The Ultimate Incentive muddles along

Dinah93

Hi everyone, how are we all doing? 

Dinah93

Cinny91 said:

Hi Buffy, nice to "see" you again too

To save poor D getting notification emails when she doesn't post here anymore I've started a new thread here.

Funny thing, I stopped getting any notifications, and as a result kind of forgot to post... for several years

rubywhatashmoo

I've been lurking your posts for YEARS Dinah and no more! :P Hope you've had a good break from here and things are good with you and yours

wendz86

Well this is a lovely thing to pop up in my emails. Had a bad day with car trouble and expensive dentist bills so this has cheered me right up!

clearmydebts

Awww just got the notification! How are you? And everyone else?

Dinah93

So, life here. Kids well, both well into school now, the big one loves it the littler one hates it. Both are lovely kids, kind, funny, smart, generous, they are my world. NIM had a run in at the start of the year, fell 4m from a height and ended up in hospital for nearly 3 weeks having 2 surgeries on a 'destroyed' ankle. Their words. So he's been working from home since then as couldn't drive for quite a while (we joke he was a lockdown trendsetter, starting 2 months early!), he's now walking without sticks but still with a brace, they say it will be 2-3 years until he is healed as much as he will, but given at one point they said he may not walk again we're grateful for what he has so far. 

I got a bit busy with work which started me being very slow to post, then I felt like it was pointless posting if I wasn't doing surveys, ebay and matched betting, I made the decision to go all in with trying to up my income through growing my company. I'm pleased with the call we made, the business started to really take off (which is now a collection of 6 different businesses, 14 people work for us on a contractor basis and one employed 20 hours a week). NIM has moved jobs a few times, and also does some consultancy work, so his income has more than doubled, possibly tripled as a result.

I'll need to do some maths to update my signature (although I still have a debt free spreadsheet), we do still have debt, BUT we do not have a mortgage. As our debt was at 0% we made the decision to hammer the mortgage while the going was good in the business, and paid it off earlier this year. So that's a £132k mortgage paid off in under 10 years, which we've told no one about as it feels a bit braggy, but since this is a financial forum, all cards on the table.

Turned out that was a good call since my business had to completely close from 21st March until we reopened at the start of September, then we had to close again for lockdown 2.0 and we've made the decision not to reopen until the first week of January as it takes us time to gear up and I feel there is no guarantee that that will happen on the 4th, and it costs us significantly to shut on short notice or cancel opening. However back to the point , I only draw minimum wage from the business, the rest of my income is dividends from profits the various companies make, but as we've been shut I haven't been able to draw this so right now I'm a lot quieter as we are completely and utterly mothballed, my to do list that is usually at least 30 items is down to 6, but I need/want to earn some other way. 

So in the last few months over lockdown and lockdown 2.0 I've tried to diversify, I've started a new business in a completely new area (although not launched as I don't have time to do the marketing required, but all supplies, website etc are done, it's just waiting), I've restarted doing some print on demand which is my new side earner like ebay etc used to be, I just enjoy it a lot more so I can consider it a hobby that pays rather than anything else, I've got a facebook page to find deals and bargains I earn a bit from through affiliate marketing, I have a little online channel on patreon to do yoga, mindfulness and a daily mindset boost podcast, I still twist Quidco to get every cashback penny I can, my book I wrote a few years back trickles in a few £ a month. I watch quite a lot of financial youtubers, and I've considered setting up a youtube channel on the hundreds of ways to up your income I've found in the last few years that aren't pay per click pennies, and the thing that hit me was someone saying a year or so ago that on average a millionaire has 7 sources of income. I want to be secure financially, and diversification seems to be the best way to do that, if the pandemic has taught me anything it's that no matter how well my business does, it's vulnerable, and I don't want to have my eggs all in one basket in the future. 

I have a big plan for where I want to take the company, but it feels a bit like that kind of scale is for other people, not just me who has stumbled into being an entrepreneur. I also have several ways I want to diversify it, but I'm playing very safe in the current climate, I don't feel comfortable risking big cash if we might get shut down again at any point and I've therefore got all this money out with no way of making it back - I was bitten BADLY a few weeks ago in that I ordered £7.8k of new equipment on the Thursday, which was the latest I could order it to arrive in time for when I needed it the following week, late on the Friday lockdown strikes back was announced, and I now have 16 cardboard boxes full of kit in my lounge that we have to squeeze past, and that money being out is a problem because the activity it was to facilitate had to be cancelled, people reimbursed, and it's stopped me being able to pay a fee to get a course I'm writing further along down the accreditation process, and I'm also exploring franchising, but with shutting down again I don't have the cash flow to pursue it right now. It's fair to say running my own business has taught me about cash flow in a way my own personal finances just didn't, I've always spent money like it is limitless, I'm still terrible at budgeting, I've just kind of maneuvered myself to earn enough that I don't really have to. 

Which is a terrible way to live (the grammar of reacting to the last sentence but in a new paragraph hurts me, but also that one above is too long). I do still need to learn to budget, I need to learn to forward plan, I hope to have our debt paid off in the next 6 months if my business can restart, and then what? Do I save? Invest? Stocks? Shares? Property? I should probably have a pension. And an emergency fund. Probably other grown up things too. In some ways I think the debt has almost been this 'safe' zone for me, bloody scary when it got over £80,000 and we were struggling to make minimum payments (my credit record is SHOT) but at the same time I understand debt, I'm familiar with what to do and how to 'win' the system, I've never had savings except for when we saved the deposit for the house, and even then I knew it was going to be spent. 

I'm probably going to be making my money very differently to how I was in the old days, but I have a lot more enthusiasm and drive than I did 2011-2018 as well, when I felt like numbers were only going the wrong way and I couldn't do much to stop it, but I have always loved having you here to bounce ideas off, and cheer one another on. Most of all I've just missed you. So will you have me back? 

wendz86

Of course we will  .
Sounds like your business has been doing really well and well done on paying off the mortgage! That must have been a relief with all the lockdowns. Hope NIM is doing ok, awful to hear about his accident.
Will be great to hear all the ways you are increasing your income.
Not much exciting has happened with me. I'm still in the same job, was promised a payrise beginning of the year and then covid hit. They made some redundancies so been glad to still be employed.
Struggled with kids and home school, especially eldest. While working at home and dealing with a child who did not want to do it, was not fun. On the plus side have been managing to save more as my train ticket was 275 a month before and only been to the office 3 times since march. 
Holiday was cancelled in July so using that money plus adding to it to try and save to go to disney in a couple of years.

clearmydebts

Oh I've missed your essay posts! Don't leave it so long again. Welcome back and well done on the business and the mortgage! 
I am on FB so knew about NIMs accident and also love all the photos of the kiddies.
Well - I still have debt so no change there but for once I've not run out of steam or lost interest and it has nearly halved. My kids are 10 and 9 now. DD was diagnosed with dyspraxia, SPD and dyslexia and 18 months ago I quit my job and have been a SAHM since. Have really been enjoying it and funnily enough we haven't noticed too much of a dent to the finances as OHs wages have risen each year.

Looking forward to regular updates!

Dinah93

Is your OH working close to home still CMD? No more commutes involving a plane? 

NIM is similar Wendz, we were spending £550 a month on fuel for his car to get to work, not a wild, extravagant car either, a diesel Ford Focus, but it was just a long commute. A year of working from home has been a huge help. We sold the car in June when it became apparent we weren't going to need it for a while, we still have my truck through work, which is a beast and there is no way he could use it to commute daily without putting us into bankruptcy, but we're hoping his office stays closed a bit longer (he's worked throughout, just from home) to get the debt paid off before we have to buy another car. 

I do have a tendency to ramble don't I! I've noticed it when I need to send newsletters etc too through work, I can't do short and sweet, I feel the need to include all possible information, which probably just stops people reading! 

Dinah93

My usual technological ineptitude continues. Can I find the spreadsheet with ours debts on it? No. I had it about 3 weeks ago, I update it once a month. I'm fairly sure it's a google sheets thing so both NIM and I have access. But it's vanished. He will roll his eyes audibly if I ask again to be shown how to find the spreadsheet...