Only freedom will do

edinburgher

Goldiegirl wrote: »

I was just thinking that this has been an exceptional year, with a new addition, reduced income, a house move, and all the improvements that you are doing on the house.

In the words of the 90s, things can only get better? Please?

LadyGnome wrote: »

One thing you may find now you have a child is that you do need to reassess your priorities more often. Mine are older but still school age and I am having to scale back some of my OP /ER plans because other demands arise.

Hi there!

Actually I'm finding that having a baby has only strengthened my resolve to achieve the goals that I'd hoped to achieve before we started a family. I want to have the time and health to spend as much or as little time with DD as she needs when she's a young adult. We put aside pretty much the value of her CB, so she should have a nest egg of c. £20k by the time she's old enough for being an adult. That's about as much as we can do (financially)

in_need_of_direction wrote: »

Slow down. You're not that far in age from my children and while I sometimes wish they were more like you, I think you can be in too big a rush and can sometimes forget to enjoy the moment while trying to hard to focus on the future.

I am impatient and a control freak INOD, I enjoy the rush of agency that I get from 'fixing' things

I really, really enjoy the moment, just don't want to sleepwalk into a scenario where I don't enjoy the moments when I'm too old to do anything about changing it.

Thank you all for your sage words, as you can tell my day has been a bit of a 'mare.

edinburgher

You have a lot of energy, which is fantastic, but you're also really hard on yourself. Can I ask you to do a thought experiment? What would your life be like if you were FI now, or within a year? How would you be spending your time? Is there any of that that you could be doing now? The stuff that doesn't cost, you know ... just an idea.

I like that idea KC (damn multiquote cut you off). If I'm honest, I'm still too motivated by running from 'slavery' (as opposed to running *towards* freedom). I feel that I'm experiencing the pangs of growing up a fair bit in a short space of time

Secret_Saving_Squirrel

Maybe you are right about the soa. Going back to basics is often the best way forward, thinking about needs versus wants. Perhaps I am out of date with baby stuff, but couldn't mil have just used your baby seat two days a week, for example?

It is hard to ease up on moneysaving/making if you are made that way, and you will probably feel more comfortable by feeling you are in control of your destiny rather than taking a break from being mse. A real back to basics frugal fast for a couple of weeks might get you feeling on top of it again.

I know this is the total opposite to what everybody else says, but someone has to do devil's advocate!

edinburgher

Perhaps I am out of date with baby stuff, but couldn't mil have just used your baby seat two days a week, for example?

Our baby seat is an ISOFIX monster built like a tank that weighs in the region of 14kg. No offence to Mrs E or MIL, but neither of them could lug it in and out of the car :eek:

Frugal fast sounds good... after the holiday

Secret_Saving_Squirrel

Understood. Equipment has moved on a lot since mine were babies......

earthgirl

edinburgher wrote: »

Some boring financial admin to bring me closer to FI goals...

• Increased my pension payments to 8% of salary (14% total)
• Increased monthly payment to SIPP by 5%
• Increased monthly payment to S&S ISA by 5%
• Paid £130 off my 0% CC
• £100 to P2P lending (12% secured)
• Referred 2 people to R@tesetter for £20 return

Plod plod.

Thats great Ed. Plodding will get you there!

earthgirl

Secret_Saving_Squirrel wrote: »

Understood. Equipment has moved on a lot since mine were babies......

Ours were gifted from a very good friend who had used them a handful of times per week with her grandkids. Maybe I should have done more research? Maybe I should now? Mine are in booster seats with backs.

Edit - £80 well spent on 4 x extra padded booster seats with backs, so everybodys are upgraded - Should be thinking about these things! thanks Ed.

hiddenshadow

edinburgher wrote: »

Frugal fast sounds good... after the holiday

I like to play "what if" with our budget sometimes. What if we only give ourselves £200 for groceries this month instead of £275? What if we try not to eat out at all this month? What if we go nuts and OP our mortgage at the start of the month and then see if we can last on what's left until the end? etc.

Usually by the end of the month I'm saying "well, that was a bit extreme", but sometimes I surprise myself. I figure anything's worth trying for a month, and it can be "fun" (in a way) for that month since you know at the end you can revert back if it hasn't worked.

SuperSecretSquirrel

Karmacat wrote: »

Can I ask you to do a thought experiment? What would your life be like if you were FI now, or within a year? How would you be spending your time? Is there any of that that you could be doing now? The stuff that doesn't cost, you know...

I love this!

Sometimes there can be a danger of focusing too much on the goal and forgeting to enjoy the journey. I like the idea of making the journey a scaled down version of the goal, so you can't help but enjoy yourself along the way

I know it was posted as advice for Ed, but it's something I know will be bouncing around in my head over the next few days, so thanks for posting it

edinburgher

That sounds like a good idea HS and I like to gamify things as well. The problem is that I do it too much (ten projects on the go at once). It leads to spotty results and frustration for me.

I think I'll take the 'boiling a frog' approach for a while and see how that goes - focus on one thing at a time and improve it incrementally.

Had a talk with Mrs E re. not being millionaires and she was ok once she got over the initial surprise that we had spent £13-15,000 since moving in last November :eek:

As I said yesterday, no crazy changes identified (in fact, our spending money needs to go up slightly to stop us 'treating' ourself from what is 'the houses'' money! Tweaked SIPP payments and cancelled autofunding on a P2P site that was investing £100 into each loan that came up. Other than, brakes slammed on credit card use and will try and address that first, square the circle.

• £117.67 paid off 0% CC
• Made £20 on a risk free casino offer
• £20 of P2P referrals withdrawn
• *Didn't* TT my current account pennies as an OP!