The Piano Diary

glass_half_full

Dear diary and all,
The half day at the spa was wonderful! It was a real treat. We both had treatments and then afternoon tea which was delicious. OH really relaxed, and told me she really enjoyed it. I want to plan more things like this in so we can keep a better work life balance.
On the money and budget front we have made it to the beginning of another month. I have managed to save £400 from this months income and put it back into the emergency fund. I’ve loaded the envelopes for the month and we’re going to keep to the budget. A bit of good luck, OH was clearing out her bedside drawer and found £80 in an envelope from when we used to have a cleaner. This was used to buy this weeks groceries.
I’ve been reading some of the FIRE blogs on line. Not all of them resonate with me as they are often in the tech industry, retire at 30 with no children. But one looked more interesting as it was more about using financial independence to allow you to pursue your dreams. I’ve ordered a book by the author called ‘Work optional, retire early’ which is more about the transition from full time work to a life where you do more of what you want to do. Looking forward to reading it and seeing if I can use some of the ideas. Feel a bit more motivated this month to get back to frugalish ways!
Have a great day all!

glass_half_full

Dear diary and all,
Quite tired this morning, it has been a long week with early starts and late finishes. I feel like I am on the edge of a cold as well which isn’t helping. Had the first part of the dental treatment last Monday. It’s expensive, but I have always had good experiences with this dentist and the results have lasted so I am willing to pay the extra for it. I am going abroad next Monday for a couple of days doing some extra work. I am going to buy a suit today for this trip. I am down to one suit and it is looking a bit tired. The trip should pay £1500 so if I spend £150-200 on something today I feel like that is justified. OH wants to try Pilates next week, the classes are quite expensive, if she gets into it we may need to look in the budget for how to afford it! This month is turning out to be ok but not much extra left over to throw at debts. I am ok with this, sometimes we go through phases like this, just need to stay focused on the goal and not worry too much about it.
The book I mentioned in my previous post about early retirement has got me thinking and has helped to crystallise my ideas and again moving me from vague dreams to more concrete goals and then plans to make it happen. This is coming together in my mind and I will post something about this in a while once it is clear in my mind.
Have a great day all!

glass_half_full

Dear diary and all,
Glad to get to the end of this week. Went on my overseas trip which was ok in the end. I was worried as I thought I was going down with a cold but it passed me by which was just as well. The trip was quite intense with a couple of flights each way. It should pay £1500 some time in November which I will use to build the emergency fund back up to £1000. I’m not sure I will do this again next year. I’m grateful for the opportunity to earn extra but not sure the juice is worth the squeeze. A few expenses this month which are ok but challenging my ability to overpay on loan/mortgage for the moment. Still managing to stay out of the overdraft or use any credit, but I need to build the buffer back up so we can absorb any unplanned expenses as they occur.
I did a bit of a review before I went abroad for the trip on the longer term plan. I basically modelled the pension and other assumptions to see what the art of the possible is in terms of achieving financial independence using some of the ideas in the ‘Work optional…’ book. Basically, I can see 60 (7 years time) as a ‘backstop’ being very achievable. It might be possible to achieve it by 58 with more savings to the pension and / or if something else comes along! Basically, the key to this is I need to ramp up my pension contributions significantly, probably to around 40-50%. This is feasible because we are still pretty much living as we were before both of us got promotions over the last 12 months. I’m going to increase the pension contributions in a phased way over a few months so we get used to the new normal. I’ve started by increasing them to 33% for now. I can still pay down the car loan and also intend to OP on the mortgage whilst at the same time having a life. I think it will mean tweaking things a bit as we go. The key thing is I need to take action now so that it pays off in the next few years. As ever, it’s a balancing act between living today and tomorrow.
Have a great day all!

glass_half_full

Dear diary and all,
Had my wisdom tooth out today, it was hard for the dentist to get it out so I am at home in bed having taken as many pain killers as I am allowed and feeling somewhat sorry for myself, hoping this is as bad as it is going to get after the local anaesthetic has worn off!
However, I received a nice message today from MSE Badger

MSE_Badger wrote:

Fantastic news glass_half_full, I'm MSE Badger and I've just given you a badge!

4 year anniversary

Wow! 4 years posting on MSE! Keep MoneySaving! Congratulations!
MSE Badger

Its got me thinking about the overall progress since I joined in October 2015 and started to read all the advice and diaries on here and then started my own diary.
It’s a long time since I started this journey. Back in 2015 our mortgage was £92,600 and consumer debt was £17,420, a total of £110,000. More importantly perhaps was the fact that we were living pay-check to pay-check and also had no real plans in place to pay off the debt and get the finances under control. The mortgage was due to run until my 65th birthday and we had no savings at all. The biggest change over that period has been the shortening of the mortgage term by 7 years and living to a budget and building up savings and knowing where the money is going. Our current mortgage is £66,000 and we owe £8,200 on the car, so a total debt of £74,200 so we have paid off £35,800 or around 1/3 of the debt in 4 years. We have also paid off £9,400 on the ‘new to us’ car so a total of £45,200, nearly £1,000 per month, whilst dealing with many issues along the way. We also have a small emergency fund of £1,300.
I hope this doesn’t come across as too self-congratulatory, its more me realising how far we have come due to finding this site, following the advice here and the many great diarists I have learned from along the way.
In other news, DS is home for the weekend. Its great to see him and he seems to be enjoying life at University which is good.
Hope you are all having a great weekend all!

glass_half_full

Dear diary and all,
Made it into November! Budget looking ok, when I get the money from the extra work at the end of the month I will use it to recharge the liquid emergency fund back up to £1000. The unplanned expenses from time to time will always be there and I need this fund ready to go as required. Everything else is covered this month. I may get some other extra work before the end of the year and if so I will use this to pay down the car loan quicker as planned.
Working on my pension plans and investments, I need to increase my contributions to 40% of gross salary so that I have enough saved to achieve financial freedom by the target of definitely 60 and maybe 58. I have modelled the budget over the next 5 months and this is affordable and leaves about £500 over per month. I want this buffer because although the budget is accurate I want a bit of wiggle room. I have made the adjustment so this will come into effect at next pay day.
Have a great day all!

savingholmes

Hi - it doesn't come across as self-congratulatory at all. It is really important to celebrate your progress - so well done you. We are on a similar journey with higher debt and mortgage levels. Like you we are looking at how we could retire early if we wanted to. I would be interested to hear more about the book you are reading.

glass_half_full

Thanks for your comment Savingholmes. The book I am reading is called ‘Work optional’ by Tanja Hester. She has written an interesting and I think balanced book about how you can reach financial independence. Not necessarily retiring early, but being freer to determine your future. In part one of the book you go through various exercises to define your financial future. In part two, you work through how to make that a reality. The first exercise is really important as it gives you the motivation and the ‘why’ for part two. In my case, the need to increase pension contributions to 40% is quite a big step as it means having less money available today. But knowing why I am doing it is making it possible for me to stay focused.

glass_half_full

Dear diary and all,
Both OH and I have been paid so I finally know where we stand against the budget. I got paid for the extra work I did in October but it wasn’t quite as much as I thought it would be (when is it ever!). This month has been a strange one with cashflow due to a few extra costs here and there. Seems to have been expensive. Is it just me or is life getting ever more expensive and harder to hold onto your hard earned cash? I have finally replaced my phone which was starting to run out of battery several times a day and was becoming more than a little inconvenient. I got a mid-range android phone and kept my SIM so that was a reasonably cheap solution. I have worked out that I can recharge the liquid emergency fund back up to £1,000 so will do that early next week. I don’t like not having this fund ready because there is always something unexpected coming along. I am also getting used to paying the increased pension contributions. This is slowing down the debt repayment, but I need to take advantage of the tax benefit that comes with saving out of pre-tax income. My grade 3 piano exam is looming in the next 10 days so I am needing to practice every day.
Have a great day all!

savingholmes

Hope you enjoy your phone and that your piano exam goes well. Always hard to raid your EF and then have the discipline to stop and rebuild it...

glass_half_full

savingholmes wrote: »

Hope you enjoy your phone and that your piano exam goes well. Always hard to raid your EF and then have the discipline to stop and rebuild it...

Your so right about the emergency fund. I think I've spent this cash 3 or 4 times in my head on gadgets I would like. Luckily so far I have applied the 48 hour rule and the spending fever has passed.