Fat git, 65K savings – take six months off to get fit?

guitarman001

racing_blue wrote: »

The book classes people as under or over accumulators of wealth & argues that someone's net wealth should, on average, be equal to their salary x their age divided by 10.

Jesus!! No way most people are meeting that metric!!

Zekko

• Stay in your job
• Cut down on the alchohol intake
• Use a couple of weekday evenings or the weekend to get active.

Hooloovoo

guitarman001 wrote: »

Jesus!! No way most people are meeting that metric!!

I'm no so sure. He said "net wealth" so that includes everything you own, including property.

Mine comes out to £119k by that calculation.

My house alone is worth £150k and I only have £10k left on the mortgage. So it's already beaten before even looking at savings and investments.

hodd

Hooloovoo wrote: »

Crikey. Would you like to swap with me? I'd happily put up with a "so so" job for £53k a year!

I don't mean to be harsh but this is one of the daftest posts I've ever read on here

Fair enough. A couple of points, though. Firstly, I did say twice in my opening post that this was a bit of fun. This is a discussion forum, after all. Secondly, with a £53K job, which is hardly a fortune for someone in their forties, comes long hours and a degree of stress, neither of which are conducive for one's health. Also, if Steve Jobs (who sadly was a victim of tragic bad luck and presumably not an unhealthy lifestyle) were to read this thread in his last few months, would he have thought it daft?

racing_blue wrote: »

Are you happy with your financial situation? I'd say it looks shaky. Someone on here recommended to me "the millionaire next door", don't know if you have read it but guess probably not. I thought it was a great book. The book classes people as under or over accumulators of wealth & argues that someone's net wealth should, on average, be equal to their salary x their age divided by 10..

I have indeed read the book (not bad) and have accumulated about half what I need to be one of Stanley and Danko’s Accumulators of Wealth. Someone else mentioned pensions, which the Millionaire Next Door book ignored in its net worth calculation. Saying that, I wouldn’t disregard the calculator as a rough guide to one’s financial health.

lisyloo

I would say definitely stay at work.
I am dieting at the moment and I find it much easier when I'm busy.

You alchohol intake stands out, so try to cut down on that.

I am personally finding a weekly class very helpful (one with weighing, motivaional advice, practical advice and exercise).
This has hepled me personally a great deal to focus and I understand the stats say you are 3 times more likely to suceed if you go to a class.
Most of these classes are full of women, so I can understand it would be a lot harder for a man but whilst I don't want it to sound as cheesy as a "group hug", it's very helpful to be in a supportive enviroment where you know everyone else understands your struggle.

The motivational stuff is great and I don't mean "ra ra ra".
We had a talk over Easter and we were shown the amount of fat in a smallish hollow easter bunny.
We were all horrified and personally that put me off eating chocolate.
I don't mean I had to force myself to stop I mean I no longer wanted to eat it.
The instructor did not ban us from chocolate but gave us a small piece of informaion in a few minutes that worked wonders.
Not all of the talks work for me, but sometimes there is something that really strikes a chord.

Don't try to do anything ridiculous - like running every day - it's not sustainable.
I'm doing one exercise class a week which isn't a lot I know, but realistically there is greater chance of it being sustainable than if I tried going to the gym 5 times a week.

This is about making lifestyle changes that you can live with.

Giving up the job IMO woul not only be unnecessary but could be unhelpful wrt eating and drinking if are suddenly a lot less busy.

Good Luck.

elsien

If I was taking 6 months off I'd be wanted to do a bit more with it than a vague goal of getting fit - if you're going to do it, use the time to do something you really want to do. When you're lying on your deathbed reflecting, what would you want to have to show for your 6 months - I'm guessing there's more than "getting fit" in there. Unless your get fit goal includes a lifetimes dream of climbing everest. Or whatever.
(That's my excuse every time I blow my savings on a really good holiday instead of having the bathroom retiled!)
Otherwise, as previous posters have said, at the end of 6 months you go back to work, back to the old lifestyle, and you might has well not have bothered in the first place. Put the getting fit into your day to day routine and blow the budget on whatever floats your boat.

Wobblydeb

Google Early Retirement Extreme and Mr Money Mustache ...... They are American but I think you would get a lot out of either one of them

If you gave up working now for 6 months, you would chew through a chunk of your capital and effectively force yourself back into the drudgery of work into your latter years. I'd put money on the fact that returning to work would undo any good habits you might establish when having your 6 months off. Better to work now and set up a decent passive income stream, whilst gradually changing those daily bad habits.

hodd

Well OK, make that 20Kg then. I'm no hypercondriac, but to have a BMI of 32.9 and stage 1 hypertension is a cause for concern. I wouldn't use the word "drastic", but something like drastic action is needed.

I'm clearly not an experienced dieter, so setting a target weight makes no sense. The plan would be to get into a lifestyle change and not go back later to a job with such long hours and travel. The lifestyle change must include a new type of job in any case. Sadly, there are managers at my place who are walking heart attacks (very long hours, overweight, zero exercise, stress galore) and for me, no amount of money is worth that. It's only a job, folks.

Now you mention it, there are a couple of other things I would plan to do, e.g. write a book, but that involves being slumped at a desk too!

[Deleted User]

Pretty sure you could loose that weight by loosing the 35 units a week.. have you seen the amount of calories in beer??

I'd say you're better off gradually changing your lifestyle rather than doing it in a binge.

In our house, we've gradually swapped 'bad' things for 'better'... lunch went from chicken sandwiches to chicken salads. Milk next went semi-skimmed to skimmed. Breakfast went from toast/crumpets to cornflakes. We've also slimmed down our dinner portion sizes to shrink how much we expect to 'feel full'. Left-overs now get turned into baby food rather than a second helping.

I've barely felt like i've done any major change and i've lost 3kg over the last month. Can you imagine how turning 35 units into 15 would help?

(does the 65k include your pension?)

hodd

ringo_24601 wrote: »

(does the 65k include your pension?)

No, although I need to keep an eye on my pension(s).