Millionaire Challenge

Buffythedebtslayer

Oh LL. much love to you, I don't post much these days but I read as often as I can, you are in my thoughts and prayers XX

ElleWoods

I haven't been on this thread since August but just spent an hour catching up with things and reading the last 6 or 7 pages of the thread.

LL So sorry to hear about your dad. How awful that the worst things seem to happen to the nicest people - you always come across as so lovely, as do your sons and wider family. Wishing your dad a peaceful few months, safe in the knowledge that his lovely daughter and family are there for him. xx

Tink I see you're off to Cuba next year - I went there three times about 11/12 years ago and it's a beautiful place. One day I hope to return and take my son with me. If you're planning on driving to Havana, I assume your hotel is somewhere around Varadero? I stayed in the Cayos but would love to see Havana.

Kaya You always seem so busy! Make sure you take time out to rest over the Christmas season. You don't want to get burned out.

Quick update on where I am - the last time I posted back in August, I'd been let go from my job so I'd started a cat sitting and pet care business. That went really well at first but it's very seasonal, so the clients dried up and eventually I used up my very small amount of savings in order to live and put food on the table. In time that ran out, so I had to admit defeat and sign onto Jobseeker's Allowance at the end of October. It was hugely demoralising and I'm not one for sitting around doing nothing, so as well as job hunting I immediately started to look into alternative options and google brought up the New Enterprise Allowance Scheme. This scheme helps people on JSA to move into self employment by assessing their business idea, then if it's deemed viable, pairing them with a mentor for the first six months of their start up. I've been doing a life coaching & business course for the last few months, so I immediately applied for this scheme on the basis of starting a coaching business and was accepted! I've been allocated a mentor and I'm currently working on the business plan, which I'm hoping will be approved and submitted by the end of this year. My coaching biz will then be in start up phase. So I'm no longer officially unemployed - I'm officially a business woman! :j

lessonlearned

Wow. Kitty that sounds great. Well done you.:T:T:T

Thanks for all the good wishes guys. Dad seems quite good at the moment. We've hoping to have a special "gathering of the clans" on Christmas Eve if he is well enough.

Just got to take it one step at a time.

Just back from Physio. This damp foggy weather really gets to my old bones.....maybe I should emigrate to a warmer climate.:rotfl:

Kayalana99

lessonlearned wrote: »

Wow. Kitty that sounds great. Well done you.:T:T:T

Thanks for all the good wishes guys. Dad seems quite good at the moment. We've hoping to have a special "gathering of the clans" on Christmas Eve if he is well enough.

Just got to take it one step at a time.

Just back from Physio. This damp foggy weather really gets to my old bones.....maybe I should emigrate to a warmer climate.:rotfl:

Hope you have a lovely Christmas LL. Will be thinking of you.

This cold is deadly. I had a vest, jumper top, hoody and coat on and I was still shivering on the school run.

- Also hope your business goes well, thank you for your concern and things will settle down for me in January. Tbh I guess their is the risk of burnout but I seem to get down in dumps very quickly if I don't have a project.... January is usually a tough month but I will be occupied with the degree this year so it's prob a good thing.

2 more weddings to edit, 2 more to shoot and I will have near 3 months till my next wedding so I'm on a mission to get on top of things now and I'll have a very well deserved rest over xmas.

PoorGuyNextDoor

Hey guys.Whos working this weekend then? I will be....hopefully last weekend of the year il be working though!!

cazmanian_minx

Yup - got a two-hour focus group to type up (summary and quotes though, so slightly faster than a full transcript) and a couple of hours of one-to-one interviews. They don't have to be back until Friday, but I'm getting a head start, so I can take on more work next week if any comes up. The underfloor heating for the house down the road got delivered yesterday, along with a very large bill!

AshleyBurf

How far have you got? I will join you. I am 33. I recommend following Gary Vaynerchuck for business advice. How are you looking to get to a million?

Broken_Biscuits

Hey, hope everyone is winning at both life and personal finance.

2016 is almost over and around this time of year I do a count up of my networth to track progress. I know most like to do this in April. But I find by doing my count up middle December I can have a couple of weeks where I forget about budgets and just enjoy family time / Christmas and pick up the slack in the new year.

So, i've only been keeping track for a few years and here's the little data I have:

Dec 2013 NW 68k
Dec 2014 NW 82.5k
Dec 2015 NW 110k

I set a target to have 125k by Dec 2016 but then revised that up to 135k middle of the year when I realised I was having a much better year than expected.

2016 has brought with it lots of buying opportunities with the crazy political results this year. China devaluing their currency, Brexit and the drop in value of the gbp. Trump and then India's demonetisation efforts. Currently I'm taking advantage of the drop in India's markets and have topped up by about a quarter in the last month. With India having a quarter of the world's under 25 year olds it feels like a winning long-term bet with all those would be consumers of the future.

So I've just worked out my networth to be a few quid over 142k. Much better than expected!
I'm now within touching distance of being 1/7th of a millionaire and have increased my totals of money out of pensions and property up another 4% of my total holdings. Networth is one thing, but early retirement is only possible if the money is accessible.

New table looks like this

Dec 2013 NW 68k
Dec 2014 NW 82.5k
Dec 2015 NW 110k
Dec 2016 NW 142k
Dec 2017 NW 162k estimated.

Doubled in 3 years from 2013 to 2016!

My biggest rise yet this year and an increase in excess of my take home salary again as per 2015..

Assuming 6% returns on all investments, 4% increase in value of property and a savings rate of somewhere above 40% I should be on track for another 20k increase. Here's hoping i've underestimated again for next year.

Exciting times

Here's to a prosperous 2017 for all.

lessonlearned

Hi everyone.

Just catching up.

Dad in and out of hospital.....currently in again. He's currently being topped up again with a blood transfusion so hopefully he can come out today or tomorrow and will stay well enough to spend Christmas at home.

After that.....well we will just have to play it by ear.

Biscuits.....loving the review. You have made great progress this year. As you say the political upheavals make investing interesting (in more ways than one). DS2's investments have also done well.

Anyway that's really great progress on your net worth. Give yourself a pat on the back.

I have not done much this last few weeks, just too busy with family matters. I was a bit miffed - I missed on the chance to bid on a fabulous building plot this week. I forgot all about the auction. A real missed opportunity especially as it went for less than I was prepared to pay for it. :rotfl:

Hey ho. I'm sure there will be other chances.

And I did win a consultation prize this week......£50 on the premium the premium bonds.:D

I shall be doing a review in January. If time permits then I plan on making January a money makeover month.

But for today I need to try and wrap those Christmas presents and get the decorations up.

Lingua

Hi all,

I'm 20 and still at uni, but have spent quite some time thinking about the future, particularly how I want to spend it and enjoy as much of life as I can. I'll be graduating in around 2.5 years, with what should be around 35k savings. The following year I should have closer to 50k as I'll (hopefully) be taking part in a graduate scheme.

My projections (from a very intricate spreadsheet) are:

2016: 08.5k
2017: 14.5k
2018: 33.0k
Jun 2019 (graduation): 35k
Jun 2020 (postgrad finished): 50k

I'd like to retire at 55, which means saving early and saving a lot towards both a pension and long-term investments (BTL, etc.). I'm saving over 50% of my income at present (small allowance from family, student loans and bursaries, job etc.) so would like to keep that figure fixed for as long as possible. Real life will probably intervene but will see how it goes!

Still not sure as to what career I want to go into, and would start my own business if I had a decent idea! Was looking into teaching (with long-term view of management) as it pays well at the higher tiers and has a decent pension. Not as good as it once was, but good enough.

I'll keep passing by and seeing how everyone is getting along, and hopefully we can all achieve that magical £1m!

Lingua