Prosperous soul in the making

savingholmes

shrimpy_80 wrote: »

Just came across your diary and wanted to say well done - you are doing fantastically well! Lots of food for thought here as well. Hope it's ok for me to stick around

Can anyone tell me how I find subscribed threads these days? Have been off the forum a while

The more the merrier, Shrimpy - and thanks for the encouragement.

To subscribe - you have a choice - either go to thread tools of the individual post and click on it and then choose subscribe - no email notification or reply and go to the advanced button and scroll down and choose the same...

savingholmes

FloraandFauna wrote: »

Hope the pooch is ok, Holmes?

Doggy is fine. We took her out for a run (as in got her to run) and other than being her usual disobedient self she was fine. Embarassing when she fails recall repeatedly...

Today, DD called me out of work while I was mid session with my boss... Life! In better news, my cleaner has been today so my house is clean and tidy again....:cool: She was very impressed with our decluttering and my newly organised airing cupboard. Sadly, I now need to log back onto work and do some more work to catch up from where I left off and make up the time...

doingitanyway

A cleaner is a goal of mine. One day...

Glad dog is okay (another goal of mine)...

I hope you get to relax soon and the additional work doesn't go on too long.

savingholmes

Thanks DIA. Cleaner is a lifesaver for me. We aren't naturally inclined and it used to cause 'fights' so having her really helps. I figure we both work full time so...

Worked until 8.30pm but making up for leaving work early today and previous occasions... C'est la vie. I'm getting all the 'can you just' tasks before I go on leave at the moment. I enjoy being busy though so although I'm whinging slightly I don't really mean it. I did get OH to finish doing the roast beef dinner. I had cooked the joint yesterday but he had to do the veg and the roasties. Tasty.

Our dog is leaning on me while looking hopefully at my snack bar. I think she is also hoping for a walk. Really need to go to the vets tomorrow to pick up worming and flea tablets too. We are at least a week late giving it to her. I had hoped to have the whole day off tomorrow but that's not happening now. We are going to see a house though late afternoon and at (DD) appointments in the morning so will probably only work a few hours. DH is finishing early to come with me for that.

I listened to a book on investing this week which suggested that we use trends we spot in our every day lives to help identify good stocks and shares before the professionals. PL suggested that we write a little narrative of why we are interested in particular shares and why we think they are worth buying before we bought them as well as pulling together key info. Definitely interesting. HL have offered me a face-to-face appointment at the end of August about an hour away from where I live. I could potentially go as it is while we have time booked off work. Need to talk to DH and see if he will come with me.

StripeyTightsSpottySocks

Hi savings - not all caught up yet but i am planning to be in the next couple of days and have been really enjoying reading at lunch - but i can't pop on and post then Plus it's a really short lunch so what with eating as well i only managed to read bits but it's all been most excellent and inspiring reading so far ( on about p10 or 11 i think?)

I hope all is well with you. I will post properly when i'm fully up to date.

i did read about your decluttering efforts and you mentioning your stuff and about 'things' and do 'things' own you. I will share the fact, because no-one knows me :rotfl:, that i have lots of 'things' here - lots of things piled up and in places they shouldn't be. Clothes everywhere - well every room except the bathroom :eek: and generally a lot to sort out. I have been decluttering slowly and am now going for a room by room approach, My excuse is the house is too small :rotfl::rotfl: It is actually a very tiny house and the storage is not the best at all - part of the reason i want to move But it needs to work better whilst we're living here

I shouldn't be working this weekend so i am going to properly tackle one room then Reading posts like yours encourages me to do more. Thank you

savingholmes

Thanks Stripey - glad I'm motivating you to declutter. My DD has been going out with friends more which is fab - and effectively I've had a week's pass from decluttering. It's been nice - but the house is already started to show the impact lol. Why are seemingly simple things like doing the washing and then putting it away so hard... Oh that could be because I still need to accept that I'm unlikely to get into half my clothes anytime soon and let them go.... Yes, moving on.

I got a bit of a lie in today which was nice but in about 10 minutes need to push myself and DD to finish getting ready so we can leave at around 9.50 for her appointments. I want to try and download another book as one of them is likely to be an hour while I get left in reception. Then we think we might have to wait half an hour before the second one. Trying to put on patience - not my strongest suit.

I've been reading other people's diaries that have been trying to do the DR baby steps. It's interesting as some people tie themselves up in knots trying to do it exactly as he describes. I have his audiobook the £ makeover and in it he admits that the baby steps were a late addition because people were asking for a step by step guide. Even baby step 1 - get an emergency fund was only introduced because people got demotivated when they had to re-use credit to deal with emergencies in the early stages.

I can understand his stopping pensions argument - if someone is incurring 49% debt etc but less so when it's all at 0% and mortgage rates are so low. If you read his book, he used to be a lot less dogmatic on that. I think because he's been pushed to defend his view so many times - he is more dogmatic on it. I think I will go to see the HL guy to see what his view is on using a stocks and shares isa to be mortgage neutral and how to balance the risk of that. I then have roughly a year to learn more about the stock market before I could put serious £ into it anyway.

savingholmes

We went to see the house with a huge workshop and quite a bit of land. We loved it. However.... Even the estate agent reckons you would need to spend around #100K on it. So I've had to ask myself - would I go for a #400K house at this moment in time - and the answer is no. So sadly, I can't really justify it. The estate agent said if you spent #100k - you would probably make around #50K profit after your investment. The rooms were on the small side. The garden areas (multiple) were huge. Workshop was humongous. I reckon you could adapt it and rent it as an air bnb or holiday let easily. He reckoned you would fit 3 such units in there.

If we didn't have DD living at home still, I think we might have taken the risk. Neither of us, can see DD coping with noise, dust etc and the upheaval of change of location.. I also think if we found a similar opportunity in 2 years time we would be in a much stronger position - no CCs, 6 month emergency #18K fund and either mortgage repayment lump sum or investments or both of around #18K. So I think for peace of mind too we should wait...

I have to keep reminding myself to be grateful for what we already have too....

savingholmes

I keep hearing the Estate agent saying 'I'd strip it back to bare brick' and shuddering. That is a lot more work than we bargained for. I'm grateful though as it put it in perspective.

OH and I both have a headache and sore throat after the visit that we didn't have before. OH said the house smelt. I was in love with the workshop and gardens rather than the house. I need to be more grateful for what we do have - which is a beautiful modern home that we could do nice to have work on rather than imminent necessities like re-wiring. I also benefit from 'borrowed landscape' out the front of a tree lined fence etc of the end of the cul-de-sac we're on. We have trees out the back that mostly screen the neighbours. We have an affordable mortgage and could be CC and MF by 2028 and on our path to riches.

I need to ensure that I don't allow things to derail us from that kind of future - while listening to the call of the land if that's what I really want. I need to stick with the programme. I need to get on with busting through the 50K earnings tax barrier so that it isn't holding me back anymore. I spoke to a friend who does writing and she says she barely paid tax as there's so much she could offset against it anyway.

I still feel a little like I am going around in circles. I feel like I've put my life on hold until DD gets her results and is settled in sixth form and DS is back in the country and settled back at uni. He's already been sharing a list of things he needs money for from shoes to glasses etc. I believe him but don't know where he's expecting us to magic the money from. The ppi got paid off the car so that's gone - so not tempting me to spend on him... I can be a soft touch when it comes to my kids as can many of you I'm sure.

On the debt payment front - we have one payment due to go out on Monday for about #187ish and that will take me below the #30K debt barrier which will be fab. I did about 3 hours work today so now only owe 4 hours which is a lot better. I was up over 10 hours owed at one point - albeit for understandable reasons related to DD - just not ideal.

Really should take doggy for a walk but not sure if I will. I did succumb to buying DD a mcflurry between appointments and got one for me to with an apple pie. I've just remembered I put half in the freezer so I'm going to get it now. I conned DH into cooking tea - he wasn't thrilled but did it otherwise I'd given in and gone over budget and ate out or had a takeway. I feel emotionally exhausted tonight - probably because I am having one of those rare moments where I left myself feel what I really feel. As well as the appointments for DD, the book I am listening to hit a nerve and had me blubbing when it was talking about following the seven levels of questioning to find your true why...

DD has agreed I can go and get her results to reduce the chance of her freaking out - so need to get her to do a letter and sign it and find a way of sending it to the school preferably ahead of time so that we get the results asap and hopefully she can chillax.

Chrystal

I can totally understand the frustration of feeling your life is on hold. It's very hard to get really involved with things when that's the case.
Sounds as though the house would have been a total nightmare to deal with, so at least you can put that out of your mind.
Can I ask what book you were listening to. I really feel as though I need to 'find' myself again.

enthusiasticsaver

savingholmes wrote: »

I've been reading other people's diaries that have been trying to do the DR baby steps. It's interesting as some people tie themselves up in knots trying to do it exactly as he describes. I have his audiobook the £ makeover and in it he admits that the baby steps were a late addition because people were asking for a step by step guide. Even baby step 1 - get an emergency fund was only introduced because people got demotivated when they had to re-use credit to deal with emergencies in the early stages.

I can understand his stopping pensions argument - if someone is incurring 49% debt etc but less so when it's all at 0% and mortgage rates are so low. If you read his book, he used to be a lot less dogmatic on that. I think because he's been pushed to defend his view so many times - he is more dogmatic on it. I think I will go to see the HL guy to see what his view is on using a stocks and shares isa to be mortgage neutral and how to balance the risk of that. I then have roughly a year to learn more about the stock market before I could put serious £ into it anyway.

There are a few threads on the savings and investment forum about investing rather than overpaying the mortgage as interest rates are so low. Of course the issue with that is investment returns are not guaranteed at the time you need to cash out. Unless the HL is an IFA he will only be able to comment on HL products not the merits of investing rather than overpaying the mortgage. Read Monevator to get an idea of where to start with investing. There are a lot of articles for newbies..