Cazmanian_minx's new MF diary

baffcat

cazmanian_minx wrote: »

I think I need a fresh start! (Old thread for anyone interested)

OK, so the basics are as follows. I'm Caz, I've just turned 36, I'm married to Mr Minx and we live with our two Springers, Smokey and Red, and horse, Merlin, in our forever home, which is a croft overlooking a beach on the north coast of Scotland.

We moved here in June 2008 and have an interest only tracker mortgage which is base rate + 1.1% for the life of the mortgage (20 years). At our current rate of overpayment we're due to pay it off completely in January 2028, 5 months ahead of the end of the term, but that assumes the base rate stays at 0.5% which I think is extraordinarily unlikely.

Mr Minx is an engineer and I'm self-employed, primarily as an online retailer. We got married last month His income is fixed but mine fluctuates in more or less direct correlation with the amount of work I put in, which is wonderfully freeing in a lot of ways and scary in a lot of other ways! I earn little bits of extra money from writing and investing - I've spent the last six months learning how to spread bet, extremely cautiously, and seem to be doing well so far.

The plan is to expand my business into something nationwide and then sell it. If this goes spectacularly right, we could have enough to retire within 10 years. Watch this space...:D

So you don't love me anymore, huh?

Wondered why I'd had no more messages saying there was a new post on your (old) thread. Now I know.

I was sure you made some cash from photography as well. Am I wrong?

Like you. I'm a fulltime ebayer, and again, like you, the turnover mirrors the effort I put in.

Okay, after reading only your OP, I'll do read the follow ups.

As I'm sure I've said previously, Good Luck.

Baff

PS. Congrats on taking the marital plunge.

gingababe

Wow.... I am so glad a new diary......:)

Would love to know more about your spread betting .. If you could point me in the right direction so I can learn about Spread betting that would be fab !

Thanks



GB xx

cazmanian_minx

Lixi wrote: »

Hi Caz

I look forward to reading more about your MF challenge. I have a mortgage on a similar rate and have been making significant overpayments for a while now as I can't stand to be in debt. I am wondering though whether I should throw all the money that I would be using to overpay into savings and other investments (effectively offsetting). Have you considered that route?

Lx

Hi Lixi - essentially that's what I'm doing, we have an offset mortgage and savings are supposed to go into the offset accounts, though it's more important to get the post-wedding debt paid off first. That way we have access to the cash if we do need it for some emergency or other.

baffcat wrote:

I was sure you made some cash from photography as well. Am I wrong?

Hi Baff - I think I *fail* to make some cash from photography is probably more accurate No, I do have some shots on Alamy, but no sales so far.

gingababe wrote:

Would love to know more about your spread betting .. If you could point me in the right direction so I can learn about Spread betting that would be fab !

Hi GB - the book which gave me the confidence to start with it is The Naked Trader's Guide To Spread Betting by Robbie Burns. It's a very easy-to-read style and full of dire warnings about how badly wrong things can go. It does assume a certain amount of familiarity with how the stock market works, so depending on your level of knowledge, you might want to start with his first book, The Naked Trader (I've just checked his website and there's a new edition out next week). He has a site (I won't link because this is fast becoming a Robbie advert, but Google for Naked Trader and you'll find it) where he details the trades he makes and his profits and losses, which is also an interesting read.

No Friday Finances post last week because I was in Cornwall at my cousin's wedding - I'll try and catch up on the receipt-bashing this afternoon and post later. VERY relieved to see none of my spread bets got stopped out with all the market turmoil on Thursday and Friday, in fact I'm still in profit with them

cazmanian_minx

Urkle, net debt up by just under £400 However, we had an amazing time at my cousin's wedding and I wouldn't have missed it for the world The only expenses between now and Christmas are the animal-related ones - £150-worth of haylage next weekend, Senior Dog has a vet visit tomorrow for more antibiotics and then Merlin's scans two weeks on Tuesday, though the bill for that won't arrive until November.

cazmanian_minx

I'm going to be ULTRA good and return the jar of Clinique moisturiser I bought myself while we were at the wedding - I was getting one for my neighbour as a thank you for all the animal sitting she's done for us this year and the lady on the counter said if I bought any other Clinique item I'd get a free gift, so since she had another jar and I love it, I said I'd take both without thinking. But that £30 would be better off in my account than on my face, if you see what I mean, so I'll try and return it when I'm in Inverness tomorrow. I'll take the free gift back too, obviously

cazmanian_minx

The Glaxo Smith Kline spread bet is now showing a profit of £35.68 and it's SO tempting to close it and take the money (not that I can right at this moment, the market's closed). But there's a saying that goes 'plan the trade, then trade the plan' - I planned to exit at about 20 points higher than the current price and it's still moving in the right direction, so I must sit on my hands and wait.

Good thing I'm going to be in Inverness tomorrow with no access to the account (I've never got round to lifting the age-restricted blocks my phone was automatically shipped with and the spread betting website I used is, of course, classed as a gambling site).

Going to bed now after spending an hour working on a stock order - one of my Chinese suppliers is offering 10% off and free UPS shipping on orders over US$1800, but with a handling charge of US$2.99 per kilo, so ordering expensive but light items is the key to taking advantage of this one!

cazmanian_minx

Friday update time. I'm having to delay paying myself until Monday because I messed up my business cash flow :mad: but I've put the figures in as if I'd paid myself today as normal. My own stupid fault, I'm so close to getting the business finances back under control after a supplier threw a huge spanner in the works that I got over-excited and paid an extra £1000 off the business credit card, forgetting that there was a £1200 cheque that hadn't been banked by a supplier. I have enough in the business account to cover the cheque and the Royal Mail postage bill due out by direct debit on Wednesday, but that only leaves £24.90 to pay myself with, so I'll wait and see what the weekend takings are like. It's entirely possible that the supplier won't cash the cheque until after Wednesday (they'll only have received it today and it usually takes them about a week), but I don't want to take the risk.

That said, money's still pretty tight and I think I'll be taking advantage of the free listing weekend on eBay!

GDB2222

Can i ask which spread betting company you recommend?

cazmanian_minx

GDB2222 wrote: »

Can i ask which spread betting company you recommend?

I've only ever used one and I was given an account with them as a gift after I won a share trading competition on another financial website. They're all much of a muchness I think If you want to trade the FTSE, go for one which advertises 1 point spreads on it.

cazmanian_minx

Opened another trade this morning, a rolling one this time so I'm expecting to be out of it fairly quickly. I've had my eye on Rolls Royce for a while, it's announced a string of contracts through September with another one this morning and for the last year the share has been trading within a range of 550-660. It's towards the bottom end of that at the moment, so I've bought at 585p with a stop at 540p and a target of 640p.