Hurdler's Race to be Mortgage-Free

Hurdler

gallygirl wrote: »

Great to see you back and glad all is going well :T

It's good to be back - you know what a journey it's been...
Something that's really helped is an iphone app called Lift with various habitual things to check off and do. I found myself forgetting to even update things like My Fitness Pal and have had them reset my days so many times, I think they're getting fed up with me.
But the worst was leaving my business expenses until the last moment - and having to spend a couple of days off catching up.
So now I try and nibble away at those chores whenever I take a brief break from the tennis stuff - I try and give myself a desk break every 45 minutes.

But the tennis job on its own pays my monthly outgoings so for now things are looking a little easier than when I had maybe only a small percentage coming in and was living off the redundancy.

Not out of the woods yet - but a lot more focused.

BlueMoo

Hi,

Interested to know more about your tennis job - as I am a big tennis fan. Always dreamed of being Sue Barker one day

Sounds like you have a good plan of action for the next month! Is this something you decide on the month? or is it yearly you decide by July i will be ..., in Nov I want to...
Interested to see your tips

Hurdler

BlueMoo wrote: »

Hi,

Interested to know more about your tennis job - as I am a big tennis fan. Always dreamed of being Sue Barker one day

Sounds like you have a good plan of action for the next month! Is this something you decide on the month? or is it yearly you decide by July i will be ..., in Nov I want to...
Interested to see your tips

I used to work in the boring world of IT and a couple of years ago I took voluntary redundancy because I had a vague idea of being a tennis writer because I had my own little blog. Then I landed a job writing about IT, but it's been a bumpy road for a variety of reason! But as a result of some lean times I decided to indulge a little more with the tennis. One of the Sports editors I wrote for could get accreditation but couldn't pay, so I used a MAHUSIVE chunk of redundancy money to cover Roland Garros and also ATP/WTA Eastbourne. But she seemed to have falled foul f the powers that be at Wimbledon and her creds pulled for there.

I met a couple of lads working for a sports site when I was in Paris, and when I saw that their site was hiring, I applied 'cos I knew they were getting paid. And because at Eastbourne I did a stint with BBC 5 live - it kinda tipped the balance and they hired me.

So it is a LOT of writing and social media management but I get to watch people hitting fluffy tennis balls pretty much every day - and I went to the David Cup tie in Croatia and so now my Facebook profile has the back of my head interviewing Andy Murray!

Not a bad year!

PM me if you want the links of where I write

BlueMoo

Amazing! How funny, I too work in the world of IT, and my friends have been telling em for years to start a blog (not just for tennis but for daily life) I even have a name for it, but haven't taken the plunge to start it as feel it will be too time consuming.

Honestly, very very jealous for your adventures. This is my first year with no live tennis - not ATP Tour Finals or Wimbledon. Trying to convince myself that my wedding will be worth not seeing the greats :rotfl:

Glad to hear RFed got in yesterday.

Yeah, do send me a PM of your links.

Hurdler

November Goals:

• B[STRIKE]uild 4 months personal outgoings[/STRIKE] - DONE (Last remnants of redundancy money)
• 6/11 is Pay day + Expenses up to April 2013, ensure enough in Business Saver to cover VAT, Corp Tax and 3 months Business outgoings
• [STRIKE]Build T3sco Clubcard Plus account to £500. Supplemented with £75 per month.[/STRIKE] - DONE - had a surplus in my Cash Allowance fund that had built up over the last couple of years so transferred to current account to help with this month's bills and used that
• Build Car Maintenance fund to £2000
• Sell last of shares and put in N@tionwide Saver until I can roll it onto a separate Stocks and shaes ISa with the £10K already from proceeds
• Try not to pay for anything related to the business personally for a month (excludes diesel for car that goes on cashback Amex card)

misscousinitt

Nice to see you Hurdler..good luck with going forward.

MCI

Hurdler

November Goals:

• [STRIKE]Build 4 months personal outgoings[/STRIKE] - DONE (Last remnants of redundancy money)
• [STRIKE]After 6/11 Pay day + Expenses up to April 2013, ensure enough in Business Saver to cover VAT, Corp Tax and 3 months Business outgoings[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]Build T3sco Clubcard Plus account to £500. Supplemented with £75 per month.[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]Build Car Maintenance fund to £2000[/STRIKE]
• Sell last of shares and put in N@tionwide Saver until I can roll it onto a separate Stocks and shaes ISa with the £10K already from proceeds
• Try not to pay for anything related to the business personally for a month.

Some meal items for business subsistence charge an extra if I use the card so I *mostly* will achieve the last bullet - I used the card for all meals when I was covering the tennis at the O2.
It took me two days just to get my expenses done for the last tax year... so now just have to start on this tax year!

BlueMoo

The O2 is fab, isn't it! But very very expensive drinks and food.

Hurdler

BlueMoo wrote: »

The O2 is fab, isn't it! But very very expensive drinks and food.

Luckily the media restaurant supplied Lunch and Dinner and most of the time it was super scrummy!

Hurdler

Ooof well it's just as well I am not hired for my mathematical skills. I thought I owed myself a huge chunk of expenses (almost £1K). Turns out I paid myself a chunk of expenses at the back end of 2012 and never noted them down.

But now I am pretty much up to date so some activities for the end of the year, so worth a look back at what I managed to do this year:

1. By the end of this year I will be able to pay myself all my expenses up to November and will be completely and utterly up to date in my company accounts, and IN CREDIT!
2. Financial planning - now qualify for their tax efficient wrap once I finish selling off the last few shares
3. From January should have enough to leave 3 months of company account outgoings in the business current account
4. Have topped up my personal grocery account, my car account, and my emergency fund accounts
5. Huge balance from expenses paid in my personal current account, and the sweep should dump that in my mortgage overpaying account at the start of next month so will start the year with a hefty overpayment and maybe even a bit of a reduction to the monthly amount
6. My aim will be to pay at LEAST one month extra overpayment but if there is a chance to pay an additional 3x the amount... that triggers an automatic reduction so that will be my end game.