Living richly; simply and debt-freely

beanielou

Hopeful Joy~#I was at a wedding in Haywards a whilely back.
Is it not fairly upmarket?

liltdiddylilt

moneyistooshirttomention do check postcodes for 0cado deliveries. If they get those, then you've all the Mr W stuff at your front doorstep

Hopefuljoy I wouldn't say helpful... sorry! I wish there were exact figures but it is different for everyone. One little old dear recently called to find out if she could still afford a *room* in a home if she sold her house for slightly less, as the price had gone up to £790 a WEEK from £600 a week. It is things like that that genuinely make me think going early with all of your faculties fairly intact might be an idea...

Hopefuljoy

I think it has ideas about itself! It's mainly popular for the speedy connection to London by rail. I grew up there in the 1970s to 1989 and it was deadly dull. However, my whole family lives here so I came back and I now live in a small village called Lindfield which is right next door to it. I love being near my sisters and parents!! Xx

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

Hopefuljoy - Goldiegirl and Secret Saving Squirrel (who is in your profession) over on the MFW diaries board are doing a wind down into early retirement - (Goldiegirl is now there :T:D) by living on the income that they have available until state pensions etc 'kick in'. This seems eminently sensible to me, and is giving them a realistic notion of how to live a 'rich' life without breaking the bank. I agree with Lilty that you need to have a bash at constructing a budget for how you 'might' live your life in ER. However, I think that the best asset that you can have is thoughts about how you may achieve what you want to achieve. ie - if 'travel' is going to be your thing, have you got to save enough to stay in 5* hotels every other week for the rest of your life? Or can you get out and about around the globe with a TefL qualification? Can you get a few weeks in the sun in November by being a qualified yoga teacher - in a retreat in Greece, or an Ashram in India? If you have a house, can you house-swap your way around the world on vacation? Or actually house-sit or pet-sit?

I have to say, I think that early retirement will still be possible in the future, it just won't - perhaps - look like all the financial services brochures would have us believe; that it is one long party of dining out in restaurants at every meal, driving the latest Jag or holidaying in the Cayman's for 3/4 of the year........ The key will be to know what your 'riches' are - living simply, within your budget...........

So, start of the week and really, really back to 'normal' :j

There will be spending today, but all from the budget, so we are still on course

Dinner last night was Mung Bean Casserole - a Sally Butcher recipe I got the mung beans from mrT - half price - ages ago. They have been sat in the store - only used lightly - for most of last year as a *trophy* to 'what a bargain these were'. Doh! :doh:Food is no good as a trophy - it needs using! So I decluttered some into a casserole I really like the recipe - it is a bit like Anjum Anands's Lemony spinach hotpot - an interesting 'crossover' dish. Picture of mung bean casserole is here;



And yup! I am a 'one trick pony' because I've put a dollop of yoghurt on top again But there is method in my madness, as the chilli in it was a little fiery, and also, when I had yoghurt for my breakfast, DP complained (despite guzzling a huge bowl of porridge, with an apple and honey) that he hadn't had any yoghurt...... for ages...... (um 2 days actually......) So it seemed like the right option for the dish.

Dinner this evening will be jambalaya. I want to say aubergine, but I looked at the one in the fridge last night (YS'd from mrW an age ago) and it is starting to look very ropey - my bad - so it may not be factually accurate to call any resultant jambalaya 'aubergine' :rotfl:

Regarding mrW only being in expensive areas.... Where I live is regarded as wealthy - by outsiders only - statistics for the population yield quite a different tale. I'm of the opinion blue-chip retailers have caught a cold by opening stores here - the money just isn't here (as with everywhere else). The young lad doing the 'last gasp' YS'ing in m&$ yesterday afternoon was as mobbed as the assistants in any other supermercado you'd care to mention.......

We went for a walk up the high street yesterday afternoon, as DP wanted..... A Notebook - specifically for planning, plotting and prioritising.... *GASP* :j Got just the job in H0me bargins for 99p. Not another penny spent, and nowt outta my purse!

We did part of the insulation work on the shed - we managed to do the door. We did a 'proper' job, and as it is the 2nd hardest task with the job, I was quite pleased. Insulating the ceiling isn't going to be an easy task.

Right, best go pack up snap and seize the day!

Thank you so much for popping in, reading and commenting. I greatly appreciate it.

See y'all later.

Greying

greenbee

Ooh ... Thanks GP. Mung beans are on my 'use it up' list too! I'll have to adapt as I have no potato or spinach, but will give it a try.

If you could come up with some aduki bean recipes, I need to use those up too

I'm aiming to cook with one or the other each week till they are gone - making one portion to eat and one to freeze each time.

DawnW

Greying_Pilgrim wrote: »

Good Morning :hello:

Hopefuljoy - Goldiegirl and Secret Saving Squirrel (who is in your profession) over on the MFW diaries board are doing a wind down into early retirement - (Goldiegirl is now there :T:D) by living on the income that they have available until state pensions etc 'kick in'. This seems eminently sensible to me, and is giving them a realistic notion of how to live a 'rich' life without breaking the bank. I agree with Lilty that you need to have a bash at constructing a budget for how you 'might' live your life in ER. However, I think that the best asset that you can have is thoughts about how you may achieve what you want to achieve. ie - if 'travel' is going to be your thing, have you got to save enough to stay in 5* hotels every other week for the rest of your life? Or can you get out and about around the globe with a TefL qualification? Can you get a few weeks in the sun in November by being a qualified yoga teacher - in a retreat in Greece, or an Ashram in India? If you have a house, can you house-swap your way around the world on vacation? Or actually house-sit or pet-sit?

I have to say, I think that early retirement will still be possible in the future, it just won't - perhaps - look like all the financial services brochures would have us believe; that it is one long party of dining out in restaurants at every meal, driving the latest Jag or holidaying in the Cayman's for 3/4 of the year........ The key will be to know what your 'riches' are - living simply, within your budget...........

Another early retiree here - OH and I were able to take our work pensions early, though the rule was (and is - I only retired last April) that they were actuarily (sp?) reduced as we were taking them early. Mine was reduced by 25% to reflect that I was taking it at age 60 rather than 65. OH did a bit better than that, but then he had been paying into it for longer. We did it by paying off the mortgage and saving. The other debts had been hammered some time before. No luxurious holidays for us though, or the savings would soon be gone :eek: We live simply, grow as much fruit and veg as possible in our little garden, make do and mend, and have small self employed earnings to supplement our pensions. State pensions won't kick in for a few years yet, assuming they don't change the rules again.....

So yes, it is perfectly possible but no, it doesn't look like any financial services brochure that I have ever seen :rotfl: I worried about it beforehand, but it was absolutely the right decision, at least for us. We haven't had to touch our savings yet, either

wishus

We are bad food declutterers - we do the opposite.

Went to my bro's and came back with a tin of reindeer pate! :eek:

I can't even...:rudolf:

Upsidedown_Bear

Smilie of the day.

liltdiddylilt

wishus I am aorry but that made me :rotfl: - poor reindeer!!!

GP those brochures rest by the door in my company's offices. Plush offices I might add... I look at the eyepopping charges we lump our clients with, and most often think that the only one benefiting out of it is one or the other of the Directors. 30% commission on a company life policy for instance... :eek: I don't like the environment in which I work as I am inherently fair person and I don't feel that anyone with half a brain gets anything they could not do themselves from a Financial Adviser.

Still 90% of our clients can well afford and barely notice the charges. But really £1500 a year to pay an administrator to update your various investment totals, then someone else to have a quick look and decide if a fund is or isn't performing and recommend you switch it... followed by said switch, with a 1% fee of course. Makes me feel a bit ill.

Anyways I barely qualify to speak of these matters. I don't have a pension & I won't be retiring early, lets put it that way... :rotfl:

DawnW

liltdiddylilt wrote: »

Anyways I barely qualify to speak of these matters. I don't have a pension & I won't be retiring early, lets put it that way... :rotfl:

I didn't have one either till I was about 40. Never too late to start