"Simply not solvent!

taxi73

Must be lovely(in a way ) to have all that lovely snow.It's lovely to watch children play in it.

bountiful

Hi Seaxwyn - just had a read through your thread to catch up - and felt I had to endorse what the others are saying..... with the CAP money system I have started using - you have to (HAVE TO) calculate what your regular payments are. Your tax bill is a regular payment that happens once a year - and so - you have a pretty good idea how much it is going to be - you divide it by 12 - and that is how much you HAVE TO put aside each month in order to be able to pay in at the end of the year. I found doing the budget was really challenging - but I realised that I cannot be 'flexible' and expect the system to work - I have to stick to it - the agreements I have made with myself, based on the costings done by myself, for the expenses I know I have to pay.
Get it? Your annual tax bill divided by twelve = how much you need to set aside each month. :rolleyes: You Can Do It!!!!

bountiful

Hello?! U OK?:question::hello:

Seaxwyn

I'm fine thanks! Thanks for looking in. You are completely right, I do need to save for my tax bill, it's stupid and also criminal not to. I've known this for years now so why don't I do it?

It's part of the same stupid approach to work where I make a huge deal out of every job and just manage to finish it on or after the deadline. In the same way I manage each month to make just enough money to cover the essential outgoings, but no extra. The problem is only in my mind - there is more than enough work out there and I could easily earn more than I do.

I've been stuck in this pattern for 7 years now. How can I switch from knowing what I should do to actually doing it?

Apart from all that I am fine though! I refuse to be brought down by money worries.

taxi73

Hi Seaxwyn..glad everything is fine with you and agree to not being brought down by money worries.How you are going to change things...only you can implement that one.

hypno06

When you DO work out how to "flick that switch", let me know and I will apply it to my housework

ZTD

Seaxwyn wrote: »

I'm fine thanks! Thanks for looking in. You are completely right, I do need to save for my tax bill, it's stupid and also criminal not to. I've known this for years now so why don't I do it?

It's part of the same stupid approach to work where I make a huge deal out of every job and just manage to finish it on or after the deadline. In the same way I manage each month to make just enough money to cover the essential outgoings, but no extra. The problem is only in my mind - there is more than enough work out there and I could easily earn more than I do.

I've been stuck in this pattern for 7 years now. How can I switch from knowing what I should do to actually doing it?

How do you feel when you are doing it "right" and how do you feel when you are doing it "wrong"?

bountiful

Have you considered using a system like CAP - a debt management/budgeting system - maybe paying your regular payments money to a third party would help you be more comitted to it.... well, just a thought. I am finding it really helpful to pay them a chunk every month - they then pay my rent and council tax and a few other regular bills - I don't have to worry about it. I realise you are all independent and everything (like me) but you do have debt - and you do have a problem balanacing your regular payments..... would be worth having a read up about it (there's stuff on here about it I think). LOL xxx

bountiful

Sorry Seaxwyn - I just checked out their info and the following is from their FAQ page.......

"I am self employed, can you help me?
No. This is due to the following reasons:

• Self employed income is often erratic.
• Running a business often means you need to have continued access to credit.
• There is a likelihood that your debt problems are connected to business problems

These reasons make it very difficult to run a CAP Account in a sustainable way. However, we are able to suggest agencies that can help you tackle the business problems in conjunction with your debt."

Seaxwyn

Hi Bountiful, and thanks for thinking about me. Although I do have to juggle to make the regular payments I've never missed one, ever, I am very conscientious! Having a huge interest-free overdraft facility is usually enough to absorb any problems.

It's just the tax that's a problem.... and the only sure way to manage that is to save 25% of all income. As my income varies, my tax bill also varies wildly, with the big bills coming a year or eighteen months AFTER the high earning year. My last ten years or so have been alternating huge tax bills (which I borrow to pay, hence much of my debt) followed by small ones that I can easily manage.

The main thing I need to sort out is just applying myself to my work, though, as I'm in the lucky position of being able to earn good money if I just put my mind to it. One example - I've got a contract at the moment to write 53 articles. Most take about two hours to do and it's paid £30/hour. So if I was sensible, every time I had two hours spare, I'd do one. And I'd set targets, say three a day til they're done. But I'm just not getting down to it and only doing about one every three days! It's so stupid I know. It's not that I'm lazy, I'm doing two paper rounds, I've written and laid out a newsletter for the Green Party for free, etc etc. I just have a resistance to doing the one thing that's in my very best interest - writing those articles.

My posts seem tediously repetitive - sorry! I haven't got much appetite for writing about all the other ups and downs of the DFW life as this one issue - work - seems the most important one.