I Could Be Mortgage Free

Darpett

Delurking to ask a couple of questions.

Is it absolutely critical that you MUST leave/retire abroad at the end of your notice period if you take VR?
You did say December was a possible end date and that is only 2 months, 8 weeks or 40 working days (less holidays) after October. Are your finances so tight that if the end date moves your earliest possible moving date must move?

I know you would be down to one income potentially for a couple of months but it could give you an opportunity to get things organised in a less rushed time frame when mistakes are more likely to be made.

Is the money enough? The ever perpetual question…
Only you know how extravagant your lifestyle is and maybe you need to do a brutally honest budget of your expected spends abroad. That being said you are both clearly capable people and even though you obviously want to take a step back from your current pressured roles have you considered working abroad in a very different capacity to supplement your income at some point in the future?

Your pots may seem generous to some and paltry to others so it depends on both your lifestyle and on how to intend to use your assets, particularly your shares, to fund your lifestyle as to whether there is enough. I note you mention owning a very high value of shares, are they from your respective companies as it is not clear? When investing more is more! More diversity to protect you from future shocks. With the amounts you mention it may be better to seek the input from a couple of different IFA’s to see how you could maximise any potential income from investments.

I know you will also get some income from rent but that can be less steady if you hit a problem and as GG said only 2 properties is less diversified than many people would feel comfortable with also cost will be incurred so maybe run through scenarios with only one rental income to see if you could cover the shortfall and for how long.

When can you get your hands on the trust fund? 1 year? 10 years? All of that makes a difference to how much you need access to from other sources now

I’m not seeking answers in a public forum and you talk of number crunching so I am sure you have probably done all of the above but I am just trying to throw a few ideas out there, not that it will necessarily help…

Goldiegirl

Hi, just been catching up.


Your DH is in the industry I was in......when I started work in 1976, it was considered to be very respectable, yet by 2008 we were public enemy number one, as the public couldn't tell the difference between a few people working in the city, and the people working in their own towns, whose lives were falling apart due to the crisis!


With that as a background, we were all made redundant in 2009. We took voluntary redundancy, but in reality, there was no where else for us to work within the organisation, so we had to go anyway.


The good thing was, we had no real choice. Even though I was really fed up by that time, I don't know if I'd have taken redundancy if there had been any other real choices. It's a big thing to do, particularly if you feel it's a bit early. Ideally, I could have done with a few more years.


But it was probably the best thing that could have happened, and it really springboarded my early retirement plans. I got a part time job in a related field, spent 5 years there, and stopped work completely just before Christmas. Nine months ago today in fact!


But it was a good little job, and quite difficult to give it up, even though I knew it was the right time to stop working.


It's also difficult to work out when you have 'enough' money.


This is very individual, and something only you can decide - and you can always take on a part time job if you feel you need to top up your funds at a later date - you have lots of skills learnt over a working life that employers would be only too pleased to utilise.


I hope you have a good break and come back with the right decision for you

Popgirl

Well, we have been back in the UK for a couple of days now and during our time away we have undertaken a lot of thinking because of the decision we needed to make by today. So we have decided that I will not take the offer of redundancy this time around. We spent so much time talking through the pro's and cons, playing with figures on spreadsheets which consumed most of our holiday but DH and I came to the conclusion the timing just wasn't right. I know I said in the past that I was aiming for Dec 2015 to finish work and if I finished In October it was only two months earlier but that two months does make a difference not just financially but also I didn't feel it gave us enough time to sort out everything with getting the house rented, sell furniture etc. :). Also we are really keen to make further improvements to our home aboard and that is going to cost so it will be best if I continue to earn to cover that cost instead of using money from the FIRE pot. I am not willing to just leave my job without a redundancy package:D
So the revised plan is
I will continue to work until my employee offers another redundancy package I am not expecting this to happen until the middle of next year
DH will hand in his notice at work in Nov as planned and will finish work at the end of the year
He will go to our holiday home in Jan and over see the renovations and when completed he will return home and pick up some casual work (hopefully)
We will continue to de clutter and sell everything we don't need or want. This will definitely help time wise when we finally do make the move:j
To be honest my head hurts so much I can't really think straight but hope the above makes sense:(:)

GoldIe Girl , Darpett , Karmacat - thank you so so much for your messages, thoughts and feedback I do read them several times and think a lot about what you say and take things onboard.

From a financial perspective from January we will only have one wage coming in but that will be fine as we have cut back so much recently we will still be able to save and live:T

It's been a whirlwind lately for sure so hoping things will settle down now for a while ...famous last words:rotfl:

Popgirl

It's been a while since I last added to my diary. No real excuse just generally busy with life like most other people I jumped straight back onto the work treadmill a few hours after landing back into the UK. I still believe in my head we have made the right decision regarding me staying on at work but in my heart it hurts, it gets harder every time we leave our home aboard to come back to the UK. I do miss the laid back lifestyle and I don't feel as if I have any stress when I am there. Luckily we are going back tomorrow for 10days. We don't usually have our holidays so close together but it is so hard for DH to get holidays we have to take what ever time off he can get. DH has to book holidays at work 18months in advance:eek::eek: the holiday issue goes away when he leave his job at Christmas:T DH managed to fix the leak in the dinner room when we were there so I am hoping when we return tomorrow everything is ok as Our region of Spain seems to have had very heavy thunderstorms with flooding today:eek: it's funny things like leaks etc don't stress me out over there but do at home! I know I am not normal :rotfl::p:p.
Ok down to money news. We have saved the usual £1k into our investment account made OP of £100 and also transferred a further £1500 to our EF/ other spend 123 account. This month we had to pay the balance of the purchase we made for DS2 so we had very little money left for the rest of this month. Thankfully we didn't have any birthdays or meals out planned so up to now we have managed. I did a large on line shop the day we came back as I had a £12 off voucher if I spent £70 at As@a. It was easy to spend that much as I needed washing powder, loo rolls :rotfl::rotfl: and general cleaning products. Apart from topping up on milk, bread and a couple of other cheap bits and bobs we had enough food to last us until we went away again. Although I did have a yellow label shopping frenzy in M&@ yesterday and filled my freezer for when we return from hols. I spent £12 and bought 22 items including chicken and prawns , chuffed:T:T I do get rather embarrassed wondering around seeking out the yellow labels and stalking the staff watching them checking dates and then labelling them up :rotfl::rotfl: BUT I do love a yellow label bargain :rotfl::rotfl:
Following our little family issue last month DS1 hasn't spoken much to us :( I know we are ok but just giving him a little bit time and space to think about what he did and how wrong he was:(

OK after reading this next piece people will think I have lost the plot a little or a lot :p At the weekend an incident happened in our local area where a young man was badly hurt by another young man . Although the people involved are not close friends of DS2 he does know them both as they are all the same age and have been together socially at events and parties. Sadly a young man is frightening for his life in hospital while the accused has been remanded in custody. Its alleged alcohol and a weapon was involved. Since I learnt of this incident I haven't been able to stop thinking about it and have cried so much. I don't know these families personally but I can't help thinking this could have been easily my son in either of these positions. The accused I understand is a lovely young man with a promising future halfway through an apprenticeship and just a moment of madness has changed two peoples and their families lives forever. I am not 100% sure why I am feeling like this about the whole incident it maybe because we have had our moments with DS2 in the past (nothing like this) as he has been a bit of a wild child. So Sorry It's hard to explain but it really has had a massive impact on me:(:( it's making my eyes water just writing about it .

I really apologies if it isnt appropriate to write such a story on here but wanted to share how I was feeling. I guess many people will either know people who have been in a similar position as these families or have had similar thinking or feelings like mine.

On a lighter and happy note I am off to pack now for my hols.

Lots of hugs
Popgirl xx

Karmacat

Sorry to hear the local incident has had such an effect on you, Popgirl. Its amazing how close violence comes to us at one time or another. A close friend had a teenage daughter who actually stabbed her new partner (now a husband of 12 years standing) in a fit of adolescent rage, nothing like it before or since, so I know what you mean about that bit.

Hope you're away at your overseas home by now, and all that stress is behind you.

Popgirl

Thanks Karmacat Just at airport now. Using our last lounge access pass before we cancel it from our bank account.

Goldiegirl

Popgirl wrote: »

. I still believe in my head we have made the right decision regarding me staying on at work but in my heart it hurts,

I can relate to that.


For the last two years at work, I was just going through the motions, as we knew we would be stopping soon. It got more and more difficult each week to carry on with it


But, time does pass, and hopefully there'll be more redundancies at a better time.


I'm not surprised the incident has had an effect on you - it's close to home in every sense, and shows how life can change in a moment, which is always a scary thought


Hope you have a good, relaxing break

Darpett

I am glad you have been able to make a decision that works for you, sometimes getting to that point causes more stress than living with the consequences.

Hope you have a great holiday and hope to hear of your redundancy next year (in a good way )

gallygirl

Hope you have a good break and the young man recovers

Popgirl

Wow it's been a while since I last posted, usual excuses busy with work and family, however I still have been reading other people's diaries in between.

Ok so what has been happening over the past month or so


DH has handed in his notice at work. His last day at work will be Christmas Eve. Being honest I have mixed feelings about this. It is absolutely the right thing to do for DH the job was making him ill and affecting his mental health. I am worrying slightly about the financial impact this could have on us. I know we have planned for this day but that still doesn't stop me worrying.


Despite my worry we are still going ahead with our renovation plans for our home abroad. Work will begin early January. The designs look fabulous and I know it will be amazing when finished so money well spent. I am selling some shares to pay for it. Luckily the share price is currently at a 52 week high and the euro exchange rate is good so it's a good time to sell and exchange. The last time we carried out work on our home abroad the exchange rate was 1.23€. As DH will not be working so he will go and oversee the work. We expect him to be there until the end of February, how lucky is he???


I am a little cross with myself regarding general monthly spends as I have not kept a close eye on our budget so money has been haemorrhaging from every pot! The bad thing is I have nothing to show for it! We have had some milestone birthdays within the family and close friends for these birthdays we do spend that bit extra so that has cost a lot but that doesn't account for all the money I have spent over recent weeks. It is so easy to spend £10 here £20 there on nothing!!


Of course Christmas is coming and I have to confess we do go overboard on food my order with M&S is £180!!! Will still need to buy other bits and pieces too, My parents spend Christmas with us and have offered to pay the M&S bill. I may for once take them up on their offer. Only a few more gifts to purchase which I will do after pay day. We will get back on track in the new year, we have too!


On a positive note I am still doing small OP's and saving £1000 a month into an investment fund. Our ISA investment funds aren't doing too well so I have asked our IFA to move some of the funds around. He is doing that today.


DS1 and DS2 are both fine, the disastrous weekend away in September hasn't been mentioned, although I haven't forgotten I have moved on.


Best wishes
Popgirl