Busy Mee's Last Leg

Busy_Mee

I loved Shanghaijimmy's list of positives from 2020, so I am going to copy. Here are mine:

Mr Mee settled into retirement and loves it. He has been happy and occupied doing jobs on his terms and his timeframe. He has become very handy and got a very good tan in the summer 

DS got a new job, less hours, better prospects and much nearer to home. He is enjoying it, although it has been a strange during COVID restrictions. He hasn't met many of his new colleagues.

I am very proud of DS.  He has worked face to face with patients throughout the pandemic ( and had no PPE for the first 5 weeks). He is now working on the vaccine hub and ensuring that many more people get protected.

Similarly I am very proud of DD who volunteered for the COVID hotline in the early months of the pandemic, to get help to vulnerable people who needed it.

DD has "found" herself again. She has been single for the last couple of years and has been knocking around with a set of very shallow, glamorous friends. Lots of glamorous lifestyle stuff that just wasn't her. During COVID she started hiking and spent most of the year outdoors and up various mountains. She actually met her boyfriend in Lockdown  (although she knew him from school) on a walk in nearby woods.

DD is in the process of buying a house.

DS has converted his garage into living space.

We got to spend loads of time at home and have done lots of work to the house, using our unused holiday funds.

I got the gift of time and have done lots of things I just would never ordinarily had time for, baking bread, growing vegetables and flowers and lots of creative faffing. I am clinging onto this extra time for dear life and hoping to maintain a 4 day working week this year ( or retire completely )

We have all been happy and healthy. In fact I have just remarked that this is the first Christmas in ages I haven't had a hacking cough or other sort of snotty virus 

There have been lots of positives and I am feeling very grateful 

try_harder

What a lovely list , really wonderful to read, lovely family

Cornish_mum

Brilliant list BusyMee and well done on your progress this year too. CM

savingholmes

Beautiful list

beanielou

Very impressive.

Suffolk_lass

Great list - very positive - it is nearly two years since I stopped work and my advice is - definitely get yourself retired - time passes so quickly, the opportunity to plan and undertake the next stage with Mr Mee will give you lots of new opportunities and you will love it. You spend so much less than when working and the companionship and friendship in your marriage is a precious thing to be treasured and the time maximised. Just saying...

themadvix

Great positives there Busy Mee!

 Listen to SL!

Busy_Mee

2021 Goals
I have had a read back of my diary to remind me what the 2020 goals were. They were quite modest and fluid, as we did not know how our finances would pan out for the first year of Mr Mee's retirement nor did we predict a worldwide pandemic.

Last year the financial goals were :

To chip £500 a month off the IO mortgage. We later upped this to £1000 per month and then further stretched it to £1250 using the O&S money.

To become mortgage neutral by end June 2020. We became mortgage neutral on 30 April.

To increase our ring fenced savings from £210k to £212k. We actually increased them to £215k

To save £2.5k in odds and sods. We saved over £4k

This year I need to set some equally fluid targets because I am not sure how long I will work ( more of that later) and also hopefully life should start getting back to normal in the second half of the year with travel etc.  We also need to refill our much depleted holiday/household fund pots

Therefore the goals for 2021 are as follow:

Chip £1000 per month off the IO mortgage whilst ever I am still working

Increase the ringfenced savings by £3k to £218k

Save £3k in odds and sods

Save £500 per month towards travel/ holidays/household stuff

The rules are as follows:

I will budget for £1k to be chipped off the mortgage at the beginning of the month. No excuses or exceptions. We will just tighten our belt accordingly,

All interest to be rounded up and any tax rebates created by savings will be added to the ringfenced savings pot,

All odds and sods, rewards, TCB and Tilly Tidies ( rounded to nearest £10) will be added to the odds and sods account,

I've not quite worked out where the extra £500 a month is going to come from. A mixture of the O&S pot and digging some extra out of the normal budget I think.


There, simples. Anyone else set themselves complicated, self imposed rules or just me ?

Suffolk_lass

Still working on mine. Having got rid of the mortgage I am surprised at just how liberating it feels. I need some targets though as I think I still validate myself by whether we hit them or not. The annual savings target is already declared at £7,500 (in Save £12k in 2021) and the annual grocery challenge target at £3000 (in the monthly grocery challenge over on old-style) so I think day-to-day will tick along. Household targets still under discussion because our bubble visitor has only just left

South_coast

Busy_Mee said:

Anyone else set themselves complicated, self imposed rules or just me ?

No, me too! I am all about the rules!

Amazing progress this year, well done 😀!