YNAB...ing my way to freedom!

joedenise

If I was you I'd ask them to put it in writing.  At least then you will have proof of what has been said if they don't play ball in 6 months time.

SuperFrank88

Happy Friday

Just back from a local welly walk around a nature park. Loved it. 
Got home and had an email from THAT creditor replying to my email yesterday and it said...

"We have received your notification, we are sorry to hear you are not happy with the way we have dealt with your account, therefore please accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience and upset this has caused you. I have raised a complaint on your behalf and we will reach out to you in due course."

So will wait and see what they come back with next week.

Plans for the rest of the day, uni online until 6pm, really struggling with motivation for my degree at the moment. The sooner we can get back on campus on a Friday the better. I learn so much better with human interaction. These 5 hour teams meetings on a Friday are not doing it for me. I keep zoning out because it is all one way traffic with the lecturer just talking non stop.

Planning on having a treat tonight for tea. We have been so good for 2 weeks now so deciding what to have. 
Hope you all have a great weekend. Stay safe.

Sarahwithlove

Let's hope it gets sorted but it does also mean another wait for you. 

SuperFrank88

Sarahwithlove said:

Let's hope it gets sorted but it does also mean another wait for you. 

I've waited 54 weeks, what's another 1 or 2

SuperFrank88

Hi all,
Hope you have had a good weekend, it goes so fast right? Yesterday OH and I decided to go for a long walk to OH's grandparents grave. She told me it was 3 miles each way. Once we got to the grave (eventually) I checked my watch...4.7 miles!! Which meant by the time we got back it was 9.4 bloody miles. Quite a bit longer than the 6 I was planning, but we really enjoyed. Weather was lovely. Feet were in bits by the time we got home so the rest of the day was spent with feet up.
Today I went to spend an hour with DD while her mum went out for a run. Then I came home to sort our shed out. I want to start weight training again, I have all the equipment in the shed, squat rack, bench, weight plates, dumb-bells etc but because I keep our bikes in there too and they are chained up to the squat rack (try to make it difficult for the thieves!) I end up not bothering going out there to train because of the 'hassle' of unchaining the bikes and moving them out the way to get access to the weights equipment. Very lazy! So I spend an hour re-arranging the shed so that everything was more accessible. Even put up a spot light in there so I can train after work in the evenings. No excuses now...apart from it being freezing! No, no excuses   The weight is coming off nicely as I have been eating well so far this year. Just need to keep it up and get my sorry butt out there to lift some weights. It's like everything....the hardest part is starting! Once i'm in the routine I'll be fine. 

Another quiet week in work for me this week on my own. Finally sorted some income protection insurance out for myself after putting it off for so long. £31 pm but it is one of those things that if the worst was to happen and I couldn't work then i'd wished I had taken it out. 

Sarahwithlove

You are right getting a routine really helps. I've found that with making myself go out for a walk and take a proper break from work. 

SuperFrank88

Morning all,
Payday for me today. I love going into YNAB on payday and it being absolutely carnage with all the transactions that need clearing and all the 'pots' that need to be filled. It takes me about half an hour to get through them all but once it is done there is a massive sense of relief seeing all the green ticks with everything being fully funded for the month ahead. 
I have actually hit my 'goals' on some of my Monzo pots now such as 'Car repairs', so I will just keep adding to it every month so when the time does come, and it will come, that I need something fixed on the car then the money will be there, no stress  

My biggest achievement though is nothing to do with me, it is getting my OH on board with YNAB. She has always been careful with money but she told me this morning that she could not live without it now and being able to see where every penny has gone/ is allocated. So very grateful to be in this position. 

In other news my Grandpa has had a rough couple of weeks with his dementia. He also has cancer that is untreatable and with all the medication he is on it has made him 'lose the plot' so to speak. Last night was the final straw when he told my Nan that he was walking to a town 50 miles away. He was absolutely soaked through to the skin and the police had to be called to pick him up. He was assessed by the MH team and has now been taken into hospital I honestly don't think he will come out. He is 85 and with all his health problems, sat on a ward with all the Covid around... So will have to just see what happens and be there for my Nan.  She is 82 and they have been married for over 60 years so she is so upset that he has been taken into care and she is now on her own. Crap to get old ey!

SuperFrank88

YNAB Snapshot 2020
So I have been looking on YNAB today as it has been 1 year since I first signed to to their free trial. 
I started with zero savings, zero emergency fund and lots of debt! Fast forward a year and I have £5k+ in a S&S ISA (after this months contribution clears), 2-3 months Emergency fund, pots filled in Monzo with 'sinking funds' ready for Feb/March annual expenses and I am car loan free (it's in the 'Hidden Categories'). All but 1 of my debts have monthly payments set up which will keep my creditors happy and have stopped them hassling me.
It is incredible how much of a change that can happen in only 1 year with the right mindset shift. Ok, it was massively helped by the whole lockdown situation and not being able to go out and spend as much but I could have easily converted to online spending instead, but I didn't  

So my goals for this coming year are to continue to fund my S&S ISA, to build my EF further to have 6 months expenses saved and finally to start upping my debt repayments. For me starting this journey it was not about paying the debt back as quickly as possible, it was to put ME first and make sure I had that cushion of savings to fall back on if I needed it. Thankfully my job has been secure up until now which I am so grateful for. Now that I have that cushion, I can start to focus on reducing debt and shifting my net worth from negative to positive It is not going to happen quickly and I still have a very long road ahead but I think I have finally cracked the first and most important change....mindset! 

Sarahwithlove

That's fantastic progress in a year. You've done so well. Keep going it will be worth it. Out of interest who is your S+S isa with? I'm considering getting one and putting a small amount in each month as a 'payment' for long term EF rather than just my basic £1k atm. 

SuperFrank88

Sarahwithlove said:

That's fantastic progress in a year. You've done so well. Keep going it will be worth it. Out of interest who is your S+S isa with? I'm considering getting one and putting a small amount in each month as a 'payment' for long term EF rather than just my basic £1k atm. 

Thanks Sarah, it is nice to have a recap because doing the same thing month after month can feel like you aren't getting very far, when when you like where you started from it is quite surprising. 

I am currently with Open Money who are a 'Robo-investor' meaning you put your money into your portfolio and they buy the funds etc on your behalf. Obviously you pay a higher % fee for this 'do it for me' account but it is great for beginners to get their foot into investing. I got lucky as I opened mine in March/April when the markets had crashed after the first lockdown so my returns so far are currently 10.47% which I am happy with. I have spent the year learning more about investing and am now confident that I can manage my portfolio on my own so from the new tax year I will be moving from Open Money to Vanguard as they have the lowest fees. I will be investing in the 'FTSE Global All Cap' fund if you wanted to look it up. Basically it is a fund containing all the biggest companies in the world, Apple, Amazon, Tesla etc. 

I would definitely recommend you open one up and put in whatever you can afford to not need for the next 5-10 years minimum. Search 'Compound interest calculator' on Google and play about with the numbers to see the numbers you COULD (NOT Guaranteed) return from your portfolio over 'X' amount of years. Compound interest really is incredible, as Einstein once said, it is the 8th wonder of the world