Onwards to freedom!

South_coast

Ha, I knew you would have given it some thought 🤣!

Me? Well, as I've only got myself to think about, it would definitely be enough to see my into FIRE, so my notice would be going in to work (I don't dislike me job, I'd just rather not be doing one 😀) I'd stick around long enough for them to get my replacement in place and settled though and not just naff off once a month was up. I'd definitely look again at my seaside bolt hole idea again, should be able to get myself something decent for let's say £200k. I love the location of where I live, so I'd probably stay put, but a few chunks of cash might encourage some of the more annoying neighbours to move on - then exercise a veto over who I sell them on to to make sure they're the right sort 🤣 Obviously get the refurb done so it's actually a nice place to live. Make sure a couple of family members are taken care of, then I quite enjoy the idea of being a mysterious benefactor to local people/causes with what's left. Sounds like a plan to me, maybe I need to start buying some PB's!

savingholmes

Interesting plans...

f I won a million....
I'd top up my pensions by the max allowed - going back previous years where possible.
I'd look for my ideal home - and make a bridge between my current home and my new one by buying it as a second home and gradually transitioning. This is likely to be in the country and near the coast with some land.
Depending on what money was left I'd consider travel, a car upgrade, helping out my kids.
Perhaps pay a mentorship type programme to support my writing and marketing my existing book. Get help to improve my cover, do social media etc.
Look at reducing my working hours over time rather than necessarily quitting so I don't back myself into a corner only to find I don't enjoy the lack of work structure and social as much as I expected... I'd definitely look into the option of buying unpaid leave or taking a mini-sabbatical though.

Like you SSS - I spend a lot of time thinking how I can improve my life even without winning the millions. I've started by buying extra holiday - but unlike you - I haven't sought to go part time yet. I'm not convinced I could afford to money or career wise currently - and would rather earn more now - so I can invest in early retirement and later have substantially more freedom. I'm trying to use my free time constructively to be happier...

Karmacat

This is great 🌈  I would:
- sell this house and buy a detached, even if it just had 2 bedrooms, not 3, even if it only had a courtyard garden not a chunk of space for gardening.  That's an extra £200k, or maybe £600k if I can't sell this one and have to rent it out.  I might sell the French apartment - it mostly gives me trouble free money these days, but another little piece of trouble pops up from time to time, like now, a declaration about commercial leasing that I can't make right now because of accounts fiddle faddle.

- holidays, probably cruises because of energy levels - £50k, including the nursery fees that my sister's help avoids.  Some holiday with her, some on my own, we do have different interests, and my interests that don't gel with hers have been neglected.  A retreat would be nice too.

- money to sister and brother, in the most tax-efficient way possible. £100k

- a nicer used car than I'm planning on getting, some high quality jewellery, some skin treatments for my awful skin.  £50k total.

- that's £800k - the remainder would go into investments of one form or another.  

Numbercruncher_mfw

Oooo I love reading these answers. Just putting my 2 cents in.
If I won £1million I would:
- Quit work for a couple of years until I had yearning for free time out of my system. 
- Pay off mortgage (~£120k). We'd keep same property for now as it's easy to maintain and we wouldn't worry about it if we spent extended periods travelling. 
- Fun Money - for travelling and to plug the gap of a few years not working (£200k)
- Give to family (£180k). 
- Remaining £500k would go into savings/investments to generate a yearly income which would meet our essential needs (and we could live on if we chose) but idea would be to work part time and use wage for holidays/treats. 

I think it's a good exercise to think about what you would do with £1mil as it outlines priorities that you can plan for without winning the lottery. For example I have no desire to buy anything fancy, it's all about time freedom and having money for experiences. I think this could realistically be reducing my hours to 4 days per week and seeing if it's possible to have extended leave (unpaid) for bigger trips. 

Crazycatlady2

I want someone to help provide  care for my son with special needs and i think money is only way to do that tbh so a bigger house and that would be all I wanted I guess 

SuperSecretSquirrel

Thank you all for posting 🙂 Lots of varied answers, but interesting to note that common themes across everyone seem to be a focus on freeing up time and improving quality of life. Nobody desperately needs to run out and buy designer clothes or handbags 🤣

I'm 1/5000ths of the way there with my £200 win this month. Slow progress this get rich quick business 😅

Seriously though, £200 is a nice amount and I'm very happy with it. That's £700 so far this year, and if I ignore the fact that inflation is decimating my 50k holding's value (and for now, I will, Monday morning is no time to ponder such things) it is certainly not an amount to be sniffed at. Over £300 more than my best instant access savings account would have achieved in that time. Of course I could win nothing the rest of the year. Or I could win a lot more 😁 Time will tell…

As for the slow route to a million (or 500k, or whatever the real FI number should be by now) - the S&S saga continues and an angry missive has been sent. It probably won't achieve anything other than a little steam being blown off, but the steam being blown off is probably the most important thing, so that's ok 🙂

Decluttering continues... Upstairs all but done now, one cupboard in the spare room left to sort. Paperwork streamlined, organised, and filed. All the unnecessary stuff has been shredded. Feels great. Another bag of outgrown children's clothes donated, and a bag of outgrown children's toys and books variously sold or donated. OH has got rid of a black bin bag full of stuff. All our remaining "stuff" is sensibly stored now, a good example being all our luggage together in one place, and all our Christmas decorations together in one place. For some unfathomable reason we previously had half of each in underbed storage in one room and the other half of each in a large storage cupboard in a different room! I'm giving OH credit for that inspired bit of "organisation" 🤣

A tip from the TV show has helped us get started downstairs ahead of time too. A bean bag cover has been stuffed full of soft toys. This has freed up a substantial amount of shelf space that means most board games and jigsaws can be stored appropriately, as opposed to being stacked in piles on the floor next to the dining table!

savingholmes

Well done on the reorganising.

Yeah - we probably want what you have achieved - a paid off home, savings, more free time and less work time... 

SuperSecretSquirrel

Thanks SH 🙂

That outside viewpoint is something I really need to think about. What you say is all accurate, but it reads almost like "mission accomplished", and I don't really feel that way.

Maybe the baby steps along the way have disguised some of the progress, a bit like the slowly boiled frog not realising it. Or maybe I should focus more on what has been achieved rather than what hasn't.

Thanks for the wakeup call, and thanks to SC too I think you may have been saying the same thing but it didn't quite register for me at the time as I was thinking more along the lines of family and health. These are huge privileges themselves, heap "no immediate money worries" and "voluntarily reduced work hours" on top and it all gets a bit silly. I should absolutely feel like I've made it, but I don't 🤔

I don't think I'm a totally ungrateful so and so. I think it might actually be a seasonal thing. I'm sure I feel quite different in the spring and summer, I feel like everything is rosy when the sun is out, the days are long, the air is warm... I probably recognise my luck a lot better when I'm out there enjoying the benefits.

SH, you have a plan for the mortgage and savings, are making excellent use of your free time, and in my mind reduced weekly hours and buying extra holidays are essentially the same thing (sacrifice some money for some time), so you should give yourself a good pat on the back as you're probably doing better than you realise too 😎

Humdinger1

@SuperSecretSquirrel this discussion reminded me of the saying 'overnight success takes 17 years'.  Congratulations on all your progress onwards and upwards love Humdinger xx 

South_coast

Well done on the epiphany 😀😀😀 I wasn't quite saying "mission accomplished", more that it's perfectly possible to feel much of the benefits of FI well before you're actually there. 

If it helps, I'm exactly the same, and could do with smelling the roses a little more. It's almost 2 years now since I paid the mortgage off and have a safe and secure roof over my head for the rest of my days, but rather than think what a great thing that is, I look around at all the work that needs doing and calculate how far I am from FIRE and can only see what's left to do. Whereas really I should be thinking "What does it matter if I need a new kitchen (and the rest)? IT'S MINE!!!" I thought the fact that my mortgage deal would have run out at the end of this month would have made me appreciate it a bit more - but no. The cost of a mortgage just doesn't factor into my thinking any more - it's a non-thing. Now if that's not "wealth" and/or "privilege" I don't know what is 🤦‍♀️!

Similarly, my bills are so low these days that I could probably get by for 3 years with just the cash I've got in the bank right now (yes, all assigned for different things, but you know yourself that when the rug gets pulled out from under you all those plans get struck through for the time being). That is a massive win I should be celebrating! I've recently started to feel a bit more wealthy (probably because my most recent pay-rise has just slightly nudged my take-home pay into starting with a new number), but it's a work in progress.