Prosperous soul in the making

Chrystal

FloraandFauna wrote: »

I liked the big think piece, Holmes. I remember reading somewhere that a huge per cent (like about 96%) of your personality was just habit. As in, you do what you do because it's what you do. The amount of conscious choice that goes into your likes and dislikes, reactions, impulses, friendships, choice of music/reading material/food, etc is pretty negligible.

Which makes sense, because if you had to examine, analyse, and then decide on every action and feeling from first base every day you'd never get past listening to the alarm clock. Many of these things need to be on autopilot to get stuff done.

But it does explain why even just observing what you're doing changes what you're doing. Add conscious direction to that and no wonder you're rolling! : )

Love this .... feel as though I've had a lightbulb moment!

savingholmes

FloraandFauna wrote: »

I liked the big think piece, Holmes. I remember reading somewhere that a huge per cent (like about 96%) of your personality was just habit..... But it does explain why even just observing what you're doing changes what you're doing. Add conscious direction to that and no wonder you're rolling! : )

Thanks Flora and Chrystal for commenting. Yes, I think it can be scary when we realise how much we live life on auto pilot - rarely questionning why

Tonight, I got sucked back into spending hours looking at dream homes on that lovely selling website... They are all still out of my price bracket - or at least how far into mortgage debt I am willing to go. OH says I should stop tormenting myself - pay the CC, save 6 months emergency fund, pay off part of the mortgage / save until DD done with 6th form and then review where we are...

I worry that I will dump my rural dream for a secure job and pension - and miss out or alternatively end up with a house I can't afford and no job to pay for it... However, from all the stuff I've been listening to - there needs to be a way I can have both. A decent income and be able to live where I want... with land... I just need to find it.

I have suggested to DH that he does some of that transcription work that is available - he wasn't keen... Will keep nudging him. I have realised today - that I have paralysed my earnings potential - for fear of going in the next tax bracket. I think I just need to go for it - and if I hit higher rate tax - smash way past it to make it worthwhile not getting child benefit and other things anymore. If I could spend the next two years creating an alternate or passive income from home that's equivalent to but independent of my day job - then a) I would have more money b) I could give up my day job if I needed to as part of a move... c) we could live anywhere...

Have any of you put mental blocks in the way of creating additional income? There's someone on here- not sure who - where both partners have taken second jobs to bring in more money to pay off debts quicker. I applaud them I think I am too proud to noticeably do that and I worry it could make me ill/overly stressed. However, if I am serious about my rural dream I need to do something different - or I will get what I've always got. :eek: I've got a few ideas of what I could do - and have been talking to someone about them - I just need to do them

savingholmes

Chrystal wrote: »

Love this .... feel as though I've had a lightbulb moment!

Glad it helped - love your signature too

Honeysucklelou2

Have you thought about looking for a property with land and an income potential? For example, a property came in the market locally that had a house and about 2 or 3 acres of land. The vendors had built a yurt shaped eco friendly construction and were making ( what seemed to me ) a very good income from letting it as a bespoke holiday let.

FloraandFauna

On mental blocks to income, yes. When I was saving for the deposit I had a main job Mon-Fr, 9-5, and then a second job gardening at weekends both days. When a third job (writing and editing) looked possible, I grabbed that too as I could do it in the evenings, early mornings, and take annual leave from main job to get the hours in.

It was tiring and relentless, and I had a total of 10 days off (from one of other of them) in about 5 years (and that was Christmas with family). But I wanted a home so badly I didn't really grumble about it, just kept bulldozing on. It did help that I really liked my work, as well my colleagues, my clients, and my commissioning editors!

The mental block was having the courage and confidence to apply for a vastly better paying main job so that the other two wouldn't be needed. Strangely, I only did so when I finally had a potential deposit built up. I think it's because I knew I wouldn't get a mortgage on my income levels so HAD to find a better job to get a house. Whereas when it was all theoretical (because I didn't have a deposit) there was no HAD to about it.

Sorry for the long ramble on your thread! Interesting question so just thinking out loud about why I did the same! I guess the answer is stop making the dream theoretical. Set a date, find an area, work out the amounts, then what you need to do to get it. Then it will happen.

doingitanyway

Interesting posts SH

I took an additional job to speed up my debt repayment. ( I used my creative and teaching skills) I stopped when the debt was repaid as it was tiring working day and evenings too. But it taught me I can make money in a freelance capacity. When I was made redundant I knew I would be okay. Partly because I was DF and MF but also because I found I can make money outside of relying on an employer.

Maybe my dream of more time to focus on my creative pursuits won't pay off but I intend to give it a good go...

I think you can find a way to enjoy your dream and bring in an income too.

savingholmes

Thanks Honeysuckle, Flora and DIA

I have definitely thought of buying a house with land and holiday let potential - its what I think will help fund the dream. I constantly look on R1ghtm0v3 to see what's available. We are willing to move out of area if need be - but probably won't for 2 years due to DD's needs. If we moved out of area - we could get land much cheaper (by £100K-£200K) but would need to get new jobs and I'm not sure the kind of salaries we are earning are as easy to find in rural areas. I don't want to end up with a long commute or be house poor. I spent some time yesterday writing down all the things I did want from my new house - and there are a lot - but last time I did that - we got this house a year later and it ticked off everything on the list.

This dream is helping to fuel my commitment to paying off CCs, saving emergency fund and saving for / paying off more of the mortgage. If DD went to uni in Oct 21 - we should have all CCs paid off, have around £113.5K in equity, a further £18K in our emergency fund and around £10.5K in savings / investments. We would also have had 2 more years contributing to our pensions... If we can achieve that, I would have more faith in our ability to pay for our rural dream. If we waited another year after that, our savings/Investments would go up around £25K. However we would be 52 and we worry if we wait too long it would be harder to do and to make the most of the land.

savingholmes

It's OH's birthday today and we're going to the Lakes to celebrate - us and doggy. DD has found a friend and their family to go camping with so we are going to be able to have peace and respite. Gave her an extra £20 spends though.

We're planning to go out on the water either on a ferry or a small motor boat of our own. Excited. Given OH £100 for his birthday - and we agreed ahead of time we would spend that on having an 'experience day'. His suggestion. He was pleased that he is not funding fuel out of his birthday money too!

We have spent more than planned this month - and will probably need to use some of a 'cushion' I have in another account - but hopefully as time goes on we will get better at sticking to budget. I also want to use it as motivation to sell more stuff - to ideally avoid using the cushion. Food remains our biggest spending vice...

savingholmes

Honeysuckle - I know it's not essential - but one of the reasons I want 5 acres of more is you seem to have more freedom in how you use your land...

Flora congrats on the higher paying job. We can do so much more can't we when we have a clear goal.

DIA - I too have creative / writing skills and am planning to use them to help 'complete the mission' of achieving freedom. Look forward to reading of your creative pursuits too.

Off to get ready now to go to the Lakes!

savingholmes

We had a lovely, peaceful time in the Lakes. Hired a mini motorised boat and spent an hour on it on Derwentwater near Keswick. Could have stayed on budget - but chose to leave DH with more of his cash and use our cushion to fund an anniversary meal.

I'm still debating houses. There's a nice looking, 3 bedroom house that's come up within a mile or two of where we are. It is grade 2 listed so from our point of view not ideal however it has a large, mature garden with lots of trees and a massive workshop with annexe potential. It would only be about £50K more than our current house - so seems affordable. DD shouldn't complain too much either as not to far from where we are now. We could keep our jobs and carry on with our wealth building plan. It does require modernising - kitchen, bathroom etc - so not sure how easy that would be to do in practice with the grade 2 listed status but the views are amazing. It backs onto a hotel (ex manor house which is also listed) with extensive grounds - so we would hope that it shouldn't be overdeveloped in future. It also has a propagation unit in the garden already - so that would be one less thing to buy.

We would need to check there were no major building / change of land use in the area - as the property seems under-valued. However it also looks empty so it could be that someone inherited it and just wants to sell it. It also has a weird 'for sale by informal tender' thing going on - so not come across that before...