Onwards to freedom!

Karmacat

SuperSecretSquirrel wrote: »

I think you hit the nail on the head there KC... We still do things, normal things, we just save a bit here and there which over the course of the year makes a big difference! :beer:

It's very rare that we head out for a family day out without having packed a picnic for lunch for example, we prefer this to restaurants for many reasons - we know the children will eat what they are given, they (and I! ) can pick at it as and when preferred, we know that the food we prepare is healthy, it's so much quicker to prep and eat a picnic which leaves more time to do what we really want to be doing that day, we all enjoy picnics whereas dining out with small children can be quite stressful, and finally it saves a fair amount of money. I can think of a few examples where we do things a particular way for a whole host of reasons, sometimes without money even crossing our minds, that end up saving us a bit cash. In-sourcing house and garden improvements (learn new skills or refine existing ones, personal satisfaction from a job well done, serves as a good example to the children, quality time as a family if children can "assist", save money), not having a taste for any of the classic vices (improved health and longevity, good example to children, save oodles of cash), various cheap as chips hobbies (fun/interesting/entertaining/relaxing/cerebral, family time, good example to children, save money). I suppose money saving permeates our lifestyle without having been the primary focus for quite some time. As a result our outgoings are pretty low, and our happiness levels are pretty high. The happiness thing becomes something of a self fulfilling prophecy - knowing we could scrape by for decades on a single minimum wage income if necessary does wonders for the stress/anxiety levels. I feel totally relaxed when considering all things financial these days

Happiness :j Now that we're all supposedly emotionally literate, I don't understand why it isn't higher up the scale of things talked about in the public domain - who would want their children to be earning £300k a year if they cried themselves to sleep, or drank themselves to death? I love the concept of a self fulfilling prophecy you mention above, and I think you're creating that for your kids too, you're stocking up memories for them where you're doing things with them, they're learning, they're being paid attention

Can't see that I'll ever stop posting here, it gives me an outlet to discuss things that are totally at odds with the lives my real world friends lead. Even if that weren't the case, some of what I write could be misconstrued as bragging if spoken out loud, and nobody likes a bragging bore (aiming to maintain an 18k per year household lifestyle can't really be considered bragging, but discussing six figure savings would immediately get some people's backs up if they have for example a nice lifestyle but a negative net worth). It's also best not to leave the door open to the begging bowl of more casual acquaintances that might hear of your relatively comfortable situation through a "friend of a friend". No, money talk complicates everything, so this is the only place I discuss money matters other than with OH. I guess what I'm saying is - this place keeps me sane

For me too! I talk money in general with both my brother and my sister, but we all have such different circumstances (I'm in the middle) that it feels weird to be too specific.

SuperSecretSquirrel wrote: »

Continuing the theme of "cheating the system" - I've managed to BT all but £900 of my remaining stooze pot. That's 11.6k that can remain in PBs for another 18 months or so. I like the idea of my totally free borrowed money potentially transforming into a million pounds Even if I don't win the million, a steady stream of free £25 wins still makes me smile

I've been paying such a lot of attention to my kitchen I've let slip all but very basic financial admin. Might have time to get started next week between the kitchen tiling and going off for another caravan holiday

SuperSecretSquirrel

Quite surprised by my credit score update this month...

I owe a total of £12,498 spread over 2 stooze cards.
I have a total credit limit of £55,300 spread over 7 cards.
My ex-pee-ree-anne score is now 944/999.

I believe this is the highest my credit score has ever been. It's certainly the highest my credit limit has ever been. What a dark art credit scoring must be!

Would I lend myself more money, with full visibility of the above information but no knowledge of my savings and investments? Absolutely not. Card issuers? Falling over themselves to offer me more. It's a mad world!

NorthernMonkey1

Credit scores make no sense at all. I've not had any credit since I paid of the mortgage 17 months ago, but according to the scoring sites its crazy high. not 944 tho, thats insane!

When I applied for the car loan, it was done on the app on my phone in less than 30 seconds from opening the app to the money in my account. It's easy to see how people end up on the DFW board when its so easy to borrow crazy amounts of cash.

edinburgher

I believe I have max score

Owe about the same, much higher accessible credit due to my failed attempt at being a master of the universe/new car/renovating.

Taking these things with ladles of salt...

Elephantchunks

SSS you and your diary are inspirational! I love that you have worked towards having freedom and many options. I can't wait to get my house sorted & loan paid off so I can start properly saving towards future freedom. Although, I'm finally in a job that I feel I wont want to ever retire but isn't paid as much as I could have achieved. But I've achieved happiness so far so I'll play the longer game. You have made me think about the option to have a 6 week summer holiday, aww can you imagine! Or a 4 day work week! The possibilities!!! You're awesome! Thanks

kaycastle

I was just like yes yes yes on the last few posts Really interesting journey.

I liked the bit about how this forum is so lovely to talk to like minded people openly. I brought up once about how much I do salary sacrifice to my pensions with my peers and they all thought I was really really crazy. And no one I know overpays on their mortgage so I stopped trying to seek out like minded people a few months ago when I started diary here.

The advice and encouragement here is brilliant.

On your post #646 about your retiring pot. How much are you doing for your living costs a year? My estimates tend to vary from 12k-16k per year. I don't have kids yet though so I don't know how much my costs will change to

SuperSecretSquirrel

Thanks for posting everyone

I've had a little time away from the laptop so haven't been updating my diary recently. This tends to happen when the nice weather arrives, better things to be doing than tapping on a keyboard

Financials all going well, ridiculously well in fact. One sixth of the way through MFiT5 and one third of the way to my target. I keep telling myself it won't last, but maybe it will!

As for post 646 kaycastle, the "selfishly FI" figure centres around my own accounts supporting a 9k per year spend, and OH covering the other 9k. Our total household spend (excluding childcare, which will soon come to an end) was under 18k when we ran a year long spending diary experiment recently, so it seems a reasonably realistic figure, though like you we don't really know how our expenses might change in the future.

Using the 4%/25x rule and ignoring state pension, I am now 68.1% selfishly FI, and as a team we are 38.2% truly FI :cool:

Hope you're all enjoying the sun, I'm planning on signing off for another few weeks now

VDOT47

Hi SSS, how are things going?

Any further updates?

SuperSecretSquirrel

Hi VDOT47, thanks for checking in

I haven't really had much to say the past few months. We're just bobbing along really!

I've closed a few dormant current accounts and credit cards, and firmed up an S&S ISA plan (planning to leave the current one intact, stop paying into it from March, and start paying in via the new platform from April). Won a few £25 PB prizes, but nothing life changing...

We're about half way to my MFiT5 target now. It's all on autopilot and the markets have been kind. Could easily come apart at the seams, but for now I'm very happy with how things are going - we're way ahead of schedule, for now

I'm about 70% of the way to my solo FI aim (25x9k=225k interest accruing assets in personal accounts). We're about 40% of the way to the team FI aim (25x18k=450k combined interest accruing assets). It'll be slow progress on these aims, but the 70% and 40% figures feel good in themselves, it's not all about hitting 100%

Finally, I've looked a little deeper into unpaid parental leave... I can request up to 36 weeks off spread over the next 15 years. Maximum of 8 weeks each year. So that could be 9 years with 4 weeks unpaid leave each for example. Add on paid annual leave and that's plenty of cover for school holidays.

I guess the children won't be interested in spending too much time with us when they're in their teens, so now would be the time to go for it really. If I worked full-time and took 4 weeks unpaid leave each year, I'd end up earning pretty much the same as I do now. Of course what I'd really like is to work my current pattern AND take the summer off, which we could certainly afford to do, but I'm not sure my employer would be overly impressed. It seems like an extremely indulgent luxury to have all that time off, but I just might try to swing it

I'd be more than happy for it to take a little while longer to reach 100% FI if the journey was that much more enjoyable along the way!

Karmacat

SuperSecretSquirrel wrote: »

I haven't really had much to say the past few months. We're just bobbing along really!

Thats what I want! Good to confirm you're doing well, though, SSS, and that everything *is* bobbing along.