Breaking Through, Travelling On

Karmacat

Hmmm. This is tricky for someone my age, but my pension pot needs to increase by another £150k! That would provide an annuity of about £9k p.a., but that would still only take me up to my current only-just-breaking-even income. Still, its a goal to aim for.

And there *is* the French apartment, which might still provide an income once the dratted mortgage is paid off. And once I'm in my seventies (and thank you, thats an **awfully** long time away :rotfl: I'll be able to sell it.

So. I've accepted the ebay/amazon challenge from DDFW for February, and other than that, February on the computer needs to be looking after the various pots of money that contain the funds I already have: better rate, safer location (as people get near retirement, they're encouraged to switch from volatile funds to less volatile).

Okay. Sig to be entered tomorrow: euro mortgage and pension target :T

mizmir

Karmacat wrote: »

I'm sure you're right about income generation - some things, like ebay sales are worth it, but I wish I'd never got involved with trekking about doing mystery shopping, I really do - I think I exhausted myself, when I could have been thinking about a new business to start, and instead I was faffing about making £1.30 an hour and being out at all hours.

Thank you for this! I had today just been taking a peak at the mystery shopping thread and you have convinced me to let it lie. I would be better to focus on developing some new products for the business that I can get out there and sell. I am planning some online courses on Udemy which will be on demand - and I would like to start writing some short Kindle books. I must remember not to panic and to just keep building the business. In the long term that is what is going to get me out of this hole. It is going well at the moment - so I have something to build on.

Matched betting, otoh, is great! Like you, I've moved, and have a new account with a new branch. I'm researching a thing I heard about with laying against favourites (heard it from Homes Under The Hammer, of all places, while I was ill) - I'll let you know if the research proves or disproves it. Not good so far, I confess :rotfl:

Look forward to your report on that. I think February will be my matched betting month - things are quiet on the workshop front so I will try to make my income that way. As I recall last time I made about £2K so it it not small change.

Hmmm. This is tricky for someone my age, but my pension pot needs to increase by another £150k! That would provide an annuity of about £9k p.a., but that would still only take me up to my current only-just-breaking-even income. Still, its a goal to aim for.

And there *is* the French apartment, which might still provide an income once the dratted mortgage is paid off. And once I'm in my seventies (and thank you, thats an **awfully** long time away :rotfl: I'll be able to sell it.

So. I've accepted the ebay/amazon challenge from DDFW for February, and other than that, February on the computer needs to be looking after the various pots of money that contain the funds I already have: better rate, safer location (as people get near retirement, they're encouraged to switch from volatile funds to less volatile).

Okay. Sig to be entered tomorrow: euro mortgage and pension target :T

Yay! A new challenge. Go for it. :T

Karmacat

Morning!

Mizmir - yes, since you have your own business, and have ideas to grow it, I'd say use the time that way - much more profitable than mystery shopping, though thinking about it if you can get *straight* onto the ones where you just send out an email and monitor the reply, thats great. But going to shops, checking banks - by the time you factor in going for the job, printing out the paperwork, doing the actual visit, filling in the form so you remember (and you *wont* remember otherwise, not the amount of detail they want) and then actually inputting the data at 10pm or something, its a pittance. And lets not forget the tax declaration - you might get a payment plus expenses, or pay your own, or a mix of the two, and unless you're going to give free money to the taxman, you have to write all that down accurately. I did a *lot* of mystery shopping, and I never had a net of more than a thousand pounds.

January is just about getting up to speed for me. The challenges will come in February!
- ebay and amazon with ddfw
- sort out where pensions are stashed, including ISAs, and move around accordingly, or make a note when to do that.
- keep going on laying against favourites research.
- main jobs as per my first couple of posts - I definitely need to launch the cat website in February, I can't keep on putting it off.
- hopefully whichever builder I choose will be able to do *some* work in February.

And, oh yes, having a life

Right. 8.55am. Time to get going on the taxes...

DedicatedDFW

You're not hidden under a load of receipts are you KC?

Hope your mum was ok today ((hugs))

You've got such an exciting thread KC with so many different topics going on where to begin :think:

Matched betting - thank you so much for mentioning this. I have never done it so from what you have mentioned i *should* hopefully be able to take up lots of lovely offers I will have a mooch when i've chance (quick study break just now) but is there still a guide on it somewhere do you know? I am really please you've reminded me about this because i was struggling thinking about where i could get a new source of income from so that i can meet my savings target - the lovely SF has set a challenge up and i'm not even out of the running blocks :eek: - actually i'm probably still trying to get my trainers on :rotfl:

MS - i thought i'd start doing them again to hit the savings target - but as my feelings are just the same as yours i just cannot bring myself to do it - and it'd be alot of shops for the amount i need :eek:

Pensions - i really must look into this. I have no pension. I want to invest in property as well as savings, stocks and shares and a pension too i guess - i'd better get a better job then :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: But i do need to learn more but can't afford to see an IFA at the mo.

And what is this intriguing news i hear of a cat website ?

Hope all is good with you KC. I am going to get back to the books in a sec x

Karmacat

DedicatedDFW wrote: »

You're not hidden under a load of receipts are you KC?

Kind of :rotfl: I have a really long piece of work on Wednesdays, and today there were a couple of people in trouble (difficult to talk about my work!). Plus phoning my mum, and texting my sister on the train.

Hope your mum was ok today ((hugs))

Thank you for remembering! She's fine, much better than the one last month, which she found very upsetting (its nothing life threatening, its cataracts) - they gave her the medication she opted for this time, instead of the bog standard stuff, so she didn't feel it in the same way, she's very relieved.

You've got such an exciting thread KC with so many different topics going on where to begin :think:

:o:o sometimes thats the bane of my life, its difficult to settle to any one thing, but I wouldn't really have it any other way :T

Matched betting - thank you so much for mentioning this. I have never done it so from what you have mentioned i *should* hopefully be able to take up lots of lovely offers I will have a mooch when i've chance (quick study break just now) but is there still a guide on it somewhere do you know? I am really please you've reminded me about this because i was struggling thinking about where i could get a new source of income from so that i can meet my savings target - the lovely SF has set a challenge up and i'm not even out of the running blocks :eek: - actually i'm probably still trying to get my trainers on :rotfl:

I haven't been over to the board for years, I wouldn't dare tell you anything about it other than the basic principles - read everything, several times, I *loathe* printing things out, but I printed that thread out, and took forever. Followed the matcher software religiously, and did it early in the week so I could go back the next day and check it, rather than doing it just before a match - I could put on a corrective bet if necessary then.

I've got my fingers in my ears about challenges until 1 February, la la la, can't hear you

MS - i thought i'd start doing them again to hit the savings target - but as my feelings are just the same as yours i just cannot bring myself to do it - and it'd be alot of shops for the amount i need :eek:

It did bring in money, and sometimes I did something at a loss because I wanted to go to that area for other reasons, but my poor levels of physical energy wouldn't allow me to do anything in that department, even apart from hating the tiny hourly amount you average....

Pensions - i really must look into this. I have no pension. I want to invest in property as well as savings, stocks and shares and a pension too i guess - i'd better get a better job then :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: But i do need to learn more but can't afford to see an IFA at the mo.

More in the next post on that - this one's getting a bit long :cool:

And what is this intriguing news i hear of a cat website ?

Ah! Because of said low physical energy, I thought I should try to make money from a website - last year, I chose water - I try to be very green, and water seemed the most focussed of the green elements that I could find. But it was a logical choice, not a heart choice, and I finally heard the words, "do what you love". I love cats, always have. So for the last two months, I've been shaping a cat website - there isn't much thats based in this country about cats in general, as opposed to blogs about beloved personal moggies, or impersonal magazines, so thats what I'm building. When I start it, I'll send you a linkie I must, must, do it by 1 February - it'll drift, otherwise.

Hope all is good with you KC. I am going to get back to the books in a sec x

Yes thanks! More on that in the next one - the pension stuff!

mizmir

Ooooh - look forward to the cat website KC - would love a link too. Dogs are my thing as you know but do occasionally work with cats and do love them too.

Karmacat

Pensions! Writing this has got me thinking, and I sort of interrupted my work on the tax figures to look at what my current situation is.

Apartment
Currently owe E34760 on it (was £75k), and a payment is due out in the next few days. The mortgage will finish in September 2018, current rate of interest is only 1.5% p.a., though it changes every 3 months. I think it might be worth E150,000, something like that, conservatively.

Shares
I kind of ignore the shares I have when I'm doing this, but I do have a few - approx £4,250. Very odd.

Pension dosh
Will currently provide an income of about £332 per month - better than I thought, but not exactly enough to live on - I want to retire in 2016, but I wouldn't get any state pension till 2020. Must do better!

DDFW - if you want to start a pension (and I'm not sure how old you are, but anybody who's been in work for longer than 6 months or so needs to think about a pension, sadly. Anything is better than nothing. If you can't decide, think about either a cash ISA, or even one of those Regular Savers accounts, attached to a current account. I put the max allowable into that, and it gets 4% - its taxable, and it shouldn't be your only vehicle, but 4% is huge in today's terms. Longer than 5 years, though, you really need to think about shares, and an isa is definitely the most tax efficient, though it *has* been downgraded a bit, I believe.

Property - I wish I hadn't struck out into France to buy property! I wish I'd bought a student house in Liverpool somewhere and got it managed by a property agent. Ah well.

If my business plans work out, the ones on the first page of this diary, I also intend to go into property - seems to me the way to spread the risk is to buy in a cheaper area, and the area that calls to me is NW England. I was babbling the other day about a nice looking flat in Preston (poly turned uni is there, plus the usual hospitals etc) for £25k, and rents for flats are up to £90 p.w. - sounds a nice rate of return!

Finally, 3 things to be grateful for:
- for the sunshine today, and the chance to grow new things.
- for my health, none of the things I have to attend to are life threatening.
- for family.

Karmacat

mizmir wrote: »

Ooooh - look forward to the cat website KC - would love a link too. Dogs are my thing as you know but do occasionally work with cats and do love them too.

Absolutely! I didn't realise you worked with cats as well. One section of the website will have interviews ... fancy being an interviewee later on this year?

mizmir

Karmacat wrote: »

Absolutely! I didn't realise you worked with cats as well. One section of the website will have interviews ... fancy being an interviewee later on this year?

Would love to! the method I use works with all animals - in training we do a lot of work with feral and shelter cats. I still see the odd feline client - though mainly for friends as I don't advertise for cats (only because I don't know as much about them as dogs!)

Karmacat

Fantastic! I see bits of the stuff that you do, every now and then, through the book of face - it looks wonderful.

I'm really chuffed I came back!

Unfortunately, I've been on here so long now, I'm hungry again its really late to eat, but I'm **hungry**!

Better go :cool: see you tomorrow.

Miz, hope you sleep, even with the pain of the shingles