Twenty-something's aim to be mortgage free

ruby_eskimo

You've done so well during what can only be a very stressful time.  Fingers crossed that your new company are able to start up again as planned.  We've been told that we could be back in the office now but with staggered WFH / office days so I wouldn't be surprised if you do end up working again in August.

Gem2889

Hello, hope you don’t mind me dropping in.
i just wanted to say that it’s so reassuring to find people of a similar age group on a similar trajectory. I don’t know about your experiences but my friends are not at all financially minded- they are all living their best lives on Instagram and sometimes I wonder if I’m doing the right thing.
Honourable mention to Kaycastle also - another brilliant diary. 

All the best with your goals - I’ll be rooting for you! 👍🏻

wh_em

Gem2889 said:

Hello, hope you don’t mind me dropping in.
i just wanted to say that it’s so reassuring to find people of a similar age group on a similar trajectory. I don’t know about your experiences but my friends are not at all financially minded- they are all living their best lives on Instagram and sometimes I wonder if I’m doing the right thing.
Honourable mention to Kaycastle also - another brilliant diary. 

All the best with your goals - I’ll be rooting for you! 👍🏻

Hi Gem, thanks for stopping by! I'm quite lucky that my close friends are like-minded and we've all been fairly responsible whilst still enjoying what life has to offer. I can assure you that whatever you see your friends doing on instagram is probably exaggerated, people only post about the best bits in their lives. That being said, there has to be a balance. You don't want to become a complete miser!

All the best with your goals too. Have you got a diary I could stalk? 

wh_em

Hi all, 
A week since my last post! As I'm racking up those NSDs there's not much to post about. Life has become very boring now that the end is in sight for furlough payments. I'm still doing a bit of pottering here and there but gone on the days that I pop to B&Q for some gardening and DIY bits!

We visited my family over the weekend which was lovely. Mrs wh_em and my mum went for a walk around the block whilst I watched back to back football with my dad and my brother. It was lovely. My brother had plans for the afternoon but his friend cancelled them saying: "You don't often get to see your sister so lets reschedule." - which was really nice. I do have a good laugh with my brother - its a shame that the other one isn't as involved!

My two best friends came to visit last week as they were worried about me, which is so sweet of them. We've been friends for 24 years, 25 in September and every day I think about how lucky I am to have them. I must have done something phenomenal in a past life to deserve them in this one! We ate lunch and sat in the garden chatting for hours, they didn't leave until gone 6pm!!

Payday today and the DD for my S&S ISA came out, £100 gone out. Money set aside for bills for this month and then the remaining £118 into my Emergency fund, taking the balance to a healthy looking £1115! We're over the £1000 mark!!! I'm sure the E fund will come spiralling down again after the furlough payments stop but that's £1115 sat there to draw from which is the whole point. Really chuffed with that. 

No further news on work starting up again, but another training session is to take place on Thursday. I'm just getting my head down and trying to learn/refresh as much as possible so I can hit the ground running when I go back to work. 

I had a little look at the pension I started in 2012 at aged 20. Back then the contributions were something like £160-180 a month which is incredible when I think about it. I can't remember what % of that was EE or ER contributions but who cares? I was a right old responsible 20-year-old!!

Have a good one x

wh_em

£5.75 from prolific - went straight into the Emergency Fund. EF = £1121.35. I wonder if I can get it up to £2,000 this month!

wh_em

Hi all!

Not sure if its too soon to say but I accepted a job yesterday! It's just a short one 4-5 weeks but it should hopefully fill the gap before I go back to work on my old job in mid August. My friend messaged me on Wednesday night to ask if I was available for work and I was a little cautious about it because the commute is 1hr30 each way! But Mrs wh_em and I discussed it and we've agreed that I'll be staying over with some friends during the week here and there just so I don't completely wipe myself out. You might wonder what's the point in commuting all that way for a job, but the money and the opportunity to make new "contacts" is fully worth it. So I'll start next Thursday, so its a very quick start but that's just how it is in my industry.

Looking forward to getting back into the game after almost 4 months off!!

Have a good one! x

Competsoph

@wh_em good news! Good luck.

frankersBri

Great news; good luck to you!

ruby_eskimo

That's excellent news on the job, congratulations!

wh_em

Hi all!

Getting anxious about starting work again, I should really have more confidence in myself and how capable I am. If I wasn't good at my job I'm sure I wouldn't have people contacting me out of the blue to offer me work! I think it all comes down to a scenario I found myself in last year (still early in my career), I was made to feel pretty worthless and although I tried my best every day it didn't seem to be good enough. Turns out I was just the punching bag for somebody with bigger issues. The damage was already done though and I've been trying to rebuild myself ever since!

Anyway, moving on. A little payment of £11.50 came through today so that was sent to my LISA. Must get that filled up before the end of the FY!