What a Year.....Climbing Back on the Wagon

Bingbunny

Do you watch Keeping Faith? I'm sure I've read you do. The seaside shoots are right on our door step. We have always wanted to retire over in west Wales. One day maybe xx

mumblingtaff

Bingbunny wrote: »

Do you watch Keeping Faith? I'm sure I've read you do. The seaside shoots are right on our door step. We have always wanted to retire over in west Wales. One day maybe xx

Yes I've watched the whole thing - it's really good and the scenery and accents remind me of home
My accent has been diluted quite a bit from living abroad and in England for years but as soon as I speak to another Welsh person it comes straight back. The kids in school think it's hilarious as when I'm annoyed I'm apparently really "valleys"!!!


Been doing quite a bit of thinking over the past few days and am slowly formulating a bit of a long term life plan.
Ideally, I'd like to give up teaching at around 55 (I'm 47 now) and do something else until I completely retire. This is my second career (worked in industry for years after my PhD and became a teacher after working away from home (mostly abroad) for more than 10 years for 6 months of every year) and so a third career isn't out of the question.
I've outgrown the idea of being a headteacher - I don't need that kind of hassle in my life - I'd like to get one final promotion to deputy (am an assistant head now) and do that for the remainder of my teaching career. The next part is the scary but interesting bit - I think I'd like to set up my own business revolving around dogs - maybe dog walking, grooming, boarding and day care. I can do it for as long as I feel like I'm able or willing to - past 65 if necessary, but be my own boss and, hopefully, employ others too. I have experience of business and sales and want to do something involving something that I love (dogs) but that will also keep me challenged and intellectually stimulated (that sounds very pompous but isn't meant to!).

So, how do I get there?
Well, the first big step is getting the next promotion that will pay me more - that's this year's goal. It may be in my current school (there's a new head in September and rumblings of people leaving) or elsewhere if things don't pan out as anticipated. It's a waiting game in the short term to see what happens.
In parallel, I need to completely clear any remaining debt (a loan of approx £4500 and a credit card on 0% of £2000) and continue to build my savings. I could pay everything off now but I like having the buffer of money in the bank - daft I know, but when there's only me earning and paying for everything I need something to fall back on in an emergency.
The next step is then to overpay the mortgage - there's approx £50,000 outstanding - the interest has pretty much been paid off now and every monthly payment of £425 brings the balance down significantly so an overpayment, however small, would make a real difference.
The goal is to clear it before I'm 55. I guess it's all going to be about priorities.... I know that there's at least £180,000 to £200,000 equity in the house if I sold it and paid off the outstanding mortgage (bought it at a really good time years ago) but I do need to do some work in it - the en suite bathroom needs replacing and the kitchen has seen better days. I'm likely to stay put and do the things that need doing and then sell and move back to Wales or to the countryside/coast when it's paid off and buy somewhere smaller and cheaper outright. That would give me some capital to start a small business and still have my teachers pension and other pensions from previous jobs to fall back on in the future.

Having a small germ of an idea is quite motivating and will hopefully help me keep on track. It's quite exciting - in the very long term......
So, from September, this is what I'm working towards.... I'll get the summer holidays out of the way then the grand plan begins.....

As it's a very long term plan, life will carry on in the mean time but I feel like there's something to look forward to that excites me and gives me purpose, it will be small steps but every little one will count towards the end goal.
I'll start with a proper review of my current expenditure tomorrow- not the direct debits etc as they've recently been looked at but where my money goes when the bills are all paid and savings are put away. It disappears somewhere!

Honeysucklelou2

Well done on formulating a long term plan. The whole dog day care/grooming and walking is an in demand service. I like the way you have been able to break things down and look at strategies to achieve the long term goal.

lucielle

Could you make a start on the mortgage and up the payment to £500 per month?

L

mumblingtaff

Thank you Honeysuckle and Lucielle - I'm always surprised when people respond to my late night ramblings!
I'll look into the finances today and see whether I could up the mortgage payment now. Hopefully I can - I'll try to find a calculator to see how much difference over payments make to motivate me.

I didn't mention in in the previous post but there is another motivating factor for the plan - I have an older sister with moderate cerebral palsy, she can't work and still lives with my parents. They're in their 70s now and won't be able to look after her forever. Having my own business would allow me a bit more flexibility to accommodate her needs and she also loves dogs so she would like to be involved in some small way, even if were just being around. Luckily, my parents have been brilliant about thinking about her financial future and she will be well provided for and also receives disability allowance, motability allowance etc but it's the day to day care that's the issue. That's going to be down to me.

Anyway, the plan for today is to do some shuffling dog walking (my back is still really bad and I'm dosed up on codeine), pop to the shops for dog food, review the finances and then, later this afternoon, I've been invited over to the dog breeders to take pup to see his mum and the other dogs he grew up with. Looking forward to that - she's lovely and it will be really interesting to see his reaction to his "birth family" especially his own mum.
I was supposed to be going for a run with my neighbour today too but that's out of the question with my back - I spoke to her last night and we're going for a dog walk tomorrow instead. Fed up with my back - it really hurts and is an inconvenience - I have a bulging disc that pops out every now and then (usually a couple of times a year) and then slowly works it's way back to where it should be and is ok again for months and months. Grrr!!

DebtFreeMonkey

That's brilliant that you have a long term plan and my, what a cracking long term plan it is! If it was me, I'd keep that in mind but in the mean time, attack a bunch of small goals that feed into it where you ultimately want to end up. Then you're reaching mini successes and before you know it, you'll be where you need to be.

Now I feel really condescending, as if you haven't thought of this but I just thought I'd try and add something worth anything to my post.

You seem focused and set for the day and I look forward to witnessing all your wins! Love how you're sister would be involved, too.

Hope the back pain eases up for you. Never much fun not being able to do what you want. Have a good day.

mumblingtaff

Thanks Alicia! Not condescending at all!! I love lists and little goals and ticking things off - that's probably the teacher in me

Just had a look at the mortgage overpayment calculator and if I over pay by £150 a month it takes me exactly to being 55 without a mortgage
That's without any lump sum overpayments.
Now, the loan repayment is £145 a month so if I got rid of that I wouldn't feel any additional financial burden initially and can even step it up as I go along. Now that's a good reason to get rid of the loan ASAP - I just looked at the balance and it's a bit less than I thought - just over £4000 rather than £4500 so that's good news.

This all has to be balanced with building up more savings, getting stuff around the house done and living a bit. I earn quite a good salary and so need to look at where it actually goes....I do save every month and pay all the bills etc on time, don't use the credit card anymore and don't have an overdraft but it's the additional spending that seems to add up.
I'm on a mission now

Bubblesmum

Morning

Really pleased you are on a mission, I think long term plans are great, and really motivational, you have thought these things through well.

Agree with Alicia, it’s about now putting in place small goals, I would be overpaying something - or putting money aside to pay off either loan or credit card early.

Your plans are dreams now, but really feasible.

It’s lovely you want to move back to help your sibling, I have CP, I will be financially secure, but have no immediate family apart from DH who is also disabled, to turn to when we are older.

mumblingtaff

Thanks Bubble!
With regards to my sister, I pay £40 a month for her to have reiki and massage at the day centre she goes to a couple of times a week. It used to be free but with cutbacks they need to charge a nominal £5 per treatment, which she'd struggle to afford. They really do help her - even if it is only psychological and relaxing - so it's money well spent.

mumblingtaff

I've spent some of morning looking at the finances and have been unpleasantly shocked and surprised. I knew how much the direct debits, repayments etc added up to but when I was really realistic with myself and added in everything else I spend money on every month including the dog walker, council tax, hair appointments, petrol, food, spending money etc it added up to a lot more than I'd expected.
The utilities etc are as low as they can be, I'm cancelling Sky when the contract expires in January and will redo my mobile contract when it's up next year. The critical illness and life cover statement came today and I've done a comparison and it seems that I pay a reasonable amount so will leave it as it is. Other insurances are also as low as they can be.

I looked at cancelling Audible and when I tried they offered me half price for the next 3 months so took that and will cancel then. It's only £3.99 a month now so not too bad.

Officially, I have 32 months left on the loan so that's the main focus of my efforts in the short term. The credit card is on 0% so I'll continue to pay that but it's costing me less than the loan. The loan is £145 a month and I can make overpayments easily as its with the bank my current account is with - I'll check what the rules are and look at making additional payments.
The other area I can definitely economise on is the grocery shopping and general spending during the month. I set budgets for both of these each month but I think they're a bit generous and sometimes ignored

There's still a good chunk of money left over from my salary once all of these things are taken into consideration but not as much as I thought there was. This will continue to be saved in general savings and also put towards things like a holiday and home improvements and a small mortgage overpayment to get the ball rolling.
It's been an eye opener - and I thought I was fairly good with money......