Hurdler's Race to be Mortgage-Free

Peonie

unhappy_shopper wrote: »

Hi Hurdler,

Your life insurance looks a bit on the higher side, IMHO.

Life assurance ......................... 36.74

May be it is worthwhile getting a new quote and switching.

US

I agree, we pay that for the two of us.

Hurdler

Peonie wrote: »

I agree, we pay that for the two of us.

This policy comes with Critical/Serious Illness cover (which might explain the premium) and with my medical history to date, and the trend to reduce the range of potentially critical/serious conditions for cover, if I looked for something cheaper, I would be exposing myself to less/potentially no cover for the things that are likely to clobber me in the future.
43, single with no partner to pick up the slack on bills, that just seems like a risk that would be ludicrous to take.

When I took voluntary redundancy, I sat down with all the policies I had and been paying into (including an income protection plan that had removed redundancy cover) and did a major hack through them with an IFA.
He looked at this cover in particular and concluded that he couldn't find anything that provided its range for cheaper.

So to be fair, it's not like I haven't considered anything cheaper... but if you are honestly suggesting I risk having less/no cover for anything serious just to save pennies, then... just no. Sorry.

unhappy_shopper

Hurdler wrote: »

So to be fair, it's not like I haven't considered anything cheaper... but if you are honestly suggesting I risk having less/no cover for anything serious just to save pennies, then... just no. Sorry.

Hurdler, don't be offended. I was just making an observation as me and my OH are both in our mid-40s and our premium for £150K life cover is only around £15pm. That is why I felt that yours is a bit on the higher side. I would never assume that it is the same for everyone.You are the best one to decide what suits you. :A

Hurdler

unhappy_shopper wrote: »

Hurdler, don't be offended. I was just making an observation as me and my OH are both in our mid-40s and our premium for £150K life cover is only around £15pm. That is why I felt that yours is a bit on the higher side. I would never assume that it is the same for everyone.You are best one to decide what suits you. :A

I'm not offended at all - I hadn't explained/put notes in the SOA to explain what it is... the IFA was quite taken aback when he looked into this policy as it is pretty rare to find them these days - and it was taken out when I first started work (so I think it has also been adjusted to account for the value of the house over the flat I had initially).

And if people are going to pass opinion - then it's only fair they are in possession of the facts (i.e. the depth of cover) and the fact that I actually HAVE done a lot of trimming down on outgoings since taking redundancy.

By the same token though - I need to take care of me, as I don't have another half to rescue me from this unsalaried folly I am subjecting myself to.

Of course the REAL answer, this being an MFW thread would be to go get a proper job... then none of this would be an issue.

Please be assured, this is not something I decided on a whim, for a bit of fun and frivolity because I was bored one day.
It is a really hard decision to walk out of a well paid job, TWICE, to pursue a dream, without a partner to pick up the finances in the mean time.
I have put myself through immeasurable sacrifice over the past year and thought about giving up, I don't know how many times.

I still may HAVE to give up if I can't make it work, but I at least owe it to myself to try.

Hurdler

So - this month will be most likely an un-paid month unless last night's meeting with a company to write content for them pays off.

Talked with client and actually - I think I do need some me time.... so this is my plan for October.

1. Next week try and seal the deal for my first ITIL Intermediate course with a friendly course vendor who has seen the potential benefit in having me blog exclusively for them about my training experience in self-studying for the next levels of certification. I wrote them a very favourable review of their free training, and if I score this, that is a £560 course for free. It also helps boost my own skills and credibility which is v important both for the writing, and if I need a fallback
2. I need some me time. I left one company and jumped straight into another, and then straight into a brand new career ... perhaps having the time to maybe dabble in some research for future articles in my own time, and play Eve Online as and when I want to...watch the films I have bought on bluray that are gathering dust in my DVD shelf is not a bad thing.
3. I have gradually sold off some of my own and inherited badly performing shares which are sitting in a savings account - so I am going to ring my IFA and get a properly managed stocks and shares ISA going with the first half, thus filling my full ISA quotient for the year.
4. I may have some work coming in this month from a company I went to see last night who want a techie who can write (why... that would be ME) to help them formulate their brand/content.
5. I wrote an opinion piece about outsourcing that came to the attention of a couple of outsourcing publications, and I am going to approach them and see if they have any work opportunities
6. I was quite flattered that one of the managing editors of Sportsbeat (Sports Agency attached to my journo school) sent me a congratulatory text when I passed my shorthand. He taught us ONCE, and then invigilated our exam... and the owner of sportsbeat told me to contact him as well - so over the weekend I am going to contact them and badger them for some sports work
7. There is a Trainee Journalism Scheme being run by the BBC and I applied before but was turned down, but will apply again.
8. This will be a dip into savings month, but I was chatting to Sepa a while back where I wondered if I would be better off chucking that redundancy buffer into the mortgage - it would have taken off maybe about £30 off the payments so we figured it would be better to have the buffer - well that's what buffer's are for.

In terms of my piggy banks:

• Weekly Cash Allowance: I am well up on money set aside in the current account with about 16 weeks (what is that... 4 months?) of money and another year's worth squirrelled away... so I can live for this month and try and keep as much as poss as no spending days.
• My Current Account: Actually has an ok buffer for certainly this month and probably a good amount of next month and I have arranged to now start billing primary client at the end of the month, instead of in advance, so that we don't have this endless credit note nonsense going on... but he acknowledged just now that he needs to get the marketing side moving much better
• Treat account: I think this is pretty healthy with savings and turnover cash and I am going to start transferring some sums to cover some of the monthly outgoings to make it a little easier to manage
• Car service is due this week - the BEST bit of advice a friend gave me when I bought my company car was to set up an account with about £2K to cover car things... god bless her. Service will come from there and when cash flows in again - I can top it up.
• I am in two minds as to whether to raid Vernon the Virtual Mortgage Pig or stick to my guns and put some money (half a monthly payment) to the mortgage.

Sorry this is long but now I know where I stand for this month, it is way easier to plan.

Hurdler

So... bizarrely our Royal Mail deliveries are now in the very late afternoon/evening... and what arrived/just now (5:15pm... REALLY, Royal Mail? REALLY?)
MY NUJ PRESS CARD!
Some week... pass my nemesis of 100wpm... and then get that all important piece of plastic.

Sepa74

Hooray!!! Congratulations on passing the dreaded shorthand! So proud of you!

Looking at your SOA, the thing that jumped out at me was your water... I pay half of that per month AND I have a garden. Can you ask your company for a water meter, and if you're already on one, maybe you should start holding your legs together tighter! :rotfl:

lol.. that one was worthy of Gally, wasn't it :j

Sepa74

Oh forgot to say, I agree with you on the life assurance thing... it's something us freelancers shouldn't scrimp on. I pay £140pcm for income protection insurance (but it comes out of the business pre-tax) and although my IFA thinks it's too expensive, I just need it for my peace of mind.

Hurdler

Sepa74 wrote: »

Hooray!!! Congratulations on passing the dreaded shorthand! So proud of you!

Looking at your SOA, the thing that jumped out at me was your water... I pay half of that per month AND I have a garden. Can you ask your company for a water meter, and if you're already on one, maybe you should start holding your legs together tighter! :rotfl:

lol.. that one was worthy of Gally, wasn't it :j

:rotfl:

I might ask them about it, although with a garden as well, and a hungry dishwasher and washer/dryer - would I be making things better or worse for myself?

Hehehe - as part of this whole MyFitnessPLan/FitBit malarky I am trying to drink more water, which means more gallops up and down the stairs (useful for FitBit step counting and calorie burn) to the loo (not so useful... as capably explained by Sepa!)...

As a total aside... seriously how can people drink 8 glasses of water a day - two and I am running back and forth to the loo throughout the day, it's enough to make me consider trying to covert my built in storage space to an en-suite loo!
It is helpful to keep me moving and not writing all day in the office... but... ummm... well...

I keep trying to build up to three glasses but I think I will turn into an amphibian... which is not a good look.

Hurdler

I had one of those irritating sore throats ahead of a cold... so I tried blitzing it yesterday with Strepsils throat spray and by the time I came back from Tapas with a friend from journo school the soreness had spread across my whole throat, so I had a pretty awful night's sleep.

I found some echinachea tablets and also some of the Benelyn Day and Night tablets to get me through the next couple of days, and then I will have to go stock up.

Today is an NSD as I have been dozing on and off, and trying to catch up with my finances.

I had wanted to spend the whole day playing an online game that I have all but ignored for the last year, but I barely have the stamina to sort out the finances.

Luckily there's non-stop films on the TV until almost Strictly time, so about to start again with the spreadsheets and Microsoft Money.

Off out for a scrummy roast tomorrow, so want rid of the sniffles although they do say feed a cold.
I have stuck to as many fluids (Vit C) as I can today to try and blitz this and my throat is feeling a little better now.

I have one article to get done in draft for next week, and I need to chase up the other company I met with... so hopefully having tissue-brain for a week will not be too bad!

I do feel annoyed that I might not be up to a session in the gym on Monday... but we'll see how it goes.