First Steps to Solvency

ladyholly

Talking of dystopian novels. I am old enough to remember the three day week in the 1970s. We ad shop lit by oil lamps for part of the week. 

alt80

@ladyholly whenever I talk to older guys about the industry in the past it's like another world, love hearing their tales of life back then. One day I'll have that experience to pass on. The other week went to a property with my staff member who wasn't quite born when 9/11 happened, Aaliyah was playing on the radio never felt so old lol.

enthusiasticsaver

@alt80 Financial freedom gives you choices as to how you spend your time and energy and you are not enslaved to the work treadmill which applies even if you enjoy your work. The feeling you have to work to live and pay your bills rather than because you want to. Again, it is down to life choices as to whether you achieve it. We took early retirement at 57/58 but could have gone earlier had we not had children we wanted to see financially independent and on the property ladder, through university etc first. I also received an inheritance which again could have meant us having financial freedom earlier but we chose to give a lot to our daughters, did some long haul holidays and updated our house. It is all about balance.

If you are constantly chasing dreams as you are then that will be a long way off for you so your wife is right and you will be better off if you don't keep borrowing to make those dreams happen. All your achievements so far have been met with the help of the finance sector and you are enslaved to them now. Easing of lending restrictions and government monetary policy of QE and low interest rates have trapped you. It is interesting you say you don't want to retire yet you enjoyed lockdown when all the pressure was taken off you. That is all financial freedom is, a permanent lockdown with none of the responsibilities or restrictions. You are self reliant and not dependent on the whim of the government, the state of the economy or the finance sectors lending restrictions. 

alt80

@enthusiasticsaver I know what you mean re work treadmill. I certainly can't get off that lol. Would definitely be nice to not have all the payments - that's what I enjoyed about lockdown and just time with family not having to think about the next move everyone in the same boat so no competition. Didn't really matter about not having the 7 figure house or the Bentley on the drive for those months.

Enslaved to the finance houses, true but try not to think of it like that - a bit depressing. Always will need the banks to achieve anything as I'm sure anyone else does without serious backing from inherited wealth etc.

enthusiasticsaver

@alt80 You can live life without payments, well granted a mortgage is mostly essential if you live in the south of UK or expensive area in North. You just have to be more disciplined and patient. We moved up the property ladder slowly then stuck at a size and area that was ok for us. We are now in a comfortable mortgage free  4 bed house so not tiny but affordable to keep.  A lot of our friends kept going and are now in massive houses with just two of them and horrendous bills and still working to pay off mortgages/ high council tax etc. They cannot afford to give up work in their 60s even though they moan about it constantly and believe me so will you in 20 years time. This is not to depress you but to try and get you to think that there is more to life than chasing the next dream while saddling yourself with another financial noose around your neck. Fine if you do it with cash but otherwise the only winners are financial institutions. I worked for several over a 25 year period and they prey on people like you who just cannot resist the lure of acquiring more and more and are willing to pay the price with the  "help" of banks. The banks get their interest and a tidy source of income for 25-30 years or more and you have to work harder and harder to keep up payments. With cars it is particularly bad as they depreciate so quickly. If I recall right you are paying almost £20k per year just on financing them so one third  out of your £60k salary. Unless you save the umbrellas they will never be yours either (financing them doesn't count). It was higher obviously with the F type. You have a good income and your own business. You should be reaping the rewards not the banks. Patience and discipline is what is needed to sort this out and less of the instant gratification.

Incidentally counselling will only work when you open your mind to the possibility that constantly moving up levels is counter productive when you are using someone else's money to do it. If you are usually fairly focused on particular goals and not what I would call a lateral thinker it is harder for you to realise there is more than one way to achieve your goals. Remove the competitiveness from what are undoubtedly imaginary judges and I am sure you would be more satisfied. Just ask yourself - Why do you care so much about how others perceive you? 

ladyholly

Thankalt80 I now feel ancien

clairebeth

Hello, 

I've been following your diary, but haven't commented yet! Delighted that you have a diary and that your wife is on board! As I've said in your previous threads, it's joint finances and a joint future.

Can I ask what you mean by 'next level'? Next level of what? 

What does your wife think about not being allowed to stay in her dream home?

If you want fewer payments, why are you thinking of a bigger house and future expensive cars? Surely that will only continue the conveyor belt of paying for something constantly and never owning it? 

You mention that during lockdown it didn't matter that you didn't have a 7 figure house or a Bentley.  What on earth makes you think that it matters NOW?

Is it because you were happy during lockdown, and perhaps began to realise that this things don't actually matter?

Stick to the counselling, there must be some reason that you have these thoughts about expensive possessions.  It sounds an awful way to live, and exhausting too!
I fear that if you don't get to the bottom of it you will end up living on finance for the rest of your life and leave your wife with a debt that she cannot pay for possessions that she did not want. 

getmore4less

You have these goals but do you have any plan in place to make them happen?

Roughly to achieve your income goal you need to double your main business how are you going to do that?

alt80

This week: 
1. Stick with the budget. So far so good. 🙂
2. Not spend my free time looking at cars / property rather than doing something with my family. Left the office early and picked son up from school with wife today. Spent the afternoon / evening doing family stuff - home workout, dinner prepared and ate together, dog walk, little bit of tv and bedtime story for son.

3. Check yolt app everyday. Check. 
4. 4 day working week for me. Check.

5. 3x workouts, 1x 5km. 2x workouts, no 5km yet got the weekend for that!

enthusiasticsaver

alt80 said:

This week: 
1. Stick with the budget. So far so good. 🙂
2. Not spend my free time looking at cars / property rather than doing something with my family. Left the office early and picked son up from school with wife today. Spent the afternoon / evening doing family stuff - home workout, dinner prepared and ate together, dog walk, little bit of tv and bedtime story for son.

3. Check yolt app everyday. Check. 
4. 4 day working week for me. Check.

5. 3x workouts, 1x 5km. 2x workouts, no 5km yet got the weekend for that!

Lots of good stuff there.