to pessimism and inertia. Now, at the end of his life, he regrets a lot of his decisions and says he wishes he had done things differently. Very sad.

He would love to work but at 89 sadly he is not fit enough and he never grew a business that he could now just "dabble" in or potter about with. He's got plenty of money but he's bored, especially with mum gone. He desperately needs a project to engage him.

I can truthfully say I have no regrets at all.

I know I might appear insanely optimistic - I know my husband and I sometimes drove my MIL crazy. She was a real doom mongerer and often tried to dissuade my husband and I from doing things - especially when we went self employed. Needless to say he never paid any attention to her dire warnings that the sky was about to fall in. Looking at both my MIL and my dad I think I would rather be an optimist than a cynical pessimist.

I would never risk my home and I have ensured that the boys are financially secure but as for anything else - well what have I got to lose. You are quite right - I will just "go for it".

I realise that I'm am lucky - I have already reached my FID - Financial Independence Day because my pensions are plenty to live on.

It's just that I'm not really ready to fully retire yet. The cruise taught me that. So many of the people on that cruise just go from one holiday to the next. To me that's not living, it's just waiting for death.

I am of the belief that a fulfilled life needs purpose and meaning, whether it's work, family, hobbies or a passion for something. Travelling can also be a passion of course, especially if it helps us learn and grow, but I don't think it should be just a endless succession of back to back self Indulgent holidays.

For me this quest of ours is not just about money. If I'm honest for me it's also about "the thrill of the chase".......:D

I think this challenge is fun.......;)

Kayalana99

Thanks LL I'll take that on board. I suppose it might be silly to lock away 2k when I don't have an emergency fund. My business account is really healthy ATM but I realised yesterday I owe eBay £300 (I paid a massive chunk off my eBay fees mid December so I wasn't expecting it to be that high) my accountant fee will be due in Apr so another say £250, national insurance needs paying £150 and unless I am missing a box somewhere I will need some more stock soon which is usually around £400 depending how many I choose to buy + my wages of £250 will come out mid Jan, oh and the £200 insurance payment I will need this year..

My point with that is normally I like to keep some in the business so if we ever are in position when emergency arises I can dip in but I didn't realise how much I would have going out, so perhaps worth even at least keeping 1k aside.

In my whole life I have never seen my Dad depressed, he is just not that sort of person who gets down on life but the opposite side of the coin is I very rarely see him laugh either, or be over the moon with some good news etc. I think my Grandad worked hard his whole life to make money for him to enjoy life, my Dad followed in his foot steps so to speak but I don't think there was ever an end goal. I don't think he enjoys working but he's always seen it as the path to a better life - but now he has the better life he doesn't know how to enjoy it. He enjoys property I think this is where his passion might lie and he's had dreams of building houses to sell etc but I'm not sure why he never did it in the end but as he says that he is busy with an endless stream of paperwork more then anything else.

I do have a lot of regrets but they were all before I met my husband and I don't think I'll look back and regret any mistakes I make for the future but I certainly wasn't happy even throughout most of my teenage years but I'm not that person anymore.

Retire? I have to admit I would love to see the world but I think you are right. Put things into perspective a bit I don't think I would like endless holidays always got to have a project of some sort...perhaps I'll take a year off to go travelling if money and children ever permit though :-)

lessonlearned

The guy who wrote the book I'm reading The Four Hour Week, talks about mini retirements, basically doing just what you suggest - taking time off every so often. Not just your bog standard too week holiday but longer breaks. I guess what we would call sabbaticals, or gap years.

But yes, I agree, taking time out every often is a good thing.

It's a shame your dad can't relax a little and enjoy the fruits of his labours whilst he is still young and fit enough. Some people just can't though, it's just the way they are.

It's good to see that you have worked out your projected business expenses so far ahead. It's easy to overlook things.

I spent a couple of hours last night going over my finances.......I'm happy enough with my current budget. I think I should make that £5k target in three months.

I shall be living quite the frugal life for the next three months in order to achieve that - no major shopping trips allowed - although I have allocated myself a bit of "mad money" for fun stuff.

Today I have to run errands for my dad so won't get much done for myself. Hey ho....

Muhren

A belated happy new year to everyone!

I have been reading but haven't had that much to report. I still don't really but have been thinking about buying another property and I am starting to warm to the idea. My thinking is that I want to diversify my investments, since at the moment have have quite a bit money tied up in shares for the company that I work for. What I would like to do is take some equity out of my current property, that I am renting out, so that I can buy a house for me to live in whilst I continue to rent out my current property.

If I were to do this I think I would have around £25k to put down as a deposit on a new house whilst keeping my LTV on the BTL at 25%. Whilst at the same time not having to touch any of the shares that I have built up.

I am also going to have to do some reading on investing in funds as I want to move the shares into a more diversified holding. I have to say it seems rather confusing at the moment but I have until September to figure out my strategy.

Okay maybe I had a little bit more to add than I first thought!

Kayalana99

It can be scary but personally I believe B2L's are the best investment, not only do you get a monthly income but you also get the mortgage paid by someone else, so think 10 houses with the mortgage paid off would be £4000-6000 a month when you retire if not more...appreciate figures aren't always that simple but I've always felt property is one of the safest bets also.

Thank you LL for your comments you made me see things in a different light and I've changed my thinking a bit. I'm going to pay off 1k of the mortgage, 1.1k to pay off my Dad, 2k for the business and the left over 900 will go into savings pots.

The savings pots are spilt into mostly car insurance and then holiday spending money - but the money won't be used until March/May time when the holiday/car insurance is due which leaves me about 2k "spare" (some being in the business fund not out the 2k business money allocated) that *if* anything was to happen we could pull that 2k together so it's a bit of a cushion even if it is allocated to other spending pots.

This also leaves us with a nice tidy sum of about £300 monthly spare - give or take our food shopping bill how high/low it is so I'm going to work hard to fill the small amount left in the savings pots needed (I think about £300 to be fair) then plow through to get another 3k paid off the mortgage by the end of this year - that's the 2016 goal for the total of 4k to be paid off.

You've got a good idea with the regular savings and high interest - but I just can't justify the hassle for such a small amount of money. *If* it was 3k + savings I think I would consider it but thank you for mentioning it as it is most likey something I will do in future when our emergency fund is a bit more healthy.

I've decided to carry on with Ratesetter for now and see how I get on with it on the monthly interest rates - it's more to have a side savings pot then the interest but I will use spare spending money and try and make a deposit even if it's just £10 a month but I'll set an aim of keeping £50 aside a month for it.

lessonlearned

Glad to be of help, Kay. Yes it is a hassle having to keep moving money around but I have been chasing interest rates because of the amount I'm currently holding on deposit. Hopefully not for much longer.

I've booked to see a house on Saturday. Spotted it before I went on holiday but didn't do anything, thought I'd bide my time.

It's been on the market since October so maybe I can haggle a bit. Its a bit of an 80s box, and rather an ugly duckling but it's in a good location and that's what counts. I can turn it into a swan.:D

There's plenty on the market but a lot of it is just dross. Not many "diamonds in the rough" around at the moment. I seem to have spent an eternity trawling through Right Move.

This one would make a superb rental so I might go that route. I might just freshen it up and let it out and then move swiftly onto the next one.

Sounds like a good plan Muhren. You've done really well on the debt busting.

Karmacat

I love that Four Hour Working Week book, LL - there's an awful lot of outsourcing going on, but the energy and the ideas are great.

I'm really *not* great at financial admin - I've been struggling a bit with it today, and the declaration deadline is coming up - most of it is done, and of course you can always alter the figures for up to a year afterwards, so I'm absolutely not going to stress about it. Plus, I took screenprints of last year's declaration the French apartment always complicates things, if not for that, it'd be really simple.

I got pulled offline earlier this week by a phone connection issue, so I spent time writing some blog posts - after the tax declarations (and my last professional reaccreditation in February!) are all finished, I'm really going to push on the structure of the blogs, and the books. I've signed up to a webinar on kindle book writing - written one, but knowing more is always good.

Hope all's well.

lessonlearned

I need a kick up the derrière........:rotfl: Feeling decidedly "Januaryish" today. I have got stacks to do and no inclination to do any of it.

Went to view the house..........i had high hopes of this one but alas it's not what I'm after......back to the drawing board.

On the plus side I decided to tackle my sons pig sty of a bedroom the other day. I found he had misfiled a £25 premium bond which was addressed to me. So that's another nice little dollop for the savings pot.

It looks like I shall hit my target of £1500k for Feb 1st so it's not all doom and gloom.

Other than that no news.

Right I'm going to go for a walk and then have a potter in the garden - see if I can blow away the cobwebs and find some inspiration from somewhere........