Prosperous soul in the making

clearmydebts

savingholmes wrote: »

Thanks CMD and Jwil - I took some cocodomol last night at bed time and that seems to have made it less painful. Will keep it under review. I can use it - it doesn't restrict movement - its just painful and swollen.

I bought a 20+ audio book last month - out of personal spends - so now on the £ or your life. It also has fascinating thoughts where you look at what you spend each month and work out whether it aligned with your values and whether it boosted your energy or reduced it. It also suggests that you work out your true hourly rate for working including travel time, transport, lunch, clothes etc to then help you think about your purchases eg that item cost 2 hours of time I will never get back do I still want it. Interesting so far - and lots of food for thought. It's one of the original F1r3 books.

DS has agreed to look after DD overnight so DH and I want to go away 1 night this week. We may even go and look at some of the properties we've been drooling over. If we were to buy one (unlikely) we would need to sell this one and move into temporary accommodation of some kind like a flat or small house during the week to keep our jobs for a transition period and go to the other place at the end of the week and all holidays. We would love that and see the sacrifice as worth it - DD would hate it. She hates all change and even going on cottage holidays so a remote farm house is unlikely to appeal. I want to go and look to. I am really confused about what you are allowed to do on land you own as there seem to be a lot of contradictory messages out there. Any help gratefully received.

Just a quick thought SavingH - if it is a farm with land would you not need to be there everyday to make sure everything is ticking over? Why does there need to be a transition period?

savingholmes

clearmydebts wrote: »

Just a quick thought SavingH - if it is a farm with land would you not need to be there everyday to make sure everything is ticking over? Why does there need to be a transition period?

Hi CMD - the transition period - would be while we either a) got jobs more local to the farm and/or b) paid off debt and accumulated enough £ to make it easier and/or c) allowed DD to go to the 6th form of her choice - effectively putting plans on hold for 2 years. Just DS alone at uni is due to cost us almost £5K in the next year - and he may or may not repay any loans. Unless DD agreed to move and we got jobs initially local to the new property it just won't be doable. I've seen parents move when their kids don't want to and it rarely works out well.

I keep having to remind myself - we have a plan - and its here for at least 2 more years unless we get a financial windfall or we get some amazingly under-priced property somewhere. I keep trying to be grateful for what we do have - family, a lovely house and well paid jobs - but still feel like there's something missing.

In terms of would we need to live on the farm. Some of the more affordable ones need work doing - so we could be doing some of that work initially inside the properties before starting outside. One of the ones we were looking at is 14 out of 18 acres of woodland - so we imagine not as much work. If we went somewhere without lots of trees we would want to get grants and plant them but they shouldn't be too resource intensive once planted... or am I just being naive?

I've found some more local land spaces but none with property attached and all too far from where we live or DD's sixth form. They all seem restrictive on what you are allowed to do on the land eg grazing or pasture - where i want a permaculture / homestead idea... To get the same type of house with land where we are seems to cost £200-300K more than buying it in say coastal Wales or parts of Scotland and yet if we can't get some local employment to at least help us get established the price tag will remain out of reach even in the cheaper areas.

A way around that could be B&B or glamping etc however we are unlikely to create an income from that overnight and it might come with a higher interest rate from the mortgage company too... I'm just dreaming, plotting and planning. Trying to learn more about smallholding, buying land etc before we jump in. I want to have a clear business plan of what we can earn from our future property and over what timeframe before we jump. Alternatively, we could wait until we are mortgage neutral in about 8 years and then jump. Another option would be to find creative ways we could up our income now to give us a bigger nest egg when we're ready to transition.

clearmydebts

I'm a real dreamer too so love to hear other people's plans. So good that your H is on board too! Yes - my parents waited until my younger sister was through school before moving. She was totally against it as well. Seems to be common!

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Have just spent over an hour reading through your diary... you've done so well ans so great that you had PPI and packaged account refunds to help with the momentum.
I've enjoyed your writing style and some of your posts have been thought provoking; Dave Ramsay, net worth, receiving gifts being weakening... definitely food for thought.
Have subscribed :-)

Honeysucklelou2

It's a good idea to give yourself time to dream and think ideas through. In terms of land restrictions, I think you would have to check the detail of the deeds of any property to see if any restrictive covenants apply. E.g. A neighbour, a move or two ago, had a 5 acre holding. He was allowed to use in any way but for some unfathomable reason, he wasn't allowed to grow strawberries. Now whether this meant he couldn't grow strawberries to sell rather than personal consumption, I don't know but I was mystified by such a specific restriction. I know that farming friends have to complete DEFRA forms in relation to use of fields. Perhaps it's worth having a chat with DEFRA to find out more.

MovingForwards

I love your farm plans Savingholmes, it's something I have toyed with wanting to for years but on a 'good life' basis ie be self-sufficient but work part-time to pay utilities. Must admit to looking at the viability of moving to one island up here to do it but it would take me away from my circle of friends and put me into an environment where you have to learn the local language, do the whole community life thing etc.

A farm / smallholding popped up a few months ago near where I worked @£900pm rent for the entire land/property, but I had no way of getting the rent at the time.

If you really want it, you will find a way to make it work.....once the kids have flown the nest

Hope your son finds a good home share, I've heard the T&C's on uni rentals are not nice!

Have a look at the open university courses for additional education requirements, you don't have to do a degree, but there are many interesting modules x

savingholmes

Honeysucklelou2 wrote: »

Using livestock to clear the land is something I think I'm going to have to do. There are some tough perennial weeds at the allotment that I battle every year...and lose, so am now thinking that pigs may well be the best way forward. .

One youtube I watched - suggested that you get baby pigs - keep them for 6 months then sell for meat. Then have a 4 week break over summer before starting with chickens & / or turkeys from babies to fatten ready for Christmas - just a thought in case it helps...

savingholmes

ohshithowdidthathappen wrote: »

Have just spent over an hour reading through your diary... you've done so well ans so great that you had PPI and packaged account refunds to help with the momentum.
I've enjoyed your writing style and some of your posts have been thought provoking; Dave Ramsay, net worth, receiving gifts being weakening... definitely food for thought.
Have subscribed :-)

The more the merrier - read your diary too - I started it a while ago - got half way through and then missed it for a bit - will be interesting to see what you decide to go with too. Caught up again today.

When it comes to my diary - I want it to be mostly positive - while still honest enough to show the up and downs along the way. I want to change my own thinking, habits, rituals, standards and debate different approaches both to debt freedom and to creating future wealth and income streams.

Just about finished listening to my latest £ book - some of the strategies she used aren't suitable for us right now with DD eg she couldn't cope with us having a lodger or us doing AirBnB but could be options for us later. She also made extensive use of bonds back when they were 15%. She does suggest other options too - and refers to the moustache guy etc.

I think I need to consistently challenge myself to look at ways of upping our income. Jim Rohn suggests going for double. It would be possible in my industry - want to get work to pay for a course to help me with that.

Realistically for us to get where we want to with our dreams anytime soon we need to create location independent income and pay everything off quicker! So currently working out ways of achieving that....

1. Simplest first - get a new job for me & / or OH that pays double
2. Ask for a payrise (asked)
3. Create a series of side hustles eg writing for £, selling stuff etc
4. Consider a second job for me & / or OH
5. Start / increase saving
6. Start investing
7. Consider a SIPP for DH -transfer some existing pensions into it and start investing and claim 20% tax relief - then if needed could consider use of SIPP to help fund future smallholding purchase - would need to look into technicalities. It appears while DH can't withdraw cash until 55 he could use up to 50% of his pot to buy commercial property if he uses a specialist company that allows property portfolios

Obviously the plan would be to pay off debt asap, create 3-6 months emergency fund and then invest and/or pay off mortgage / become mortgage neutral.

I

savingholmes

MovingForwards wrote: »

I love your farm plans Savingholmes, it's something I have toyed with wanting to for years but on a 'good life' basis ie be self-sufficient but work part-time to pay utilities....

A farm / smallholding popped up a few months ago near where I worked @£900pm rent for the entire land/property, but I had no way of getting the rent at the time.

If you really want it, you will find a way to make it work.....once the kids have flown the nest
x

I would consider renting a smallholding to test it out - however I couldn't stand paying that amount of £ on rent. The good life has a lot to answer for! I still remember the episodes with the pig, manure etc. We have a contact who is a farmer and also rents his land out for caravans, he also does shoots on his land etc. I think if we were at the point where we were seriously about to progress to buying somewhere - it would do us both good to spend some time helping him out and understanding the joys and the pitfalls.

I can't imagine not working outside the home - I think in an ideal world one or both of us would get jobs in the new locality initially - as anything we did on the smallholding would take a while to 'mature' unless we bought somewhere that already had an established holiday let business etc. Both DH and I have a wide range of skills - the issue for me would be ensuring I had enough mental challenge and social stimulus.

Doing_it_my_way

So nice for you to have your son home, children create so much love and yet so much worry.
I've just read all the posts over the last few days, wow there are lots! Phew!
What is your primary reason for wanting to move? I feel like I want to tell you to peel the onion away, find out whats underneath, maybe do a spider diagram, it helps put your ideas into order with the priorities at the centre, each leg explaining a bit more in that area...sorry if that sounds daft! For me I wanted one thing, my horses at home. Everything else had to fit in with that. By the time we had the second property it needed to have mains water and drainage, cesspits etc. are not easy. Boreholes are expensive to put in, ours was in excess of 7,000 and of course you have to have the water underneath. But fascinating watching them divining and then drilling.
I can't be totally self sufficient as I can't breed animals for meat, it's just not me. I only eat chicken and tuna and not much of that.
We haven't had any restrictions as such, councils encourage diversity on farms/smallholdings so tend to allow planning requests within reason. There are certain rules for increasing agricultural buildings you can do so much with out permission, but equally when we had an exercise arena put in for the horses, basically a sand school we had to have permission because it was a change of use from agricultural land to equine. Horses are not classed as agricultural animals - as a country we do not eat them.
It is not usual for properties to be built on agricultural land, so if you bought say 30 acres and wanted to build a house on it, the most you 'might' (probably wont) get is to be given permission to build a small dwelling for agricultural use, and they would put an agricultural tie on it, in other words you would have to farm the land, or work in farms or forestry and it would have to be your main income.
If you want to keep animals, cloven hoof particularly you need to have a registered small holding and register the movements of your stock too and from the holding, if the property you buy doesn't have this you can apply easily. You can keep chickens for your own use and you can sell the eggs, but not to someone who will sell them on, so if you sold to the local shop that would be illegal, or if you make cakes from them and sold the cakes that would also be illegal. In my opinion the most money could be earned from holiday cottages, or glamping which is becoming popular, or static caravans/tourers if it's in the right area but there will be an outlay with this, we once had a static which we rented out we used to get £600 a week during the summer it was a good earner, but as we didn't own the land it was on we had to pay site fees of £3500 a year so a no go really, or a livery yard where you may get £30 a week per horse plus hay and straw charges for DIY livery, with decent land you would need an acre a horse and each horse would have it's own stable for that price, you wouldn't or shouldn't be expected to do anything, but lay the law down on what you expect their standards to be otherwise you may have an animal welfare issue on your hands.
My children did not want to move, they were both out of school, one in work and one in college, but the second they saw the property they wanted to move in!
Good luck in your search, I am sure the right property will come up and you will be off!